It's hard to separate Pongki Barata from the map of Indonesian popular music. He is one of the musicians and songwriters whose name is highly regarded in the history of popular music in the country.

Stephen Ponki Tri Barata is a musician, songwriter and singer with the stage name Pongki Barata. He is widely known as the lead singer of the band Jikustik before he finally left and had a career as a solo musician and also joined The Dance Company, a music group consisting of Ariyo Wahab, Ibrahim Imran and Nugie.

Pongki formed Jikustik in Yogyakarta on February 26, 1996 with his four friends: Icha (bassist), Dadi (guitar), Adhit (keyboard) and Carlo (drums). Together with Jikustik, Pongki has spawned 8 albums until 2006. In 2008, Pongki officially left Jikustik.
Throughout his songwriting career, Pongki Barata is famous for his lyrics and pop songs with poetic lyrics that are easily digested by the listener.

In addition to creating songs for his music group, Pongki also created songs for several other singers, such as for Puput Melati's latest album, the song "Menangis Semalam" on Audy's album, 18 and the song for Siti Nurhaliza's Prasasti Seni album.

Pongki also wrote a song for Edwin Manansang which was later reprised by Iwan Fals entitled "Aku Bukan Pilihan". His other major works include writing songs for Chrisye (deceased) titled "As You Ask", and Anang Hermansyah titled "(Aku Lelakimu)". The song "(Aku Lelakimu)" was also popularized by a newcomer artist, Indonesian Idol (eighth season) graduate Virzha. Together with The Dance Company, Pongki released a mini album that included the hit single "Papa Rock n Roll'.

Apart from his long-time popularity as the vocalist of Jikustik and The Dance Company, Pongki himself is also known as a solo musician who to date has released 11 full-length albums.