Like her name suggests, Stephanie Poetri’s music has a softness to it, an ethereal quality that comes through crystal clear in her stunning alto voice. But even if her vocals are a bit otherworldly, that’s where the manic pixie dream girl trope ends—her sound is so much bigger than that pigeonholed lane of singer-songwriter. In this new era, she’s incorporating edgier rock sounds into her own music, and a healthy dose of indie pop and indie rock is forever part of Poetri’s musical DNA. “There weren't a lot of female artists in that world back then, so I see myself wanting to fulfill that position, and make songs that have a little bit of edge. I want to put some more femininity into indie rock.”
Growing up in Indonesia with a former trombonist and marching band instructor for a father, and a literal pop star for a mother—who met on a plane ride to a performance no less—it was the tropical house of Kygo and the melodies of K-pop that cemented Stephanie’s early interest in music. “I really wanted to be a tropical house producer,” she remembered. “My dream was to be Kygo, and then I got into K-pop soon after. Funny enough, while I was in my first producing class, I started releasing songs for fun to get my name out there. Then the second song I ever put out became my biggest song, so I didn’t end up finishing the class.”
Originally that song, “I Love You 3000,” was just a snippet for social media, but the overwhelmingly positive response from Poetri’s followers sent her back to the studio to transform it into a full song. Now, the 2019 single is Poetri’s first worldwide hit with 425 million streams across various platforms, over 150 million views of the DIY video that she and her sister made to accompany it, and a remix version, “I Love You 3000 II,” featuring Got7 member Jackson Wang, who Poetri describes as “my Beyoncé.” Needless to say it was a breakthrough moment for Poetri and remains a huge touchstone in her career. But she’s also barely 22, and has so much more music to put into the world.
Stephanie followed that up by signing with transformative, internet-savvy powerhouse 88rising, a tastemaking giant for Asian talent, and a move to Los Angeles, which allowed her to explore the other areas of artistic expression. Along with music, Poetri’s creative background includes a love for visual arts and video games, both of which have been a big part of her aesthetic as an artist. She has an active presence on Twitch, along with other social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram, where she tends to be very open with fans and followers.
Citing contemporaries like Beabadoobee, Julia Michaels, Lizzy McAlpine, Gracie Abrams—and the ever-present touchstone of Taylor Swift—Poetri has been working on plenty of new material and is ready to enter into a new phase as the pandemic era comes to a close. Her goal is to bring some feminine and ethereal energy into the pop-rock world, and to be the woman in the space she almost never heard while listening to the genre in the early 2000s. “I basically want my music to be pretty and feminine, but still have that edge.”