Stephanie Poetri has a new song that’s going to take you straight into your feelings. “Straight To You” is out now, along with her self-made music video. HollywoodLife talked with the 19-year-old about the road to writing this new single. “I came to the studio kind of having this mindset of it seems everything that’s been happening to me, at first, might seem like, ‘Ugh, life is hard.’ But then somehow it always finds its way to kind of be a positive thing, kind of like a silver lining,” Stephanie told HollywoodLife. “I came in thinking of that and put it in the context of love, which is kind of what I do. So it’s basically how love can come from little accidents, like the domino effect, and how small, insignificant things ultimately will help you maybe find love and everything happens for a reason.”
“Straight To You” follows a common theme among Stephanie’s songs: love. She revealed why she’s drawn to writing about love. “I think a large part of it is because for someone who’s not necessarily involved with love, a lot of the times I have a fairy tale idea of what it might be like,” she said. “Even when it’s like anti-romantic, I also have this idea.”
Stephanie noted that she tries to “write as much as possible because I do feel like it’s a form of therapy in a sense.” She’s inspired by things that she watches. “I’m a huge fan of movies, TV shows, and YouTube stuff. I could be listening to a podcast and a conversation sparks an emotion or a memory, so I would go write something about it. It’s nice to have inspiration from everywhere,” she said.
Stephanie’s debut single “I Love You 3000” became an instant sensation. Since its June 2019 release, it has amassed over 275 million streams, topping Spotify’s Global Viral 50 for over 4 weeks. The song was inspired by Avengers: Endgame and Stephanie revealed the Marvel character she relates to the most. “I love Hulk for some reason,” she admitted. “I even slipped his name in “I Love You 3000.” I’ve always, for some reason, gravitated towards that character. I don’t know why, maybe because Mark Ruffalo is cute. But it’s kind of that whole idea of being two people at the same time. You’re still yourself but you feel different. I don’t know if that makes sense, but just that idea I really relate to.”
The singer’s mom is Titi Dj, a famous Indonesian pop star. The mother and daughter have talked about collaborating on something and are keeping everything on the table. “We’ve talked about it ever since I was a kid. Even if I only ever sang one song, it probably would have been with her. But I think what’s great right now is the fact that we’re just not forcing anything. I don’t think right now is the right time to do anything with her because I feel like I’m still really new. She’s told me that it’s really hard to get away from always being called her kid, especially back home where I’m from in Indonesia. I was always known as Titi Dj’s kid. She’s kind of allowing me to be myself and put out more music until one day, hopefully, we can come and work together. But even on “I Love You 3000″ the backing vocals were done by her. So in a way, she’s always helping out.”