Pulse.ph : MUSIC + CULTURE
October 8th, 2007
HELEN AND HER COME-HITHER SONGS
October 4th, 2007
I was very apprehensive about reviewing Are You Listening?, ex-Cranberries vocalist Dolores O’Riordan’s solo effort. Being a Cranberries fan—at least up ‘til the third album—I had high expectations from one of my favorite frontwomen. I also had a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. There was the obvious worry that her music would sound like a knockoff of her old band’s. Having a voice as unique as Dolores’ is both a blessing and a curse; there was no mistaking The Cranberries for any other band, not with that distinct voice at the helm. The downside of this is that we’d gotten so used to the sound of The Cranberries that it was going to be extra challenging for Dolores to branch out on her own. And then there was the question of the lyrics. After being in a band that did the whole mushy love thing (albeit in a cool way) and the patriotic/ political thing (which was great at first, but later became tiresome), I wondered: what’s she going to do that would set her apart from her past? The answer, unfortunately, turned out to be a little worse than I suspected. Are You Listening? sounds like a half-baked Cranberries (sans lush arrangements) album most of the time, and a half-baked Sinead/ Bjork/ Enya hybrid during others. I don’t even want to talk about the lyrics. I’ve heard better rhymes on Sesame Street. I mean, I’ve never heard the Cookie Monster rhyme “sea” with “sea” and “me” with “me.” Unfortunately, Dolores does just this in “Stay With Me.” Other songs are similarly impaired. “When We Were Young” starts off with Cranberries-style vocal acrobatics, and features a chorus with the lyrics “I wanna get out, I wanna go home/ Is anything better than you on the phone (Repeat x2).” Not exactly something you’d expect from a grown-up, respected musician and mother of two. On “In the Garden,” Dolores channels Sinead O’Connor by way of the music’s simple arrangement and vocals before segueing into a chorus that’s all her. Heavily laced with rock, the chorus complements her beautiful, strong voice. Unfortunately, again, I’ve heard better lyrics on children’s television. Points for effort, though. “Human Spirit” is a quirky mix of pop laced with traditional Irish influences. Unfortunately, the pipes and fiddles only enhance the piece so much, such that you get the feeling that they could have used other instruments to get the same effect. Still, the song has a nice, engaging beat, sort of reggae—but not quite. “Apple of My Eye” is a soft, simple song whose lyrics fit the arrangement well enough to be more than listenable, though if you listen hard enough, you sort of expect Dolores to segue into “Free to Decide” at any moment. Still, it counts as one of the high points of the album. Another high point would be “Black Widow,” which was supposed to be in the last Spider-Man movie but was pulled out at the last minute. The minimalist use of the piano and Dolores’ soft crooning shows off the depth and range of her voice. Just like anyone who’s listened to and loved The Cranberries, I want nothing more than to have Dolores O’Riordan’s solo album succeed, and it breaks my heart to face the reality that it’s just not all there. Dolores has still got a powerful set of lungs and one of the most beautiful voices in the industry, but if she wants to succeed as a solo artist, she’ll need to get a new lyricist and maybe a new arranger. So, to answer the album’s bold title: Yes, I am, but I’m not sure I like what I’m hearing.
October 2nd, 2007
Here’s something you should open your eyes to: Traffic: an MTV EXIT Special. As the title implies, it’s about the tragedy that is human trafficking, specifically in the Asia-Pacific region. “We premiered the half-hour documentary at Hard Rock Cafe in front of an audience made up of people from the US Embassy, various NGOs, and press people,†said Lizette Claudio of MTV Philippines. “Dicta License performed a song commissioned by the Visayan Forum Foundation, one of the largest anti-human trafficking organizations in the Philippines. The song, entitled “Tinangay”, was written by Pochoy Labog and it is a call to empower victims of human trafficking. Christian Bautista, the MTV Exit Philippine ambassador, was also present, and so was US Ambassador Kristie Kenney.†Liz went on to say that “This is a campaign that we’re very proud to be a part of and we’re also very passionate about the cause, since it’s very relevant to Filipinos.†More info in the press release: MTV Exit in Manila MTV PHILIPPINES BROADCASTS THE LAUNCH FEATURE OF THE MTV EXIT CAMPAIGN, TRAFFIC: AN MTV EXIT SPECIAL, HOSTED BY CHRISTIAN BAUTISTA, TO RAISE AWARENESS AND INCREASE PREVENTION OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING (October 18th 8:30 pm) 25 September 2007—Traffic: an MTV EXIT Special premiered at the Hard Rock Cafe today in the Philippines with popular singer and TV personality Christian Bautista presenting the documentary. Traffic, the lead feature of the MTV EXIT campaign, is a unique and powerful program which aims to raise awareness and increase prevention of human trafficking in Asia-Pacific. Today it was announced, for the first time, that Christian Bautista is part of the Asia-wide campaign as one of a number of international artists to host the documentary. MTV researched and produced the documentary with the help of various expert organizations. Traffic features the stories of real people in Asia connected by the trafficking issue, including Anna, who was trafficked from the Philippines and forced into prostitution; Eka, an Indonesian woman trafficked into forced domestic servitude in Singapore; and Min Aung from Burma, who was trafficked to Thailand and imprisoned for 2 years in a factory. Their harrowing stories are told alongside other people in the trafficking chain, including a trafficker from the Philippines who has been forcing girls into prostitution for over 20 years, a young man from Taiwan who pays for sex, an anti-trafficking police officer from Thailand, and a woman who runs a shelter in Singapore for victims of trafficking and other abuses. The documentary gives an insight into the realities of trafficking, addresses the part that everyone plays in the issue, and provides information on how individuals can protect themselves against trafficking, as well as what everyone can do to help end exploitation and trafficking. Traffic: an MTV EXIT Special has been produced in multiple languages to maximize local relevance, with different celebrities hosting each different language version—Christian Bautista presents the documentary in Tagalog and English, Tata Young presents the documentary in Thai and English, Rain of Korea will present the Korean version of the program, Karen Mok in Mandarin and other artists to be announced shortly will present versions in English, Japanese, Bahasa Indonesian and Mongolian. Traffic is the launch feature of the MTV EXIT Campaign in Asia and the Pacific, which aims to increase awareness and prevention of human trafficking through television programs, online content, live events and innovative partnerships with local, national and international anti-trafficking organizations. Christian Bautista said, “I am proud to join Tata Young, Rain, and other celebrities in the fight against trafficking. To hear one of the stories from this documentary of a young Filipina girl who has been trafficked into modern-day slavery causes me great sadness. We need to be aware that the exploitation is going on in the Philippines. Young people’s hopes and desires to improve their lives can make them vulnerable to traffickers. Many people are currently being trafficked in the Philippines and I hope that this documentary and the MTV EXIT campaign will give people the information they need to stay safe as well as encourage others to join the fight to end trafficking.†Simon Goff, Campaign Director of MTV EXIT said, “We are very proud to be launching the MTV EXIT Campaign in the Philippines. As the Traffic documentary shows, trafficking is of critical importance here both in terms of vulnerable young people being trafficked and in respect to the exploitation of trafficking victims. We hope that this campaign provides key information for people to protect themselves as well as inspire our audience to join the fight against trafficking.†“This film, made possible with assistance from the American people, is meant to save lives,” said U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie A. Kenney. “Through MTV, it will reach millions of young people, the group most at risk in Asia.†“We are very proud to be expanding the MTV EXIT Campaign to the Philippines,” Francis Lumen, Chairman and CEO of MTV Philippines commented. “MTV Philippines is one of the most influential platforms to reach young people in the country. By showing this programming we hope to communicate to our audience the importance of understanding what human trafficking is, how to avoid it, and how to prevent it happening to other people.” Traffic: An MTV EXIT Special, presented by Christian Bautista (English version), will premiere on MTV Philippines on October 18 at 8:30 pm and will be repeated at the following times: Saturday, October 20 at 9:30 pm (English) Wednesday, October 24 at 3:30pm (Tagalog) Saturday, October 27 at 1:00 pm (English) Monday, October 29 at 5:30 pm (English) Friday, November 2 at 10:00 am (Tagalog) Christian Bautista photos courtesy of Perlas & Luna PR Group.
October 2nd, 2007
We are The Pipettes We’ve got no regrets If you haven’t noticed yet We’re the prettiest girls you’ve ever met Oh, I want this album. Been listening to a handful of Pipettes tracks for over a year now, and I have yet to tire of their ’60s-style girl-group charm. (Do yourself a favor and hunt down some mp3s or clips on YouTube. Check out “Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me” or “Pull Shapes,” for starters.) And today their North American full-length debut gets released! Nice cover. Go RiotBecki! Go Gwenno! Go Rosay! Love those names. Love those songs.
October 1st, 2007
INTOLERANT: DEATH, WAR AND KILLER GUITARS
For the average unadventurous music listener, hearing a song by Intolerant is like unwittingly wandering into an Ultimate Fighting Championship: before you know what the fuck is going on, you’re going to get your ass kicked in so many creative, brutal ways. You won’t be able to defend yourself against being battered to a pulp by the experts, but in the end, you just might develop a taste for the blood in your mouth. Needlessly violent imagery, perhaps—and certainly, if you are instead a longtime fan of heavy music, you’ll find much that is already familiar and welcoming in Intolerant’s music. The fact is, I’m probably the last person in the world who should be writing something about a band like Intolerant, seeing as how most of the music I listen to is, for lack of a better word, pretty candy-ass. (I own almost everything the Pet Shop Boys ever recorded, for God’s sake.) But there’s something to be said about trying to go beyond your usual listening fare, and to be honest, I had reached the point where I couldn’t bear to listen to yet another blogged-about, whiny-voiced, bearded/goateed, quirky/sensitive, American/Canadian independent so-called rock band. That’s why I found songs like “God of War” and “Death Toll Rising” such a refreshing change. Intolerant’s underground cred is impeccable, being made up as it is of members of two of the more respected heavy acts on the local scene: L.O.C. and Skychurch. Having said that, the very reason Intolerant exists is to push the boundaries a little—in other words, to break the rules of a genre that is known for breaking rules. It’s this spirit of re-creation that makes Intolerant’s music a gateway drug of sorts, which is not to say that it is in any way lacking in speed, power or aggression. Intolerant guitarist Joey Dizon, whose other bands have included Skychurch, DNYD and Moyg—and who, incidentally, is the Editor-in-Chief of PULP magazine, which often celebrates heavy music in its pages—filled us in on his new band. PULSE.PH: When, how and why did Intolerant come together? And why the name "Intolerant?” JOEY: Let’s see. I’d say it’s been two years since me, [vocalist/guitarist] Russell dela Cruz and [drummer] Pepo Gohu got together for a beer and started talking about putting the band together. We didn’t have any songs, we didn’t know exactly what we wanted to do, but we sort of knew that, if given the choice, we’d want to create and play music together… I guess because since we’ve always had good vibes between us since years ago, when I started sessioning for Skychurch and L.O.C. was pretty new. It seemed like a long year at first, because we were just jamming on this one song—now known as “Shift”—and just adding on to it, twisting the parts and arrangements and shit like that. We didn’t even have a bass player. What happened was, Russell had so much riffs and was writing a lot of music which we couldn’t exactly play in Skychurch, mainly because there was a significant difference to ‘em… and we didn’t want to confine ourselves nor alienate Skychurch fans with something totally left-field. Though we’re both pretty open-minded with music, both of us weren’t too comfortable with the concept of a band—which has already established its identity/ purpose—suddenly doing a 180 for whatever the fuck reason. So we called in Pepo, who we hadn’t seen in ages, and he seemed excited about the whole idea of sort of “breaking the rules” with heavy music… because after he left L.O.C., he pursued many other projects and had a well-rounded sense of music: he was a guitar player, sessioned for other bands and even became a DJ. He also knew his way around the studio, so we knew that he was the type of guy we wanted to work with. Then after a long time of trying out bassists (well, we only tried out one… then drew blanks the following rehearsals…), we sort of all decided to call in Mic Gallegos, who formed L.O.C. with Pepo and played bass for ‘em. He was involved with Moyg then and had his own band Man Down, but he also expressed a lot of excitement, and we found out he was on the same page as we were. I don’t know exactly “why” we came together, there was no real urgent reason to, but it sort of just worked out. What started off as a project band, became something we’re all committed to… probably because there’s a good balance in personalities and musical chemistry. It’s a pretty rare thing. As for the name, no deep story there. We were nameless for the longest time. At first, it was Reasons for Unrest, but then, we sort of went for something simpler. We each have stories/ interpretations explaining why we’re called Intolerant, but to be honest, they probably change as often as we change socks. Which is often… I assume. How does being in Intolerant compare to your experiences with DNYD, Moyg and Skychurch? Personally, it’s way different, and still very rewarding. DNYD was my first serious band with close friends who were really into the hardcore thing… we managed to make a small name for ourselves, we came up with original songs that were pretty okay, but then… we just got tired of it, I guess. We joke about it to this day, because we were just some new band but we sort of acted like… jerks. We had egos and we were pretty strong personalities, so I guess it wasn’t meant to last. Besides, we’re all better off as great friends now. Skychurch of course, will always be close to my heart… but that band was already made, and had an ethic I dared not fuck with. I was just happy to play guitar with those guys because they were my mentors, and I looked up to them so much. I was always keeping myself in check because Skychurch really is about three brothers who fucking killed any band out there. Period. I will always first be a fan of Skychurch, rather than a “real” member. And I’ll be happy to play for any of those guys any day. I also met my Moyg bandmates through Skychurch, because we were always playing these productions together (alongside Badburn, who are also close friends…), so when they needed a guitar player to fill in, they called me up and I accepted instantly. Moyg is a fun band, great guys to get wasted with, and though things can really get goofy, the band is principled; I get my punk fix with those guys. We’re actually not called Moyg anymore… we’re now called Today Arsenal, and Mic also plays bass with us. Intolerant is my main band, and I’m really down with it because even though we’re into the heavy music thing, we’ve totally eradicated all boundaries and made it a point to come up with something fresh-sounding. I mean, I don’t want to claim that what we’re doing is totally new, but I admit that I love it when bands don’t only play, but challenge the way people think and feel about music. Also, even though Mic, Pepo and I still have high respect for Russ, the four of us agree that this band isn’t driven by just one person, or dominated by key members, like Skychurch and Moyg sort of was. It’s really about four different musicians really letting loose. I guess that’s probably why it takes us quite a while to totally finish a song… we feel there’s always something more we can add onto a simple progression, or riff. The cool thing about it is, there’s no pressure… we’re not rushing to beat a deadline or anything, though we are teaching ourselves NOT to take too long… Intolerant is made up of members of "two genre-defining bands in the Philippine underground music scene…” what does Intolerant do that would be familiar/unfamiliar to listeners of Skychurch and L.O.C.? Definitely, Intolerant can conveniently be tagged as a heavy band, and Skychurch and L.O.C. are pretty good primers (among many) for local heavy music. The musicianship can also be pretty demanding, and we’ve always had high standards when it came to performance… Intolerant really takes pride in playing the songs the right way: it’s loud, it’s heavy but it’s also very refined. Skychurch was very disciplined when it came to performing, and wasn’t the easiest shit to do, but it was, again, very rewarding. On the other hand, Intolerant is a lot more mature in some aspects… I mean, we even have a ballad-type song, so you can imagine how flexible we are compared to your average metal band. Skychurch had ballads and melody and shit, but they were used as tools. With Intolerant, we wouldn’t be as afraid to use those melodies and that certain approach from start to finish… if that’s what we feel we really want to do. In a way, Intolerant is also pretty open-minded to having people outside of the genre give a listen. So right now, we’ll play anywhere and everywhere as long as we’re down with the people we’re playing with. Our gigs don’t necessarily have to be limited to underground metal gigs. Your Purevolume page describes the band as "Metal /Metalcore / Death Metal." For the clueless—meaning myself—please describe the qualities of these genres, and how they feed into the sound of Intolerant. I guess those labels/sub-genres are mainly for convenience, but it’s pretty hard to take it as scripture… we’re definitely a metal band, we’re definitely willing to play something with melody and unafraid to try out new, more modern elements like progressions and arrangements, and we also won’t think twice about fucking going bonkers and pushing the limits as far as death metal does—blistering guitar work, guttural vocals, double bass drumming, extremely fast yet also extremely slow, and all. I guess it’d be safe to say that we’re all commonly rooted in our love for bands like Slayer, Pantera, Sepultura and even bands not exactly dead-center in the metal heap… bands like Earth Crisis, Strife, Sick of It All, Madball. I know it doesn’t sound pretty intelligent, but put all those influences together, add our own craziness, and that’s Intolerant. If Jesus and the Devil were to form a band, we’d be the perfect opening act for them. How does the songwriting in Intolerant work? Please describe the process/inspirations behind some of the songs. ("God of War" is my current favorite). It either starts with a riff or a drum pattern. Like I mentioned, Russell had all these leftover riffs and what would happen was, we’d tie ‘em together and slave over them for hours in the studio. We’d all add onto those few riffs and play it until we felt it sounded right. It was a very meticulous process, considering we’re four critical personalities… but for some reason, whenever something worked, we were all unanimous in deciding it was the way we heard it in our heads. Pretty cosmic… and funny because we don’t really share the same vices or habits. Or whatever the fuck it is that causes musical inspiration. Is that a second vocalist on "Left Standing," doing the ‘cleaner’ vocals? And why does "Shift" sound so different from the other songs so far? On the recorded songs, Russ sings all the vocals so on “Left Standing,” that’s both his vocals. He’s a pretty well-rounded singer, and we are all proud to say that he has a powerful voice and a fine sense of pitch. No studio trickery at all, what you’ll hear on disc is what you’ll hear live… we guarantee it. I mean, there are singers these days who sound bad on their album! (It’s pretty dumb, granted there are so many ways to sound good in the studio… cheating or not). “Shift” is also a really good song that shows how dynamic he can be, and it’s also a very personal song for us. It was the song that sort of defined us during the beginning: it was one thing, but it was also something else… minus the compromise a normal band on the radio would have to undergo. “My Demise” is also pretty complex, yet it’s as brutal as “Shift” is subtle. “God of War” is also currently my favorite, because it’s really just a mean motherfucker (yes, inspired by the video game, because Russell was hooked!). It’s an all-out, no bullshit, metal-as-fuck track that we all enjoy playing live. Just like “Death Toll Rising…” when we play those two songs live, I think that’s when we’re pulling out the big guns. There’s a lot of great guitar work on these songs—the searing solos are what a listener inexperienced with this genre (again, such as myself) latch on to first. As a guitarist, who are your heroes/influences? As a guitarist, there are so many guitar players I look up to. I divide them into groups because it’s sort of like comparing apples to oranges whenever people ask me who I think the better guitar hero is. For downright shredding, my faves are the usual: Satriani, Vai, Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman. But as far as heavy metal and rock goes, you can’t go wrong with the late, great Dimebag Darrell… he was the true example of what it meant to be a well-rounded musician: he could shred, but he also had attitude and kicked ass onstage, and was an impressive rhythm player. That’s very important to me… before you become a shredder, you gotta know how to play rhythm… you gotta know your timing. That’s why I really admire guitarists like Eddie Van Halen, James Hetfield and Kirk Hammet, Scott Ian. They’re not necessarily shredders, and probably not the fastest guys around, but they’ve got personality and they fucking respect the musicians around them and know that the spotlight’s not always on them. Yngwie Malmsteen and John Petrucci can fucking suck sheep balls for all I care. Yeah they’re good, but sometimes there’s a fine line between tasty and just wanking at 500mph. Plus, I’m pretty sure if Dimebag was to ever get in a fight with Malmsteen or Petrucci, he’d kick their asses with one hand tied behind his back. Even if it was a beer-drinking contest he’d win… even non-guitarists who’d listen to the albums all three of them played on would probably agree that Darrell’s playing has the most impact. Because it’s not only technical… it, er… rocks. Really. How do you build on/develop your guitar-playing? I’m actually guilty of not always “building/developing” my chops. I got a day job, so I guess that’s my excuse for not always being able to go through the proper rudiments and exercises and whatever. But my technique to keep myself from rusting has always been picking up the guitar at least once a day, and playing entire songs from start to finish instead of just the same licks and exercises over and over again. I also reserve certain days for jamming with other guitar players… usually on weekends, I get together with two buddies and we just crank the amps and go solo-crazy! Sort of like a G3, only goofier and a little crappier, and we’re all Filipino and nobody’s filming the shit. Nobody should. What’s the line between a good solo and a bad one? A good solo? I guess a good solo makes a good song even better. A good solo can highlight a song, it can also take you to a different place, or it can simply blow you away. You feel a good solo, not hear it. It’s because it’s the perfect balance with, again, melody and technical skill. That’s what I think, at least… there have been many debates over what the perfect solo is. Many people say that Kurt Cobain’s solos were genius because they were pure emotion, but I, on the other hand think they were just plain crap. It was right for the music, I guess, but in no way would I refer to those solos as “influential” or “essential.” I am one of the very few people, I guess, who doesn’t give a shit about Nirvana or sees them as a great band. I wasn’t happy when Cobain blew his brains out, but I also wasn’t sad. I think I was busy practicing my chops. I look at guitar solos in a way that it’s sort of like when you’re eating the perfect pizza, then adding another layer of mozzarella: you don’t really need it, but if you do it right, it’ll make it extra special, say on an all-meat kind. But in that regard, it can also backfire… like when you realize that what you’ve got is a cheese pizza… it’s a plus, but it doesn’t really do or mean anything. (I’m hungry.) Do you personally have any favorite songs among Intolerant’s output so far? Which one/s and why? They’re all my favorites… all five songs, though I do joke a lot about how much I “hate ’Shift.’” I guess it’s because, like I mentioned previously, we played it for the longest time over and over again in the studio. I have to admit though that I’m pretty biased when it comes to the songs with guitar solos… they keep me on my feet when I’m playing live, because I definitely don’t want to screw up the parts of songs I was given free reign to write. “God of War” and “Death Toll Rising” are current faves because they just make me want to bash somebody’s head in whenever I hear/play them. In your opinion, what does each member of Intolerant bring to the band, in terms of musical ability and personal qualities? Well for one, I like to think that we’re no slouches when it comes to our individual instruments/ immediate roles in the band. I’ve been fortunate to play with many musicians from college and afterwards, but the thing I love about the guys in Intolerant is that they all know what they want/want to do and how to get/do it. Though we’d sometimes coach each other in the studio and suggest ideas and shit, we’re all very secure with the fact that we can individually hold our own and don’t need to be told what to do. It’s very liberating. With Russ, I guess he’s pretty much the most seasoned musician since he was doing the Skychurch thing as early as high school. I mean, he was a fucking influential musician way before he knew shit about calculus or whatever. And our personalities match, because we’re brutally honest even if it means we come off as assholes. Pepo, I’m also proud to say, has such a wide vocabulary of knowledge when it comes to music, and he’s always willing to learn. It really shows in his playing, because it’s pretty well-rounded and unpredictable as far as metal drummers go. He’s got a great attitude too, very sociable but he also knows when it’s time to speak up and fucking pound somebody in the face with the truth. Again, the three of us are pretty extreme personalities, and Mic balances all that out, even though he definitely has his crazy moments too. But yeah, he’s the most grounded guy, and he’s always great company on or off the stage… because he lets us pick on him. Ha! Seriously, we’ve all been through some pretty crazy shit individually and collectively, but there’s a fine sense of balance among us. I guess I’ve used that word a lot—balance—so it’s pretty important to me personally, be it musically, or within the band. That’s where the dynamic comes from… a sense of balance. How have the reactions to Intolerant from audiences been, both the underground/ hardcore community and the more mainstream crowds that may have heard you? What do Skychurch and L.O.C. fans think? I honestly don’t know, and to some extent, I don’t really think about it as much. I’m happy that we’ve gotten a lot of positive vibes from the people who go to the gigs, of course, but even if we didn’t get as much good feedback, it probably wouldn’t interfere with what we’re doing. I was expecting a lot of reactions especially since our first song was “Shift,” but surprisingly, nobody actually went up to our faces and said “Dude? What the fuck?!!” I think Skychurch fans and original-lineup-L.O.C. fans also have a more mature attitude towards music now, just like us. The great thing about it is, there’s quite a number of non-Skychurch fans who actually dig what Intolerant is doing. So I’m pretty sure we’re doing something, or a lot of things, right. We’ve changed and evolved, but we’ve also maintained some aspects and principles worth sticking to as to who we are as musicians and as people. What, for you, are the band’s most memorable moments/ achievements thus far? Fete Dela Musique 2007 was definitely memorable because even though we were a new band, things went extremely well. It was a pretty tight set, if I may say so, and that’s when we all realized that all the work and sleepless nights were very much worth it. Our Purple Haze gigs are always memorable because there’s a great vibe to that place, it has great gear which they allow us to crank and we’re almost always playing with our buddies from Badburn and Today Arsenal. We had a pretty great gig in Caloocan a few months ago when this Hong Kong-based metalcore act Shepherds The Weak came and played a show. And our recent out of town trip to Pampanga was a blast because we all got really drunk but still played an amazingly tight set. Same thing with the Olongapo gigs we played in early ’07. Always a great crowd, always really, really loud. Of course, recording the demo/EP we’re currently giving away was pretty awesome in my book as far as achievements are concerned, because for a rough recording, we all could hear that there was so much potential within the group. I don’t want to sound arrogant about it, but we all pretty much achieved what we wanted to do at that point in time. Right, in the sense, that we got the respect from people whose opinions mattered to us: the cool guys who catch the shows and support us, and our friends from the other bands we play with. Where can people watch/listen to Intolerant? Our skeds are pretty tricky by choice, because we all got priorities and we understand that priorities come first. But we’re pretty much playing at least twice a week, most of the time either at Purple Haze, Mayric’s, or whichever venue where the people are cool with our music. There’s also a handful of out of town gigs every now and then. People can reach us through Friendster or MySpace, or email us directly at intolerantmetal666@yahoo.com if they want to ask where we’re playing. We’re still giving away free copies of the demo/EP at the gigs, and if people want to hear the songs, we’ll be more than happy to email ‘em mp3s of whatever rough recordings we have at the moment. Is the full-length still set to come out before year’s end? Right now, it’s the next step for us, we’re totally redoing everything and have new songs, and we’re slowly but surely figuring out how to achieve the sound we want to be heard on our full-length. Studio recording is a whole different beast, but we’re really pushing to get the album out by the end of the year. What’s right and what’s wrong about the music industry right now? Hmmm… a lot if it’s wrong. There’s so much useless shit on the air and on the radio, and rock is in a sad, sad state… call me a dick or whatever, but in my opinion, so many bands these days just deserve to beaten to shit. I mean, I’m a music fan, and so many people are bastardizing and making money out of this whole “band” thing. And so many great, great bands are going unnoticed because of this whole slew of untalented wankers “dominating the airwaves.” So many artists aren’t getting the credit they deserve. I’m saddened by the fact that venues would rather choose a namby-pamby G-rated pop/ showband-type/ formulaic group over a band that really has something to offer, or over what an artist like Noel Cabangon or Skarlet has to offer. I mean, I know it’s really the nature of the industry to support anything that sells, but why not extend the other hand to people who deserve it? And it wasn’t as obvious, and as hard-sell compared to a few years ago… now, a majority (not all, mind you) of the industry still supports crap and doesn’t even have the courtesy to, at the very least, choose the most decent artist in the crap pile. Anyone can get a record deal now, even if they’re totally retarded and can’t sing a note to save their life, as long as they’re part of a trend and have the right look. At least a few years ago, Alamid had chops even though they were kind of cheesy… they knew how to tune their guitars and the guy could sing the right notes. But now, any honest musician can instantly name ten bands who deserve to be fucking dragged out in the streets and shot for being so fucking lame. It’s not totally hopeless though… I still believe that a lot of companies really want to get their shit together, and that a lot of the younger guys are really coming up with great stuff. But I’m not holding my breath and waiting for it to happen… Intolerant isn’t either. We’re just going to keep doing what we do best. Listen to Intolerant’s songs on their Purevolume page. And visit them on MySpace and Friendster.
October 1st, 2007
GOING FOR A RIDE WITH TAKEN BY CARS
Sometimes, a new band breaks out of the local music scene and hurtles forward in a Katamari Damacy fashion—picking up momentum and devotees and getting bigger and better, until they reach perhaps monstrous proportions. Suddenly, they’re everyone’s favorite band. And you watch them blow up and you ask yourself, "Where’d they come from?" This is how I feel about Taken By Cars. Well, maybe they’re not at monstrous proportions just yet, but they’re getting there. Suddenly, they’re being talked about by everyone—and I stress "suddenly," because they were quite unheard of last year—probably much to the chagrin of bands who’ve been around longer and are taking a bit more time to get noticed. What haters don’t know, however, is that as a band, the members of Taken By Cars have been together around ten years already, without getting noticed much either. The band was formed while sophomores in high school. The boys were all neighbors and schoolmates: guitarist Bryce Zialcita, bassist Benny Yap and drummer Bryan Kong all knew each other in the first grade, and they met guitarist Siopao in high school. Sarah Marco, their husky, dusky vocalist, was a friend of a friend; the brave girl met up with the boys, without any clue as to what they even looked like, to jam one afternoon. They hit it off right away, and spent the next ten years having fun as a cover band. "It was only June of last year that we said, let’s take this seriously," Sarah relates. "So we stopped playing covers and started writing songs." It’s easy to imagine that Taken By Cars always sounded the way they do now—some psychedelic dance, some shoegaze, some punk beats, lots of heart—but their current sound also only really began in June of last year. Stylistically, the band started out as an alternative band before they ventured into blues and classic rock. They covered bands like K’s Choice, Veruca Salt, Flickerstick and, later, Led Zeppelin and ACDC. "We all have different tastes in music," Bryce tells me, almost apologetically. "So our current sound is like a collective." "But freestyle," Sarah adds. "We just get all our ideas and put them together, we just get them from whereever. So our music starts out unstructured and then we make it structured." "It’s a democratic process," Kong further describes their songwriting process. "There’s a lot of give and take, because we’re all friends and we’ve been friends for a long time. We respect each other’s opinions, we meet halfway." "We ask each other, ‘How does this sound?’ " Siopao contributes. "Sometimes, when we write it’s a kind of multiple choice," Bryce grins. "What goes into what part, and so on. It’s very fun." The band meets up at Bryce’s house twice a week to jam. It was there that they wrote most of the songs from the album, though it felt more like hanging out than writing songs. Next thing they knew, here they are, only a little over a year of writing songs, with an album currently being mixed. "We’re all on the same wavelength," Bryce opines when I ask why writing together came so easy to them, especially when they never tried writing songs before. Always? They nod, yes always. Don’t you disagree at all? "When we do, we talk about it until we find a middle ground," Siopao concedes. The best thing about being friends in a band, he says, is you can tell each other anything. "We’re very straight with each other, because we’re all thinking about what’s best for the song." Bryce agrees. "We never really get into an argument. If there’s tension, it’s positive tension." I wonder by this time how we managed to skip ten years of band history. They all laugh, with Sarah admitting, "It wasn’t exactly ten years, it just started ten years ago. We were dormant, sometimes, for long periods of time." They each assure me I didn’t miss out much by only coming to know them this year. They played in school fairs, in parties. They had bad names. I pressed for those bad names and they laughed before enumerating. "Sedated," one said with a snicker. "Kung Fu Betty," another smirked. They took on the name Taken By Cars only, you guessed it, June of last year. "We listen to music in cars," Sarah explains where their current band name originated, with no snark in her voice. "And we’re taken by the music. We wanted our name to come from there. It’s also because our music has a lot of movement involved in it. We have songs that are fast, but also slow and ambient and really chill. If you listen to our album, you’ll hear that the music is pretty casual, you know, not papansin." Their current sound, as Bryce earlier mentioned, is a fusion of their influences. Bryce listens to jazz, Siopao listens to the blues, Benny is into funk and Kong into prog rock. You can actually hear elements of each in their current sound, and yet the whole scope of it is altogether something else. "It came to a point where we were all listening to the same thing," Sarah explains. As a collective unit, they found out they were individually listening to Bloc Party, Minus the Bear, Joy Division, New Order and the Cure. You’ll find elements from these in their new sound, too. "Our songwriting process is a conscious effort," Siopao offers. "We know our roles and our sound. For example, Bryce’s guitar sound is mid-range, somewhat spacy. Mine is high-treble, jagged, more aggressive." The rest of the band know their roles as well, with Kong and Benny keeping it all together and Sarah shining powerfully in front of them. Sarah has another role, as the lyric writer. She says her lyrics depend on the songs, she bases them on the vibe. "The dance songs aren’t emotional, they’re catchy. The slower songs, they’re the emotional ones. I worry that the sad songs sound too… cheesy?" She looks at her bandmates for reinforcement and they all subtly shake their heads. "As much as possible, I like the lyrics to be well thought out. They’re not brainless songs." Kong shares that they didn’t have it all figured out right away. "Our main goal was to play in SaGuijo," he says. I must have looked at him funny because he adds, "Seriously." That was the main goal? "That was the main goal," he nods. "Because we were there every week, and we got to thinking, hey, we’re in a band, why aren’t we playing here?" From the time they decided this in June of last year, also the time that they started writing songs, they didn’t surface until October, where they played their first gig as Taken By Cars in Kublai’s Katipunan. Why did it take so long? "Our attitude was we wanted to go out sure of ourselves," Kong explains. "Rather than force it." Plus, they all had day jobs and writing songs and gigging would have been too hectic for them. They got to play in SaGuijo in the same month, for the prod Peace Sign, with Lahi, Ursa Minor, Southern Grass and Day One Movement. The reason why they remember this is because Bryce has a photo of the lineup chalkboard in his phone. His bandmates giddily tell him to send them copies of the cam pic. "The scene right now is great," Benny enthuses. "It’s the perfect opportunity for bands to start playing, get their music out." Sarah agrees. "Everything really started falling into place." One of the pieces of Taken By Cars’ destiny that started to fall into place was having a chance to record their demos, which you can listen to on their MySpace page. A friend of theirs, Joey Santos of Boy Elroy and Halik ni Gringo, offered his Love One Another Studios, "If you guys want to record." Their demo of "Weeknight Memoirs in High Definition" was picked up by NU 107 and played on the radio, giving the band what they call their cheap thrill. "I mean, big deal right, but I don’t care, it’s another experience altogether to hear your song played on the radio," Siopao laughs. Ironically, they discovered only after it was played on the radio that "Weeknight Memoirs" was written in the wrong key. They were recording the song for the actual album in Mong Alcaraz’s Danger Danger Studio when their new producer informed them it was too low for Sarah’s voice. The band gamely welcomed the criticism, as they did having Mong as a producer. "What we never thought would happen was to have a collaborative producer as well," Kong shares. "[Mong] gives his own opinions and ideas when we record and mix and he’s been a really big help. It’s something unexpected, but it’s great. We’re all on the same wavelength in making this album." "And, again, recording feels like we’re also hanging out," Siopao adds. "That’s how good the vibe is." "We feel really lucky too," Benny says. "We’ve had Raimund [Marasigan] and Mike [Dizon] drop by while we’re recording and they give their input also. It’s nice that we have the support of other bands." "Yeah," Bryce says, "because there’s definitely lots of room for improvement." The album is currently being mixed, and is moving into mastering and post prod. They hope to be done by November, although Kong is pretty sure it’s coming out earlier. They asked Inksurge to do their album cover. "We think they mirror what we do in terms of art," Kong explains. "Like, we’re very particular with how we want the song to come out." "Yeah," Sarah agrees and elaborates on what Kong means by "particular." "If it’s not the right sound, we really insist a retake. The other day, we ended up mixing up to 2:30 in the morning." A friend of theirs comes over and says to them, "What band are you again?" They laugh good-naturedly, while thinking twice about telling her, as if they don’t want to let a secret out. While they all do seem like very good friends, you can tell that music is their bond. The boys all went to Hong Kong to watch The Cure together, for which Sarah hasn’t forgiven them yet. How are kids their age such big fans of The Cure? "Bryce and Sarah have older siblings," Siopao says. "Yeah, I have Tears for Fears cassette tapes!" Sarah grins. "But it’s also friends telling you, ‘Hey, listen to this…’ so you have music bouncing off each other. [Discovering] new stuff, that’s how we’re friends. We just get high on listening." Siopao nods. "Sometimes, we’d just be hanging out in the car, listening for hours." Benny smiles. "For days." Kong shakes his head. "Weeks," he says. "Like that time we just packed all the instruments in the car and drove to Subic. We just went and ate and jammed. And went home." "We didn’t get anything done," Benny adds. "Or write anything." "But that was the best weekend," Siopao finishes. Now that they’ve played at SaGuijo countless times within the past year, what’s the next main goal? "Well, just get the album out, have a good launch," Kong enumerates. Then, quickly adds, "And mix it properly." "We’re not signed," Sarah shares, "so we’re careful with what we’re doing. But not being signed gives a certain flexibility and freedom. Whatever happens, happens." "The goal is to just have fun," Bryce nods. "We’re learning more about each other, about the band, about the music. It adds to who we are." The Katamari Damacy ball is getting bigger as we speak, but they don’t really seem to notice. Bryce sums it up perfectly. "I’m still surprised that we have a gig. Whenever they tell me, you have a gig this week, I’m always, hey, that’s so cool." Main photograph (the sorta black-and-white one) courtesy of Suyen. The rest ripped off from the band’s MySpace page. Speaking of which, the band’s "Weeknight Memoirs in High Definition" is in the wrong key on that page, but it still rocks. Check check check it out.
September 28th, 2007
We love production nights. How else can you see a whole slew of your favorite bands playing live, one after the other, all in one late-evening-to-around 2 AM stretch? It’s a great way to discover new acts too—you’ll probably attend a prod drawn to the familiar names, and leave with a new favorite band’s unreleased tunes ringing in your head. Now there’s a new production night on the block, and it celebrates the diversity of the local rock scene. SAVE THE MUSIC launched last Saturday, September 22, at Big Sky Mind in New Manila. With a debut night lineup consisting of Greyhoundz, April Morning Skies, Salamin, Severo, and Giniling Festival—and bands like Hilera, Bagetsafonik, and Reklamo, among many others, slated for future installments—SAVE THE MUSIC spans various genres and brings together a wide array of new and old acts, and their respective fans. We talked to one of the organizers, Belle Baldoza: PULSE.PH: How, when and why did the SAVE THE MUSIC production come together? Who are the people involved, and what are their respective roles? BELLE BALDOZA: My good friend Liz Bautista and I originally thought of putting together a production that would bring together the various niches of our thriving underground music scene. We are both very much into rock music and all its different sub-genres and are actually very much involved in it (we met back in college working as student DJs, and now Liz is Fashion Editor of PULP while I’m in the PR biz). We wanted to go beyond just staging a normal weekend gig but actually having an advocacy, a campaign to anchor on. Hence the name SAVE THE MUSIC. Then we decided to enjoin Zach Sycip, the bassist of Severo, to help us out, as he has had some experience with staging prods before. We all pitch in for the band line-up and concept, Liz does the booking for the bands, I am in charge of Marketing and PR, while Zach carries out logistics and stage management for the event. But we all help each other out in every way if we have inputs. "Conceptualized with a goal to bring together the new movers and shakers of local rock, SAVE THE MUSIC goes beyond bringing the best performers together onstage, it is an advocacy for a new lifestyle all on its own," the press release says. What is this "new lifestyle"? What does SAVE THE MUSIC want to do that other production nights don’t? What makes it different? Well, we envision it bringing together the different genres of the local rock scene. We actually jump around different productions and have observed that each has a distinct character. We all want a bit of all the action on the music scene today, that’s why we bring all these different bands together. And eventually we want people to espouse the same advocacy—to keep our local music alive. The first night featured Greyhoundz, April Morning Skies, Salamin, Severo, and Giniling Festival. What’s the logic behind this lineup? What was the reasoning behind each band included? The bands we book come from the different nooks of our music scene. We finalized the line-up after some brainstorming and listening in on what people are digging, what bands they would like to watch. How was the night itself? Any particular highlights/ surprises/ problems? I am happy to say that the first salvo of the prod was pretty successful—BigSky was packed and people were telling us that we succeeded in bringing together different crowds due to the eclectic roster of bands. They enjoyed all the sets, especially that of Giniling Festival and Greyhoundz. We also had as hosts our lovely friends who kept everyone in great spirits the whole night—MTV VJ Maggie Wilson and DJ Jaybee Jariol. What’s next for SAVE THE MUSIC? What are its goals for the near future and the long-term? Well, right now we are working on the line-up for our Halloween Party, which is set on October 30 at Cafe SaGuijo. We plan to stage prods in different gig spots around the metro. We will also be working on producing merchandise with the help of our graphic designer friends, such as shirts and pins that all espouse our advocacy, thereby creating a new lifestyle and contributing something that we hope will be significant in our scene. Basically we are enjoying saving the music! Photos by Sarah Gonzales. Save the Music was sponsored by Red Horse Beer and BURN Magazine, with some friendly help from Pulse.ph.
September 27th, 2007
True story. I’m six weeks into my 3-month sabbatical in Portland, Orgeon and I’m enjoying the first days of autumn. I’m walking towards the Crystal Ballroom, hoping to inquire about their week’s shows when I pass a neatly dressed man dragging a suitcase behind him. I glance at him and make a mental note that he looks remarkably Swedish. I then glance at his suitcase and I read "Peter Bjorn…" before he walks away. My brain takes a second to put two and two together before I chase after him and stop him mid-street. Peter, of Peter Bjorn and John, is chomping on a green apple and looks warily at me as I ask if he is indeed Peter of Peter Bjorn and John. He says he is Peter of Peter Bjorn and John and I stare blankly at him and then he walks away. Feelings of idiocy and triumph blend together inside me, as I skip back towards the Crystal Ballroom whistling Peter Bjorn and John’s hit "Young Folks". For a country that doesn’t get a whole lot of sun, Sweden has consistently produced bright and life-affirming music. ABBA and Ace of Base have stepped aside and let a new Nordic sound through. Indie stalwarts like Jose Gonzalez, The Knife, and Jens Lekman are winning the (non-existent) war for Sweden over its neighbor Norway, an indie powerhouse in its own right. PB&J are so far the most visible and they’re making their way down the mainstream, with appearances on American national television. They even have an MTV Best New Artist nomination under their belt. 2006’s Writer’s Block is their ticket to stardom, or at least their ticket to radio airplay and commercial ubiquity. This year their song "Young Folks" was hard to escape. Peter’s extraordinary whistling ability is an added charm; the song sounds like it’s from another era, the 60’s to be exact. If I closed my eyes and pretended it was forty years ago, I would swear it was John Lennon. On "Lets Call It Off," they sound like another 60’s group, troubadours Peter and Gordon. "Object of My Affection" and "Up Against the Wall" have a more modern feel to them, but retain the same sound that makes the album cohesive, which could be a problem for some. The rest of their songs share the same aesthetic which may or may not be to their advantage. PB&J have a knack for creating poppy melodies with a tinge of melancholy, but a whole album’s worth of that Swedish sunshine could get tiring after a while. Perhaps there’s more than a scientific reason for those sunless Arctic winters after all.
September 26th, 2007
CALIPH8, NEON8 AND PASTA GROOVE: THREE DJs MIX IT UP
Once upon a time, I boldly ambushed Malek Lopez for an interview for a now-defunct music webzine, and asked, "So what’s electronic music anyway?" Of course, my ignorance pissed him off, and for years I couldn’t muster up the courage to speak to him at gigs. (That changed recently, but only because I’ve convinced myself that he’s forgotten that I’m that stupid journalist from way back when). I know a lot better now, of course, but it’s always a treat when I get a chance to learn more about DJing, electronica, and all related matters, like DJs’ once-secret life outside of raves that seems to be getting less and less secret as time goes by. This Friday, Jack Daniel’s is kicking off its Jack Mix Series, a special bar tour that involves the creation of new music by its participating, collaborating performers. While the rest of the tour over the next few months will be held in different bars, within different productions, and will mostly feature bands of different genres paired together—such as punk and dance, with Hilera and Chicosci collaborating with Pedicab and Taken By Cars, just to name one crazy night that’s in store—Jack Daniel’s has decided to launch the series with a group of artists for whom collaborations are second, or rather, first nature: DJs. The Jack Mix Series opens with three sets of DJs playing off each other: Ann Barcelona and Lady Trinity, Mike Cons and Neon8, and Caliph8 and Pasta Groove. Caliph8, a.k.a. Arvin Nogueras, tells me that he’s always been impressed with Jack Daniel’s initiative when it comes to promoting new music, like that time they brought in Treva Whateva, a British DJ whose aesthetic sense runs many miles away from the mainstream. "Of course, the party people started thinning out after a few tunes, but there were people who were introduced to and became interested in this new kind of music, and they probably would never have heard of it otherwise," he shares. "Kami, backstage, we were having a blast." CALIPH8 Caliph8 has been doing collaborations most of his artistic life. He formed Down Earf with Jay Roy and DJ Arbie Won in ‘96 and released perhaps the first indie EP in the Philippines. He also did collabs with Jun Lopito when he was with Reggae Mistress, Third World Project, WDOUJI, Tropical Depression, Betrayed, NTOTN, Radioactive Sago Project, Rubber Inc., Flow 44, and jammed with the Eheads on their last gig, at the NU Rock Awards. He’s now an official member of Drip and the hip-hop-electronic collective AMPON. He once told me that he’s accepted that the masses will never get his music, but he continues to create music for himself and people who are willing to listen. Hip-hop DJing would probably never advance beyond drunk and stoned kids grinding with strangers on so-called Hip-Hop nights at places like Pravda, Mars, Whereelse, and recently in Prince of Jaipur, without Caliph8 keeping the fire of non-conventional hip-hop burning. "Those hip-hop nights just play mainstream hip-hop. We don’t stick to just hip-hop, we also do old music like funk, jazz and soul, which are the roots of hip-hop," Caliph8 explains. "I guess you can say we’re music snobs, but it’s great that different performers who are not in that league are being heard. Our market, it turns out, are those who are into electronic." The Jack Mix Series will be launched at Alchemy in Silvercity mall, where they also hold Hip-hop nights every Mondays—but it’s a different brand of hip-hop, this time. Who attends? "A lot of like-minded ‘heads, and it’s surprisingly growing," Caliph8 relates. "I guess more are becoming well-informed because the scene is flourishing. Not like 1996, where it was depressing, we were just playing our music and hoping somehow that there would be some who would hear us." Caliph8’s main influences are Organized Confusion, Large Professor, RZA, and Lord Finesse. "When I was younger, I used to listen to mainstream, but I had friends who started to feed me stuff, my much older neighbors. This was the ’80s and I was 9 years old. It was ‘86, when the mobile was still the scene. Anyway, my neighbors owned a mobile crew and as a kid, nakikigulo ako. They had crates of vinyl and I would see all these names. Then I lived in the States for five years, and that’s where I understood what my art is." It took him time, and the trip home, to actually participate in his art. "I became an enthusiast, supporting subculture, but I didn’t really contribute myself until I got back here," he continues. “There, I was just an observer. Here, I started meeting Masta Plann and FrancisM. You know, FrancisM used to have a radio show on 89.1 and the music he played there is surprising. He was teaching kids what hip-hop was. I’m not a fan of his music but I admire what he did with that radio show. "In the States, I had a vague idea of what my role was, though that’s when I got into graffiti and then into visual arts. I was also rhyming and getting into turntables, but really, they were baby stages. When I got back, I started DJing, rapping, producing, but primitively, karaoke destruction, you know crossing jacks and wires and figuring how I can make new sounds from that. Almost all enthusiasts go through all that. "Then, I went to art school in UP and started to really mature. I began to compartmentalize. I mean all these things are related and connected but you have to learn how to compartmentalize them all to get a better understanding of what you want to do, so that it comes out solid when it came to actually doing it. "I met a lot of like-minded people in the band scene, these are the left field rock heads who hung out in Club Dredd, those who were looking at the fundamentals but looking for more. I sought to distort hip-hop, so I found other forward thinkers to collaborate with. In ‘95, we formed a band called Loudwater, which is the first breed of rap metal, long before the recent rap metal bands who made it big. It was rap metal that was funk-based. There were a few of those bands back then, such as Marben (Romero) of Badburn, he was in a rap metal band back then called Lethal Injection. "DJ Arbie Won, Jay Roy and I formed Down Earf, which lasted 2 to 3 years. We produced an indie EP titled Knowin’ is Half the Battle. We manually pressed our own tapes, and did our own cover printing. This was ‘97, wala pang indie noon, kami lang. We recorded in Jim Paredes’ studio, which is now Circus Studios, and still has the analog equipment we recorded with. We pressed 300 audio tapes, and CDs and tapes were mass produced for college radio in San Francisco. We have a friend, Hase from Sacramento, who believed in our material and said if we gave him the master, he could bring it to the US and produced under a label. The label was college based and we made it to #7 on college radio. Jay had to go back to New York, so that was that. "In ‘99 onwards, I was active with collaborations with different people, such as Third World Project, WDOUIJI, we would have gigs and prods in Big Sky Mind. Solo, my drive was video and audio and putting out true school hip-hop." "It doesn’t matter if it’s old or new, as long as it’s true," quipped Pasta Groove, who is quick to acknowledge Caliph8 as one of the big movers of true school hip-hop. PASTA GROOVE Pasta Groove is Paolo Garcia in real life. He’s much younger than Caliph8 and Neon8 and says he spent his formative years under Arvin’s wing. "I’m rooted in hip-hop—when I was 12, I was writing rhymes, and by the time I was 15 I was DJing in clubs and guesting on the radio. My influences, there are lots. From James Brown to Bob James, Quantum Spectrum, Common Sense, who’s an artist, an MC. The DJs that I admire are Cut Chemist, Jazzy Jeff, Bobbito Garcia who’s a DJ in New York, and locally, I really have to give props to Arvin Nogueras. I accumulated my tastes from all these DJs who were in the scene. Hanging around Arvin is a good breeding ground. We’re on the same wavelength, which is why I’m excited about the collabo with him for the Jack Mix Series." PG is living proof that Caliph8’s efforts in getting their music out there were not in vain. "I heard the message," PG nods. "I’m grateful I got that chance. I was surrounded by artists such as Caliph8, Down Earf, Artstrong. DJ Arbie Won was the catalyst. They helped my preferences by giving it direction. It’s a small scene, where we feed off each other. In college, I had isolated myself and made music, but I wasn’t getting it out there. It took Arvin to get it out." Aside from the weekly Monday hip-hop nights at Alchemy, called Subflex, PG is busy dabbling in video production, editing, sound design, scoring indie films. "I’m also going to put out an EP, which is a collaboration with different live musicians who’ll be riding over my beats," PG shares, then shies when I ask him which musicians. "They’re just good friends of mine, it’s going to just be a labor of love. Release? Sana end of this year or early next year. The EP will have collabs with Arvin as well." "People think we’re DJs where we just spin music and that’s it," PG adds. "What I do is different, it’s the reconstruction of old songs, in the analog format, which people may think is primitive, but for us, it’s vintage. Analog is actually an icon in hip-hop production. It’s different from DJing because we don’t play music, we recreate it." "We reinterpret it," Caliph8 affirms. "We create different patterns and put a texture over it. What we do is live sampling, live manipulation. We sit down and let people hear it first, before we mix it live." "The music we play, we try not to stay in a box," PG continues. "We look into different genres, different eras. We put old music into the set and mix it with the new to make it palatable. We remind people of the old music and how it’s connected to the new. Our main purpose is to remind people of where the new music comes from." "So, it’s a cycle, this reinterpretation," Caliph8 explains. "Most hip-hop DJs just play the hits, the Top 10, what’s familiar. We try to use the most obscure music we could find and let people listen to that. It’s like feeding meat eaters vegetables, like ampalaya and broccoli. It’s good for you." Back when PG was still accumulating his own tastes, Caliph8 and his DJ colleagues put up prods in Malate, particularly in Chemistry and Verve Room. "There were explorations," Caliph8 describes. "Merging with other people’s projects, it was an eclectic scene. Collabs with other genres were possible, not difficult. We had no questions, we had no explanations, we just jammed. I think people are open to music now, I see a lot of other acts commissioning music from hip-hop DJs. I have to question the intention though, are the DJs meant to be be just as an accessory or is it an honest collaboration? I’d prefer a challenge, give me the piece and let me see what I can do with it." Neon8 beside him nods and adds, "Or yung may DJ lang sila onstage, gusto nila concept lang." NEON8 Many of you may now know Neon8 as the guy with the laptop playing for the "Nyko Maca band." He shares an anecdote of how his father calls PlayGround (which is essentially the band that backs up samba vocalist Nyko Maca) his "combo." Nyko Maca + Playground may be getting more and more popular these days, but when it comes to what he does, it’s still hard to explain. “It’s hard for people to look at what I do and place it in the band context, though I’m a composer above everything else.” Madz Abubakar in real life, Neon8 is a solo progressive house live act. "I’m not a DJ, I do live production performance, original compositions," he clarifies. "Actually, Nyko Maca helped explain what I do somewhat. Since you have live elements, people understand right away that ‘this guy is doing something else.’ Instead of just being concerned about the music, I’m also concerned with software, what to do, production questions and theories. Nyko Maca and PlayGround has given me the opportunity to up my prod skills. It’s not 100% me, it’s a mix of everyone’s influences. "Lately, I’ve been doing remix projects for bands, and I did two songs for Karylle. I’m also remixing a song by Dice and K9. Working with these people, offering different music, it tests my flexibility as a producer." Neon8 began his fascination with electronic music in the late ’90s, where there was a hyped up rave scene. "Naaaliw ako," he remembers, "I was thinking, how did they come up with that music? I learned about synths and drum machines. Then, I went to Chicago, where my uncle was a DJ, he did weddings and parties for the Filipino community. My cousin, his son, introduced me to a whole bunch of equipment and that’s where it really started." He continued this discovery of equipment back home. "I also discovered different kinds of music software. Ian Magbanua [a.k.a. Morse] introduced me to Tutti Loops. I was literally doing all this on our family’s computer, yung PC sa bahay, yung may project ng kapatid mo, nandoon yung files ng Dad mo. Ganoon. "During that time, I joined Electronica Manila, a forum where we exchanged ideas, anything under the electronic umbrella. My first ever electronic gig was in Alabang, I brought my family computer and I could only play one song. Kasi kung may isa pa," he laughs, "magha-hang na yung computer." Neon8 would continue to bring his family computer to gigs for the next 3 to 4 years, but asserts that "It was good in that there were gigs. In Gweilo’s Carlos Palanca, there was a regular Wednesday night gig. Kami kami lang, from the Electronica Manila community, yung nandoon, kami kami rin lang yung kinikilig sa ginagawa namin. It was a good learning experience for us, it laid the groundwork, our nature of asking each other how to do all these things started from there. “The audience caught on din naman. The first year of Fete de la Musique (which had its own venue for electronica artists) walang tao, pero the next year, marami na. Recently, nawala yung electronica sa Fete de la Musique, but tuloy tuloy na yun for the individual artists." It was in 2005, after the last Fete gig, that Mark Lacay and Malek Lopez encouraged Neon8 to act as the beats person for Nyko Maca. "It was my first time to interact with a live artist and it was a flop." He laughs. "Sabi ko kay Nyko kelangan mag rehearse, sabi niya hindi daw. And then, after the gig, sabi niya sa akin, ‘Oo nga, Madz, kelangan nga.’ Hindi ko pa alam paano sumabay eh, but those were learning points. We did eventually get it. Every gig now challenges me to do more." They started to write original songs together as a band, starting with Neon8’s original "Turn My Head." "It’s a techie deep house track and I gave it to Nyko to put words into it. Nagsawa na din ako sa orig, so I rehashed it, now it has its own identity. It’s an ever-changing process, every gig is never the same. A song can be slow in one gig, then fast on another gig, and slow on the next." When asked what he listens to, he says "More progressive dance music. My influences are Global Underground, Kompakt, I mainly listen to breaks or house. Mark and Malek said I had an ear for beats. We in PlayGround [with sax player Alvin Cornista and guitarist Rick Sanchez] do remixes for other bands too. For Nyko, the process is, we three sit down and create a song, give it to Nyko for lyrics, then we change it up." Neon8 shakes his head at the general DJ scene, but offers a positive side. "The fun part is there’s always new things happening every weekend," he opines. "The scene may not be big, but at least there’s music, music in various areas, and demands for music. Listeners will actually look for more. Now it’s easier, there’s the internet, and it’s easy access, and people still ask for more, though they have to also think more for themselves, look for something new or listen to a different genre. In this way, also, I am able to reinvent myself and my music." What are his goals in the future? "More of my goals, I plan to move dance music further. I want to get dance music prods on its way, hindi yung rave-type, pero gigs with dance music. I also want our local artists to get outside our shores. Raves, kasi, it’s mainstream dance music. Dance music naman depends on where it’s being played, who the audience is, pareho ba ng wavelength. I want to elevate our taste." Neon8 is optimistic about the collaboration with Mike Cons this Friday. "We plan a mix of breakbeats. We’ll have an elaborate set-up but we won’t really ‘rehearse’ what we’re gonna do, at most, it’s a technical rehearsal, make sure everything’s working. We’re going to have a thousand songs ready but use only snippets. Put it all together like an orchestra," he smiles. "Mike Cons is more into soul and I’m more into modern breaks, so we’ll meet halfway sa breaks ni James Brown," Neon8 laughs. "It’s good that we’ll be testing each other’s skills. We may have different tastes in music, but we can come up with something. Something tasteful." Catch Caliph8, Neon8 and Pasta Groove at The Jack Mix Series launch at Alchemy, this Friday, Sept. 28, 2007, and find out first hand what they all meant by elevating taste. You can also find out more about Electronica Manila here.
September 25th, 2007
If you grew up in the Philippines but aren’t familiar with any of the Apo Hiking Society’s songs, I’m guessing that you were the product of a secret government experiment in total sensory deprivation, and that you’ve only recently escaped and have somehow gotten internet access. Thank you for visiting Pulse.ph and OH MY GOD THEY’RE RIGHT BEHIND YOU! RUN!! Just kidding. Knowing how our government works, it’ll take them days to even realize that you’ve escaped from your containment facility. In the meantime, if you possess any superhuman abilities, particularly the ability to bend time or type fast, Pulse.ph is hiring. Anyway. The music of the APO is one of those rarities in Pinoy pop music: ubiquitous yet not unwelcome. There’s more to the APO’s longevity than the Pinoy’s penchant for nostalgia and sentiment. It all comes down to the songcraft: they have created 26 albums of memorable, insanely catchy pop, both immediately appealing and clever. Even if the original recordings may occasionally seem dated or passé, the songs themselves are so strong that reinterpretations by contemporary bands resulted in perhaps the best of the recent spate of tribute albums (I’m talking about the first APO tribute album here; I haven’t gotten my hands on the second one yet). Like me, you may be interested in checking out how the trio puts on a show these days, almost four decades into their illustrious career. If so, you’re in luck; they’ll be playing soon, at the Music Museum. Here’s the press release: The APO at Music Museum After the resounding success of “Mga Kuwento ng APO… 38 Years of Music and Friendship†held at the PICC Plenary Hall last August, the APO HIKING SOCIETY are all set to reprise their show at the Music Museum on October 12 and 13, 8:30 p.m. with a new show title, “The APO Collection.†Jim Paredes, Boboy Garrovillo and Danny Javier of the APO have stayed on for more than three decades in the music scene, and show no signs of stopping. APO has waxed 26 albums, mostly certified multi-platinum or gold records, and starred in hugely successful major concerts here and abroad. This exceptional trio combination makes them a total entertainment team that is unparalleled in the country, three distinct personalities with great chemistry. “The APO Collection,†which is presented by The Thirdline, Inc., promises an evening of pure entertainment that will treat the audience to a journey showcasing decades of genuine Filipino music. Even after 38 years, APO continues to inspire every Filipino, which brings out the pride of being Pinoy every time we hear their songs. For ticket reservations to “The APO Collection,†call The Thirdline, Inc. at telephone numbers 426-0103, 426-5301, 0918-9379209, 0917-5324556, 0921-6650923. Tickets are also available at all TicketWorld outlets or call 891-9999 or visit the TicketWorld website www.ticketworld.com.ph “The APO Collection’s†media sponsors include the Manila Bulletin, Crossover 105.1, Jam 88.3, WRR 101.3. RJFM, Dream FM, and Liquidpost.
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