Ten years of SUD music

One night in September, SUD — composed Sud Ballecer (guitars, vocals), Jimbo Cuenco (drums), Michael Kohl Aguilar (keys), Carlos dela Fuente (sax), Raisa Racelis (bass, vocals) — made sure that using their mobile phone, they would capture their electronic billboard on Edsa while traversing the busy thoroughfare.

Their billboard was shown on Spotify’s Tatak Pinoy playlist that featured other local groups and musicians. For them, it wasn’t just a simple milestone, it was proof that they “have arrived.”

In an exclusive interview with Manila Standard Entertainment, the group members shared how ecstatic they were seeing their faces on a massive tarp alongside other gigantic billboards that welcome commuters passing through Edsa coming from Makati.

“That’s our first billboard in 10 years as a band. It’s a proud moment for us. The billboard was on Edsa-Guadalupe, so a lot of people could see it. And even if we were shown just for a brief moment, you could see how supportive Warner and Spotify are of our music,” the indie band’s frontmant Ballecer said.

“Appearing on a billboard is a bonus for us. It’s like everything that has happened from the time we started as a band up until now, all those things have been worth it. It’s also a validation that if you put your heart and mind into something, you’ll be acknowledged for it and you’ll come to a certain level of success,” Fuente added.

Their appearance on the billboard coincided with their 10th anniversary celebration marked by the release of their second full-length studio album under Warner Music Philippines titled Dumaloy, dropped in August.

“When I wrote the song, I was thinking of the things that people feel when they are in love like the heart skips a beat, there’s a butterfly in the stomach. We finished the song thinking that we wanted it to be a sincere outpour of emotions containing the words that you really want to tell someone you’re in love with,” Ballecer related.

The album is a 12 track, all-Filipino record, which the band describes as a summary of their personal and collective experiences as a band.

On the band’s Facebook page, the group shared that the studio album is a project that took them “five long years to create but only a minute for us to fall in love with.”

‘‘It’s all about stages and phases of love if you’re going to listen to songs chronologically starting off with young love, then it’ll shift to the point where there’s heartbreak thus the sad songs, and the third stage, it’s about finding true love. Dumadaloy yung story, there’s continuity,” Ballecer said of the album’s general theme.

In retrospect, the band members believe that the stumbling blocks that they had to hurdle made them the kind of music group that they are today. Even their music evolved and became their signature sound because of the varied influences each member has. 

"We're like a melting pot of musical taste and influences and that's how we're able to create our sound," said Ballecer, "And with that we wanted people to remember us as a band that created sincere music. We can't tell how long the band will stay but we do hope that our music is enough for the listers to remember us."