This ‘American Idol’ alum from New Mexico is bringing ’90s country to Gen Z

Nineties country music is having a moment. In fact, Gen Z has a slew of young artists who are not incorporating pop or hip hop into their country tunes, like what you might hear on country radio right now.

They’re bringing back the twang, steel guitar and line dancing rhythm. And one of them is doing it from right here in the Southwest.

Dzaki Sukarno is a 25-year-old “American Idol” alum from Las Cruces, New Mexico, who sounds more like George Strait than Jelly Roll.

He told The Show he likes storytelling in his songs and wants to put New Mexico on the country music map.

Full conversation

DZAKI SUKARNO: I’ve always loved country music in general. When I was on “American Idol,” just kind of trying to figure out what my sound was back in 2020 or so. I’ve done music all my life, and country music — especially ’90s country music and ’60s country music — is really what I fell in love with. I knew that I wanted to leave a legacy here, just like some of the greats.

And at the end of the day, I want people to hear my record or my song and think about what they experienced back in the day as well. So that keeps going on for generations.

LAUREN GILGER: So you’re consciously trying to make country music that does not sound like what’s on country radio, it sounds like. There’s a lot of twang in there, and you’re not really talking about beer and trucks and girls so much, right?

SUKARNO: No, ma’am. No, I like to tell stories when I write my music itself. And I’m grateful to have some amazing writers that write with me that want to do the exact same thing. And at the end of the day, as long as there’s some steel guitar on there, maybe some fiddle, that’s what I love and just pulls out all those emotions.

GILGER: Who were your favorites growing up? Who did you listen to?

SUKARNO: Oh, one of my favorite artists growing up is actually Tracy Lawrence. Tracy Lawrence is someone I really look up.

(“Sticks and Stones” by Tracy Lawrence plays)

Randy Travis, Marty Robbins, George Jones, Keith Whitley and a couple other handfuls. Of course I love George Strait as well. But a lot of those ’90s and ’60s country artists.

GILGER: So what you’re doing seems kind of like a trend right now, in a way. At least I know it’s not what you’re hearing on country radio. But I’ve heard several kind of young artists who are doing this, and I Googled it. And sure enough, there’s a lot of data here, too. Spotify is reporting that Gen Z has made 89 million playlists featuring ’90s country hits.

SUKARNO: … Did not know that. Crazy.

GILGER: I mean, you have a song called “Love Like 90’s Country.”

SUKARNO: Yes ma’am.

(“Love Like 90’s Country” by Dzaki Sukarno pays)

GILGER: What do you think is the pull here?

SUKARNO: I think nowadays, people miss that old sound, you know? I know that it doesn’t really relate to a lot of people nowadays, especially my generation itself. There’s not a lot of kids that are doing rodeo or not a lot of ranchers anymore, but a lot of the songs that I listened to growing up, I was like, holy crap, this is what I’m doing in college. I’m going out to honky-tonk bars. And I’m going through heartbreaks, going through love.

And it takes a whole army, and I know a lot of us — like, you got Braxton Keith, you got Zach Top, Drake Milligan, you know, Jake Worthington.

(“It Ain’t the Whiskey” by Jake Worthington plays)

It’s like a whole army of us, like, kind of just trying to push the old agenda, you know? And it’s been truly amazing being a part of it so far.

GILGER: That sounds cool. All right. So I want to back up for a minute or two here and talk about you and how you got here. You were born in Japan. Your parents are Indonesian, right? And then you grew up in Las Cruces in New Mexico.

SUKARNO: I grew up as a military brat. My dad was in the military for the majority of my life. And we actually moved to New Mexico because he got stationed out there, and I fell in love with agriculture at a pretty young age. And I started helping out on my friends’ farms, on their ranches and got to know and work with some amazing animals and some crops and stuff.

So that’s what really got me into the ag field. And listening to country music kind of tied everything together because when I was working all by myself, that’s what I listened to. And I was like, “Oh, shoot, they’re talking about the hard working man.” And yeah, it’s been really, really fun.

GILGER: So you were sort of a transplant into that world being a military kid, as you said. What’s it like being an Asian American artist in country music today?

SUKARNO: Oh, I get some interesting looks and a lot of questions for sure, and especially from those that I know personally. I mean, we go to certain events or family functions, and I meet a lot of my parents’ friends who are also Indonesian. And they’re like, “No way, you’re Indonesian.” Especially the way I speak and I dress, it throws everyone off completely.

But I think it’s that slight wow factor that’s like, “OK, that’s something different.” And it really catches my listeners’ attention for sure.

GILGER: Are you the only one that you know of who’s doing it as an Indonesian?

SUKARNO: I know this one guy. It’s actually really funny. I did a country music special out in Indonesia last October. So never thought that was going to be on the books ever in my life. But I met this guy. His name is Tantowi (Yahya), and I guess he’s like the father of country music in Indonesia, which I didn’t know people listen to that in the first place.

And he reached out to me, and we actually played a show in Houston together a couple months ago, and he invited me out to Indonesia, and luckily it worked out because I was visiting family at the time, and we were on air. And truly I was mind blown that I was able to merge both of my worlds together.

GILGER: That’s crazy. So you were in Indonesia singing country music with an Indonesian country music star?

SUKARNO: Yes, ma’am. That definitely threw me off. Like I said, I didn’t think I would add that in my books whatsoever. But it’s an amazing experience. Like I said, it threw me off for sure. But they had a steel player, they had a fiddle player, and I was like, “What the heck is going on? This is crazy.”

GILGER: That’s amazing. That’s amazing. You made it to “American Idol,” right? And made it pretty far. What was that experience like?

SUKARNO: It was awesome. I got a lot of amazing feedback, and honestly, the thing that I kind of took away from it is finding the sound I wanted to sing and record, but also meeting amazing people I still keep in touch with today.

Some of us have signed some record deals, and some of us are still touring and such. So it’s been really amazing seeing everyone’s journey post-“Idol.”

GILGER: Yeah, it’s like a cohort of you. It sounds like.

SUKARNO: It really is. It’s pretty insane.

GILGER: So you’ve since then really built a massive following on social media, which is not, I guess, unique for someone of your generation. But you’ve taken it really far. How have you used social media? How do you view the role of social media in what you do as an artist?

SUKARNO: Social media nowadays is kind of like the Wild West of the music industry. I remember starting off my career itself. I didn’t really want to do social media. And a lot of my friends, it was like, “You’ve got to get on social media. You got to be on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, whatever you need to do your voice out there.”

Nowadays, it’s not like going to Nashville where you cut a record and pray to God it hits radio. You can really start making streams off social media itself. So I kind of focused the majority of my career on that aspect of it all, just recording videos and showing off the songs I’ve written. And it kind of took off at an early stage in my career.

And now, it’s been amazing. I mean, I’ve gotten to meet a lot of amazing folks through social media, and it’s gotten me a lot of shows. So I’m really grateful for that, for sure.

GILGER: But it sounds like you still kind of do the traditional thing in a lot of ways, where you’re going around and playing a million shows live with your band.

SUKARNO: Yes ma’am. We’re on the road almost every single week, whether that’s two-day show run, three-day show run. So I’ve been pretty busy.

GILGER: Let me ask you lastly about being from New Mexico. Like you have said that your goal is to make a name for yourself in your home state, but to also put your home state kind of on the music map in a way. Are you surprised it isn’t in that country music realm already?

SUKARNO: Yeah, I mean, it’s crazy. You know, you go to different parts of New Mexico itself and it’s a night-and-day difference. I mean, where I’m from in Las Cruces, it’s very ag-oriented. But you go up north from my fiancee’s from, and it’s like you’re in Utah or Colorado. You know, I’m not the only kid that’s wearing a cowboy hat.

So it’s kind of it’s kind of odd, to say the least. But being from New Mexico is something I really cherish in my heart, and I want to be able to push country music itself. I mean, there’s a guy from my hometown, his name is Frank Ray, and I remember watching him growing up, and now he’s making a name for himself as well.

And you got guys like Will Banister. He out in Roswell. So it’s pretty cool that there are some artists from out here. And you know, we’re all kind of pushing that same country music dream. And it’s been a fun journey doing that, representing my home state because there’s definitely not many of us. I mean, you go to Texas, there’s plentiful. But here from Mexico, there’s not many of us doing it.

(“I’ll Never Know” by Dzaki Sukarno pays)