Singer, songwriter and guitarist Rendy Pandugo is from Medan in Northern Sumatra and is of Javanese and Bugis descent. He is graduate of Airlangga University where he studied management economics, but music became his chosen career. He is known as the John Mayer of Indonesia because of the similarity of his guitar style and singing styles to the American star.
While at high school in Surabaya he founded his own band and gigged playing pop at musical events. Following high school and college in 2010 the band relocated to Indonesia's capital city of Jakarta. Like any capital city, however, Jakarta was much harder to succeed in then the smaller places they were used to. The band was competing with a great number of manufactured boy bands for gig space and audiences. Rendy and the band eventually split leading him to look for new outlets for his music.
Turning to Soundcloud where he found support from his new-found social media following, he began releasing his own music. Garnering a reputation in the industry, he was asked to be a judge on 'Starvoices Indonesia', a singing contest run by Soundcloud. During this time he was offered opportunities to contribute to film soundtracks; his duet with Piyu, 'Firasatku' was included the film 'I Love You' starring Acha and Rio Dewanto.
Following his independent release of The Beatles' 'In My Life' in 2014 he became the first musician to be signed by Sony Music Entertainment Indonesia. However, he turned the company down three times because of his preference of singing his songs in English; label and artist eventually made a deal in 2015. In February 2016, Sony sent him to Sweden to work with the Kennel Music partnership who had previously worked with Will Young, King & Prince, The Veronicas and NCT127. In 2018, Pandugo began a collaboration with Afgan Syahreza and Isyana Sarasvati. This Indoesian supergroup was called AIR and in May of the same year they released their first single 'Heaven' which hit eleven million plays on streaming platforms. This was followed by a second collaborative single, 'Feel So Right'.
