Damez Nababan

“Stuck with Durga… It makes me produce the sound that I dream of with utmost comfort when I play”

Damez Nababan was born on a beautiful island named Batam, Indonesia. Grew up with a family that loves music has encouraged him to take his first guitar lesson when he was 10 years old. Trying his first Wind Instrument in 2001, he joined Marching Band with trumpet as his chosen instrument. But it was in 2005 when he tried saxophone for the very first time and in the same year, he decided to pursue his dream as a musician and take saxophone as his major instrument at Music Vocational School in Yogyakarta. He graduated as valedictorian while one of the best Maestro in Indonesia, Addie MS was the one who examine his final recital. In 2009, he took a leap of faith by moving to Jakarta and started his career as a full-time musician by playing as cafe and wedding band musician. And at the very same year, he won his first International Competition; Asian Beat vs Tokyo Band Summit at Yokohama Japan. He was a member of representative band from musician all over Indonesia, and won the 1st place represent Indonesia on that very International Stage. He started his debut as a professional musician in 2011 by joining as a session player for Indonesian well known Jazz Band Trio Lestari and since then, he spread his music and frequently joined numerous Indonesia TV Shows from 2012 like “Sexophone”, “The Comment”, “Comedy Night Life”, “Trio Lestari Show”, “Jangan Bobo Dulu”, “Tonight Show”, “Music Everywhere”, “Malam – Malam”, and recently “Talkpod”. His love for Funk, Jazz, and Rock music, doesn’t define his music on the professional stage. He worked with plenty of Indonesia award-winning musicians across genres such as Noah, Glenn Fredly, Vina Panduwinata, Andre Hehanussa, Ari Lasso, Kahitna, Ran, Afgan, Vidi Aldiano, D’Masiv, Maudy Ayunda, Mawar Eva, Andmesh, Ghea Indrawari, and Rizky Febian from Pop Genre; Kotak, All Indonesian Rock Stars (AIRS) and Ridho Hafieds (Slank) from Rock; Teza Sumendra, Rini Wulandari, Iwa K, and International Brunei Darussalam Singer Jaz Hayat from RnB and Hip Hop Genre; and even he worked with Indonesian folklore genre known as Dangdut musician such as Didi Kempot and Via Valen. In Jazz genre, he worked and collaborated on stage and in music studios with numerous top local and international musicians such as George Duke, Chanté Moore, Kirk Whalum, Tompi, Trio Lestari, Andien, Maliq & D’Essentials, Tohpati, Andien, Dian Pramana Poetra, Deddy Dukun and more. Besides performing actively on stage and on air, Damez Nababan also enjoys creating music for commercial jingles and film scoring for several Indonesian movies. He also joined several orchestras for Film Scoring studio recording for Indonesia and Malaysia movies. Furthermore, he also joined Indonesia Winds Orchestra and Gita Bahana Nusantara for Presidential Event at State Palace. Anyhow, he also performed in various local and international festivals all across the world such as Java Jazz Festival, Singapore Jazz, Kwaku Festival Amsterdam, Jak Jazz, Kuching Jazz, Prambanan Jazz, and Joyland Festival recently. While in the meantime, he also loves to expand his musicality through other instruments such as guitar, bass, keyboard, flute, clarinet, trumpet,and contrabass that he learned from time to time. Damez Nababan also join “Saxx in the City” and “Fusion Stuff”, Jazz instrumental local band based in Jakarta. His music with “Fusion Stuff” leads him to nomination in 2 categories at the Indonesian AMI Awards 2015. Recently, he just joined Weissenberg Winds instrument as Product Artist while previously, he was also a product artist of Java Saxophone and got his own Signature series from Java Alto Saxophone; DN-1. Expanding his career in showbiz world, he also works on modeling and influencer paths, especially on music instruments, cigarettes, and liquor brands. Enjoying his daily life through music, he also loves to spend his spare time with sports, especially Badminton. He was the founder of Musician Badminton Club which resides in Jakarta to maintain the balance between music and healthy lifestyle.