While I think I could have done more had I known of this home quarantine coming, I still felt blessed I accomplished during that same stretch the recording of two of my song creations and a non-composition I record-produced for release. The first, called “Sandalan” and sung by The Voice Kids alumnus Angel Andal, came out in digital stores last Feb. 21 and made the Spotify’s New Music Friday shortlist. Two full weeks later, the country plunged to the shock of coronavirus pandemic.
The Tagalog track is personally poignant considering I wrote it for my wife Kaye. I was jamming with bandmates when both chorus tune and words popped off my head.
Normally a guy would sing a song I penned. But for “Sandalan,” a strong female voice was needed. Enter Angel whom I met for interview and appeared on this column many months back. When she joined The Voice and I saw her sing Mon Del Rosario’s “Sino Ang Baliw,” I contacted her parents.
Forgiven Music Studio owner and mixing engineer Mark Anthony Zoleta has efficiently handled the recent recordings I was involved in. Last quarter of 2019 we, with my group The Pub Forties, canned the Cabalen jingle “Busog Sulit Ang Treat,” which I was commissioned to compose.
A few days into the New Year, we went back to start recording a song I dedicate for my son Ryde titled “Next Big Thing.” While that may sound like a big declaration by a father with a kid who’s into basketball; and the song does contain lines like “seize the moment when the ball arrives,” it was simply a direct nod to a phrase the book The Love You Make (by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines) often spelled in bold letters. That controversial book repeatedly noted that John Lennon was always on to the NEXT BIG THING.
Backed by the Kean Cipriano and Chynna Ortaleza-led OC Records, The Pub Forties single is released today which happens to be the birthday of our lead vocalist Aries Espinosa whose voice, in my ears, is the sound of a kind of freedom in this lockdown.
By fate I chose to record songs I wrote for loved ones I am gladly with since the world stood still in the face of a vicious virus.
Lastly, right before COVID-19 became full-blown scare, I was back at the studio with my niece Kira Irish, recording her composition “Invisible To You” with guitarist Kean Harvey Sidon.
Then I also got word that FILSCAP (Filipino composers’ group) transferred financial assistance to my account. It’s the association’s initiative to help boost the morale of its members in this difficult time.
