Pulse.ph : MUSIC + CULTURE
February 27th, 2009
I’VE BEEN WANTING TO TAKE YOU THERE (PART 1)
February 24th, 2009
PLEASE TRANSPOSE: KRIS DANCEL AND THE ERASERHEADS
I am at my favorite Filipiniana-themed restaurant along Kalayaan Avenue, yet, somehow, it feels like the train at a dead hour, and I keep straining for the security guard’s whistled warning; after all, it appears like I have accidentally stepped into the ladies’ portion of the train. My peripherals tell me that’s Earnest Zabala at the head of the long table that’s otherwise empty, save for her and a friend. In a matter of a few minutes, artist Cynthia Bauzon-Arre will arrive, husband Arnold Arre in tow. In a matter of a dog’s tail-wag, decorated bass player Myrene Academia will also step in, all smiles. And, as if on cue, the woman I am meeting: Kris Dancel, singer-guitarist for Cambio, Duster, and, most notably, Fatal Posporos. Old wood and yellowing portraits abound at the resto, and, because of the vaguely antiquarian interiors, teleportation (or, to some degree—though imagined—time travel) is on my mind: tonight’s dramatis personae feels like a modern recasting of Isabel Allende’s House of the Spirits with its strong women—Nívea, Blanca, Alba, Clara—and it is making me feel small. The song in my mind right now, for obvious reasons, is that one by Space, the one that goes “The female of the species is more deadlier [sic] than the male.” Lest I reference to oblivion, it needs to be said: these great, strong women have one thing in common—they were, in one way or another, connected with the Eraserheads. Kris Dancel, as a matter of fact, was one.
February 19th, 2009
Equal parts studio artist and logistician, Rivera always put emphasis on order and a rigorous program. He would invariably go, “Okay, Marcus, you have to work on this,” or “Ely, we’re gonna do this, so I want you to fix it already by the time you get to the studio.” Luckily, the producer shared, “When they get there, they already had an idea what they were gonna do. It was just a question of, ‘How fast can they execute their ideas?’” The Eraserheads, needless to say, had very distinct personalities and conducted themselves very differently in the studio. “Ely would always come, and whatever he wanted to do, he had already broken it down to very, very small things. So, he would work on them one after another, these very, very little things. ‘O, what’s next?’ ‘I’m gonna do this guitar overdub.’ ‘Where in the arrangement are you going to do this?’ ‘Sir, it’s here, here, here, and here,’” he said of his singer and mainman, gesturing with his fingers like an agog child in a candy store, and, on his drummer, he offered, “Raymund, because he plays drums—it was very hard to punch in drums—most of his performances were from beginning to end. They have to be practically in real time. Raymund, again, he does his homework, he knows exactly what he’s going to do—it’s just a matter of, ‘Can he pull it off?’ [For] each drum part, we’ll do about three, four, five takes. Usually, by the fifth take, he’s happy with it. I just wait ’til he says, ‘Sir, that’s the one!’” His bassist, because of his proficiency, perhaps necessitated the least amount of looking-after, and he shared, “Buddy, every time he does a repeat, there’s very little variation.” On his beachnik guitar player, meanwhile, “Marcus naman is the opposite of Ely. Marcus doesn’t break things down to small, neat pieces; usually, it’s one big thing. I remember when we did ‘Maskara’ from Carbon Stereoxide. He showed up with this really big idea: ‘Sir, I’m going to play the entire rhythm guitar part backwards. I really practiced hard for it.’ ‘Bahala ka.’” The low-profile frontman of Markus Highway was, in his heyday, utterly unpredictable, to say the very, very least. “’Pag ganyan, you flip the tape over, and what you hear from all the previous tracks is backwards. So, you have to hear it several times before you know what you’re hearing corresponds to which section—just to know where you are! The time indicator was also baliktad, so we were computing,” the producer further elaborated on Makoy’s magic moment, emphasizing, “In Marcus’s case, it’s usually a very, very, very big idea, which, many times, makes it more difficult to pull off than what Ely does—pero, ‘pag nagawa naman, ‘Wow!’ It’s worth the trouble.”
February 11th, 2009
PEACE-ING IT ALL TOGETHER (PART 2)
[Part 2 of 2 parts] Marco Harder: “The Other Real Makoy” Aldus Santos: So, how did your tech-ing gig for Marcus Adoro eventually happen? Marco Harder: Nagbigay kasi siya ng open invite [in his website] if you wanted to be in the concert, and I sent an e-mail to the address given there. Sabi ko, “If you don’t have a tech, I’ll take on the job—for the sheer love of it, and for free passes to the gig.” And then I got an e-mail from Mica [Solmoro] saying they’ll get me for the job. A.S.: Tell us about the first rehearsal. M.H.: Sa first rehearsal, du’n ‘yung una kong trabaho with all of Marcus’s gear and all. Akala namin maaga kami dumating; ‘yun pala naunahan na kami ni Raimund. Ayos na ‘yung gamit niya. Nu’ng pumunta kami du’n, ‘di pa ayos ‘yung presets ni Marcus, eh. He was using stock presets; he was fiddling around. A.S.: What state were the Eraserheads in as a band? M.H.: Alam mong alam nila ‘yung mga kanta—ewan ko, siguro dahil first time ko silang makita in years uli—it was, really, like a lot of people have said, a group of musicians playing together, more than a band that has rehearsed to execute the songs a certain way. From a technical standpoint, the setups have become more complex than the last time I saw them. ‘Yun ‘yung lasting memory du’n, kasi parang, lahat sila, kumplikado na ‘yung pedalboard as opposed to before. ‘Di ko naman sila dating nakikita nang ganu’n. Pinaka-kumplikado ko nang nakita was a single Zoom pedal back in 1999. A.S.: Were there glitches during that first rehearsal? M.H.: May slight glitches din, kasi ‘yung amp ni Marcus nu’n, may ugong, so pinalitan ng same model din. Another thing was, binili niya ‘yung [multi-effects] pedal siguro two days before the rehearsal, so we never had a chance to tweak it. Nag-work naman. Another problem was the wireless element of it—all of them had wirelesses. And, being a new “professional” tech, that was the first time I’d be working with a wireless. And I’ve never really trusted wireless systems—dahil nga, you know, [baka mangyari 'yung nangyari sa] Spinal Tap, ta’s hindi maganda ‘yung frequency regulations natin. ‘Yun lang ang iniisip ko buong time na nagre-rehearse sila: “How do I hook it up to the wireless? How do I make sure that it’s noise-free?” A.S.: Take us to show night. M.H.: It was very windy that night, and naka-open-air ‘yung mga gitara, so I had to retune every time it was returned. The major thing that gave me nightmares—for weeks on end after the gig—was the power supply sa baba ng stage. Bumigay siya, so it wasn’t giving out “clean” power, and digital devices want “clean” power. So, what happened was, the thing was rebooting all over. I think narinig niyo ‘yun sa “Huwag Mo Nang Itanong,” ‘yung nag-twe-twelve-string siya? Nagpu-putol-putol, ‘yun ang biggest problem namin. Ang sabi din naman ni Marcus, pati daw si Buddy, pumitik ‘yung digital elements niya. That was the biggest problem that I wasn’t able to anticipate. I was very apologetic to Marcus about it, but sabi niya, “Hindi, hindi mo problema; kasi kuryente ['yan], hindi natin kargo.” Dapat na-foresee ko ‘yun, kasi, especially during soundcheck the previous night, meron namang problemang lumitaw sa amp naman ni Ely. They got a 70s Silver Face Fender Twin Reverb, and within thirty minutes of playing, it went up in smoke. I think, from a technical standpoint, it revealed several things: one, don’t underestimate “dirty” [or unregulated] power here in the Philippines; two, if the power is “dirty,” there’s also the risk of electrocution. Naisip ko lang ‘yun nu’ng after the gig na, eh. There could have been a risk that Ely or Marcus could have been electrocuted, because they were using tube amplifiers. A.S.: In all of this, how much of you was a fan, and how much of you was a working technician? M.H.: Hati ‘yung pagiging fan ko ‘tsaka pagiging tech. One point of view was, “’Ayan na, tuloy na!” Pangalawa, “Sana walang problema; sana walang sumabit na kable; sana ‘wag maubusan ng baterya ‘yung wireless!” Nu’ng countdown na ‘yun, the feeling was incomparable. This is going to sound egotistical, but, you kind of feel like you made it happen, in a way? There’s a part of me that thinks that this is something I helped make happen—something that’s going to be very important to a lot of people, years on—even from a very small technical detail. And it’s on record! Those tones are history now. A.S.: Speaking of guitar tones, was Marcus bent on sounding the way he sounded on their records? He sounds very differently now in Markus Highway. M.H.: Ang mindset ni Marcus nu’n was really to get the tones that they had on the records. He was telling me, “You have to listen to the songs talaga,” and talagang gusto niya habulin ‘yung mga tones na nasa record, in such a way na magwo-work pa rin sa live. Being the tech, I just asked him to “Play the song; let’s tweak as you play; tell me what you want. I don’t want you to think about the tones; I want you to think of your performance.” Para ‘di siya ma-istorbo. Sobrang stressful sa kanya nu’ng event, eh. Binigay niya lang sa akin ‘yung manual [nu'ng multi-effects pedal], tapos aralin ko daw. Pero kabisado ni Makoy ‘yung Digitech, eh; he’s been using it ever since daw—’93, ‘94?—the earlier models, like RP-1. A.S.: How did you communicate onstage on show night? I mean, it was a huge stage; did you have hand signals? M.H.: Simple lang: whenever he wanted me onstage, he would look at his lower right—I was at the corner, within sight parati. Basta tumingin siya, akyat ako du’n; takbo ako du’n. Minsan, napapansin ko na naiistorbo siya ng kable niya, kasi ang haba ng kableng kinuha namin. A.S.: Any amusing pre-show anecdotes? Makoy, it seems, is perennially unperturbed. M.H.: Sabi niya, “Magkita tayo sa Cubao.” May kukunin daw siyang gitara. Eh, 9:30 na nu’n, pasara na ['yung shop], so sabi ko [sa text], “O, ‘eto, pasara na; ano’ng gagawin natin?” “Sabihin mo, dadating ako; may pina-reserve akong acoustic.” Bumili siya on a whim, sort of. Dumating siya after fifteen minutes. Tapos, ‘di sila nagkaintindihan sa discount [nu'ng isang guy], tapos ‘etong Makoy, nag-flare-up, “Ano, pare? Akala ko ba twenty-five percent ‘to? ‘Wag mo kong ginaganyan—alam ko ‘yang math, okay?” [laughs] ‘Yung mga guys, understanding naman. A.S.: You’re both guitar players and you respect each other’s work, but how are you different, you think? I mean, this is sort of important since you’re tech-ing for him. M.H.: He’s not really finicky, but he knows what he wants. ‘Yun siguro ang pagkakaiba namin. A.S.: Great, great. Okay, I know I already asked this in a way, but how do you assess the band’s present form? I mean, they belong to a host of different bands now. M.H.: Okay naman sila as a unit, eh. I would say the rumors of animosity are not true at all. Parang wala naman, eh. Mas na-appreciate ko ‘yung proseso nila. Alam mong pinag-isipan talaga. I think they used the technical upgrade to represent the character of the songs at those times. I would like to contest the opinion, during the reunion, that they were a so-so live group. Hindi rin, eh. Hindi mo matatawaran ‘yung rhythm section; hindi mo matatawaran ‘yung confidence and competence ni Ely doing those duties; ‘tsaka ‘yung mindset ni Makoy na alam niya kung kailan siya kailangan at kailan siya kailangang lumikod. Alam nila ‘yung roles nila. Mas magaling na sila lahat—by lightyears. [Read first part here.] *Photo by Jonas de la Cruz Aldus Santos’s second book, Repeat While Fading: Pinoy Rock Biographs, is out now. Updates here.
February 9th, 2009
[Part 1 of 2 parts] August 30, 2008 is now Pinoy rock history. Despite the fact that the Eraserheads have not even been apart for a decade, the clamor for a reunion equaled, and sometimes even surpassed, the clamor for things of a more life-and-death nature. For that brief blink of an eye, the abysmal state of national politics almost became a pinkie to the reunion show, which was—to several people brought up in 90s “alternative” at least—the imposing thumb. For a band with members all under forty (alive and kicking, you could say), nostalgia towards the ‘Heads was manifested pretty prematurely: a tribute album here, a lifetime achievement award there. I mean, don’t these things belong to graying, withering dinosaurs? But, “whatever,” as the kids would say. Read more…
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