Thoughts And Notions In Awe of His Amazing Love (20th Anniversary Editon) Press Release

 

CDO’s inspirational power pop band Thoughts And Notions is set to release their new album, a 20^th Anniversary Edition of their debut album “In Awe of His Amazing Love.” Released way back in 2006, their debut album was what propelled them to the national consciousness and inadvertently kick started their music careers when they got signed by a record label. That album was initially produced and recorded as a fund raising project for their church with no intention of making a serious career out of their music. But fate would push them to pursue a career in music when a record label took interest of that album. This came as a surprise to the band as they had only amateurishly recorded that album. But 20 years later, they are still here continuing to record and produce new music anchored on their mission to “help uplift wounded souls” with their brand of music.

This 20^th Anniversary Edition of the album is not just a re-master, but instead the band decided to re-record and re-imagine all of the songs from that debut album to produce an all new sound. The band believes that their debut album needs to be improved and re-recorded, and give it the definitive versions of those songs as a gift to their longtime listeners who continues to support them to this day. Featuring 10 tracks from the debut album plus one bonus track, the album still banks on the familiar melodies from the original versions but updated the total production and arrangements of the song to come up with all new sound for this generation of listeners.

The album is bannered by previously released singles, notably the songs “Countdown to Forever” (Vocalist Thrina Dimaano’s comeback song), “A Love So Real” (which made it to Spotify’s Official New Music Friday playlist) and the song “Brand New Day” (which is on the playlist of JAM 88.3 Manila Radio). The album’s carrier single “My Love Song” is the highlight of the album as they traded the jangly guitars of the original version to a full on keyboard driven track.

“In Awe of His Amazing Love” 20^th Anniversary Edition will premiere on July 27, 2026 on all major digital music streaming platforms worldwide.        

Pre-save the album on this link:  bfan.link/in-awe-of-his-amazing-love-20th

 

The Untold Story Of Our Song Earthbound Angel

This is an exclusive story that was never before shared.

Our upcoming single “Earthbound Angel” was actually inspired by the movies City of Angels, and What Dreams May Come (apart from being rooted on the Christian values of what LOVE is supposed to be).

City of Angels is a story about an angel (Nicolas Cage) who falls in love with a mortal woman (Meg Ryan), and sacrifices his being an angel to become human to be with her. This transformation would allow him to experience humanity and feel what it is to love and to lose. LOVE is never a one way street as it not only brings all the good feelings associated with that emotion, but all the hurts and pains as well being on the other side of the coin.

What Dreams May Come on the other hand tells the tale of Chris (Robin Williams) who dies in an accident and left behind his wife Annie (Annabelle Sciorra) who eventually took her own life after losing her entire family in an accident. Chris would risk his status as an angel to travel to the depths of Hell to save his wife to the point that he is willing to exchange his place in Heaven for Hell just to save Annie from eternal damnation.

Both stories tackle about the idea of Love and Sacrifice by using Angels as lead characters to represent how one makes the ultimate sacrifice just to ensure that Love will eventually conquer all. 

Though both films had criticisms from Christian communities (which are valid due to lack of Biblical/theological premise and depicting Angels that leaned more on the secular context), we wanted to take note of the romantic elements of the film while also aligning it with our understanding of the Christian values of love.

While both movies romanticized the love and sacrifice done by the protagonists depicted as angels, we maintain that the ultimate sacrifice eventually belongs to Jesus Christ’s greatest act. The giving of his life and allowing himself to suffer and die for our sins.

Our song “Earthbound Angel” was mostly framed by secular listeners as a love song. About staying and never giving up on Love, giving oneself to the other as an ultimate expression of one’s love. But to our Christian friends, there was never any doubt that the song simply spoke about Jesus as we bear witness of his proclamation of his love for us, even at the expense of his life. 

When I wrote the lyrics of our song "Earthbound Angel", it came from a place of trying to sincerely express all this love that I know of that was bottled up inside me after a failed relationship. I questioned a lot of things and went back to the most basic ideas and characteristics of what love is supposed to be.

 
It was easier to be pessimistic about love. Not to take it seriously. But then I dug deep and believed in the basic Christian teachings of what love is supposed to be. Hence, I came up with the lyrics of "Earthbound Angel" that feels "cheesy" and "corny" to those who view love under a pessimistic lens. Well, until that frame of thought completely changes once you get to the roots of what love truly means.

Back then, the song resonated to a lot of high-school students when the song got played in the local radio stations. Resulting to a good amount of following from teeners who have yet to be betrayed by love and believed in love at its purest and innocent form. This was what got us noticed by our audience.

But the most surprising interpretation we got was when someone made mention of how the song spoke about Jesus' love for us. Originally, it was the farthest from my mind when I wrote the words, but upon re-reading what I just wrote, it slowly dawned upon me that she was right after all. Because while I wrote the song as inspired by the Christian teachings of what love is, it also spoke about someone who decided to stay here on earth (hence an earthbound angel) to live among us and teach us about how it is to truly live and love. 

The song from then on transformed from a typical love story to a testimony of Jesus' love for us. Looking at it from a skeptic's point of view, love will remain to be corny and cheesy. But if we truly understand the love that Jesus gave us and the sacrifice he made, then love is something that is truly powerful that goes beyond our human limitations and understanding of it. 

I guess, after 20 long years, with our re-imagining of "Earthbound Angel" in time for our 20th anniversary, our merry band Thoughts And Notions bannered by Thrina Dimaano Escaño's vocals and WiLe LiLe musical wizardry, we have truly transformed the song to its final version where we speak about Jesus' love for us. About understanding what it truly means to love. 

Love is not selfish, it is selfless. And until we understand about sacrifice and putting others above ourselves, we will never find the true meaning of what it feels to love. 
Jesus showed the way. Are we ready to follow and express the same kind of love?

 

If ever we feel tired and weary of the times that love failed us, Maybe it’s about time to revisit what true love really means. 

 

Maybe that idea was always there all along….
 

If we just continued to believe and keep the faith in Jesus…
 

We just hope the song would inspire you to give love a chance. It’s not always about the receiving, but giving one’s love to the other without expectations and demand for reciprocity is the true meaning of what LOVE TRULY stands for.

 

Hope you could pre-save the song and join us as we share our latest single “Earthbound Angel” (20th Anniversary Edition)
 

Pre-save link:

https://bfan.link/earthbound-angel 

 

Thank You and may we all find the true love we deserve.

 

Repentance 20th Anniversary Edition: A timely reminder of Jesus' Passion, Death, and Resurrection

 

 

Around four years ago, I wrote in length about the back story of the song "Repentance". You can check it out again on this link. This time around, what I would like to talk about is the process and the journey of how this new version came to be. If you have read our past blog entries, we have already revealed that we are revisiting our debut album and re-record the songs in time for a 20th anniversary release. 

Late last year, I traveled to Europe and passed by Switzerland. This was when I saw the breathtaking view of the Swiss Alps, and there was this cross on top of the mountain that caught my eye. This lone summit cross on the Tomlishorn, the highest peak of Mount Pilatus, a tourist attraction outside of Lucerne, Switzerland. And just below it, situated a small community chapel. When I saw this scenery, I knew I just had to take a photo of the scene and use it as a song artwork for "Repentance". This was what inspired me to release “Repentance” as a single. Personally, Repentance was one of the heaviest song on our debut album. The song was inspired by the movie "The Passion of the Christ" which for me is still the most jarring and visually stunning adaptation of Jesus Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection. I wrote it as if I time traveled to the actual event taking place and started a conversational prayer with Jesus as he was suffering in the events leading up to his death. This re-recording of the song, a 20th anniversary edition of the song is updated with added soundscapes that we hope could bring more connection and emotional impact as we are driven to repent from our sins and become better Christians. 

Being not the musically inclined one in the group (though I’ve always been a huge fan of music), I gave Wilbert some of my ideas. And he did an awesome update of the song. We retained the core DNA of the song, that brooding, atmospheric buildup and did some technical polishing on this version to make it more striking. We always felt that the original had this muddy low-end quality to the song which we decided to tighten in this new version. We also worked on the bass line to feel more like a physical pulse rather than just a background element. Giving it more character. I then asked Thrina to give the song a more emotional delivery that will bring weight to the message. And she gave it her best vocal recording that truly gave justice to the lyrics that I wrote. Thrina's vocal maturity now as compared to the old version when she was just in her early teens has given a new life to the song. Her matured vocals give the themes of reflection and repentance to carry a different weight now. To hear Thrina sing the song now feels less like a younger version of her angst and more like a seasoned vocalist's conviction. Her delivery of the vocal layers in the bridge is now more precised. You can clearly hear the subtle harmonies that were previously buried, now adding a more spiritual, choral quality to the "repentance" theme. 

Wilbert's musical arrangement also transitioned the song from the old melodic verses into a distorted, wall-of-sound finale that now feels more explosive. Expanding the dynamic range and making the quietest moments feel more intimate now and the loudest moments feel more massive. I have always been proud of the song and lyric's non-traditional structure. It deviates from the usual verse-chorus-verse-chorus arrangement. We also attacked the song through a slow-burn progression that many modern tracks lack. Though I had fears that this might bore listeners now knowing that in the age of Tiktok reels and short-form videos, most listeners no longer have the patience to listen to the whole song. Listeners nowadays skip to the catchy melodies that instantly gratifies their aural nerves. But we stuck with what we feel could deliver the message. We didn't want to rush to the chorus; we want the chorus to be earned by the listeners as they go over the lines of the first two verses. By listening to the whole song, we hope that the song would help remind us of the day that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins. Each words of the song is a written recollection of that day. And when you finish listening to the song, we want the listeners to be left with this particular question:

Are we ready to do REPENTANCE and honor Jesus’ death and resurrection?

Hope you could listen to the song and make it a part of your Holy Week playlist. Just to help remind you that you are valuable and loved. Because someone died for you on the cross.

Listen to the song here.

 

To whom shall we draw our strength from? The story behind our song "Strength I Need"

 

 

This January 16, 2025, we are set to release a new song. A 20th Anniversary re-recording of our song called "Strength I Need". Strength I Need is one of the hidden gems from our debut album that features an upbeat melody with some funky guitars thrown in. It wasn't given much attention because back then, single releases were only limited to a couple of songs that you send to mainstream radio to help promote an album. And we settled for the songs "My Love Song" (carrier single), Earthbound Angel (a fan favorite), and A Brand New Day (which gained radio charts placement in our hometown Cagayan De Oro City). But with the advent of Digital Music Streaming, now we don't have to be limited to mainstream radio submissions for the song to be heard by a larger audience. So this accords us a much easier opportunity to give each songs a space to shine. And we believe Strength I Need is one of those songs that deserves the spotlight. 

The song is one of two songs in the album that I wrote that came from one of my personal conversations with Jesus Christ wherein I visualized myself traveling to the past during the passion and death of Jesus Christ (Repentance was the other one). When I wrote the lyrics of this song, I was kind of talking to Jesus during the time of his flagellation when he was condemned to die on the cross. Back then, I visualized my self to being present in the moment that led to his eventual crucifixion and death. I needed to understand the gravity of his sacrifice so that I would have a deeper understanding of how much he loves us. Of course, there are moments in the testimonies in the Bible when Jesus himself questioned God, the Father, why he had forsaken him. And this conversation was my attempt to tell him that there was a bigger meaning for his sufferings. And that God has a greater plan for him. Hence, if you would read the lines of the song, you'd see that I was trying to give Jesus (not that he needs it) encouragement to go on. 

But while the words I wrote here are clearly conversation that I had with Jesus, I also would like to emphasize that the message of the song also relates to our friends and the people at large who are carrying their own crosses. Because while some of us might be struggling in the lowest point of our lives, our personal stories and resilience can also be a source of strength to another. And just as when God redeemed Jesus in the end, when we put our complete trust and faith in Jesus, he will also carry us and redeem us through his love and the life that he gave up to save all of us. And this should be what keeps us going. That we should be able to remind ourselves that all these trials and sufferings that we are facing in our daily life is something that Jesus also once faced (albeit in much harsher conditions). And he had redeemed us all by dying on the cross. We could choose to carry our own personal crosses no matter how heavy it is, and triumph over it and make it as our testimony of God's love for us. Which can also become a source of strength and inspiration for another. But one will always wonder how? How can we redeem ourselves from the sufferings that we face?

And that's where this line comes in:

I didn't write these lines. These were late additions done by Wilbert as he was composing the music of the song. This is one of those perfect examples wherein during my shortages of words, Wilbert can be that complimentary voice who knows how and when to complement my deficiencies in songwriting. And I believe these lines was what eventually proved to be the heart and soul of the song. While it will always be human nature to rely on our own strength and capacities. And during moments when we are having our own tough times, we'd easily yield and surrender. We should only look up to Jesus and how he lived his life. To find strength and inspiration from it. And have a firm foundation of our Faith in Jesus. To truly believe that only Jesus can redeem us. And all it takes is to come and accept him as the only master of our life, then we can easily deal with our problems in stride. And utilize our personal testimonies of our encounters with God's love to help inspire our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. That the only truth that is worth believing in is that God loves us and that he has already foretold his promise of redemption.  

I think that's the only goal why I decided to share this personal conversation that I had with Jesus and turn it into song form with Thoughts And Notions. Now 20 years later, we're giving it a new life by re-recording it and making the song more beautiful than the original version (though I have some personal favorites from that old version). I truly believe that this new version will bring out the best of the message that we wanted to share. So we hope you could pre-save the song and give the song a listen. And join us as we declare that only in God shall we draw our strength from. And this is one story that is worth sharing to everyone that feels all hope is lost.

Pre-save the song here: https://bfan.link/strength-i-need   

       

Looking back on the year that was...

This year, one of the things that we sought out to do was to build our Youtube Channel by releasing lyric videos that you could sing along to. We have always been about the heart of the message and we feel that being actually able to read the words itself will help impact the message that we wanted to share thru our songs. So we asked for Mary Ozaraga's (a very talented Christian Artist herself) help in creating beautifully produced music videos that suit the song's mood. With her help, we were able to release three lyric videos, namely, Savior, A Love So Real, and Brand New Day. Countdown to Forever was self-made. And I kinda accepted that my video editing skills are limited and it would be better to commission someone to produce one for us. And you could plainly see the improvements done when we asked Mary to help us produce our lyric videos. So we're hoping that we could build on what we started this year on our YouTube channel as we look forward to 2026. Hopefully we can upload all of the lyric videos from our full song catalogue so that you guys can sing along to our songs.  

To recap, early this year we officially released the comeback single with our long-time vocalist Thrina Dimaano Escaño. “Countdown to Forever” was the song that marked our longtime vocalist and co-founder of the band Thrina Dimaano’s formal return to the band. While the song is devoid of the energetic sound that was a staple of our old songs from when we were younger, it nevertheless showed a glimpse of the maturity of the band’s new musical direction. Calmer, introspective, and perhaps wiser? The song would be the first song that Wilbert Raagas Tan and I have written in years with Thrina in mind to deliver the vocals. I wrote the lyrics of the song just when I was in a personal crossroads if continuing to write and produce music was still something that I wanted to do. And I wouldn't have made the decision to continue it without the co-founders of Thoughts And Notions making a joint decision to re-join me in this pursuit. Personally, there's no other way to continue Thoughts And Notions if it wouldn't be with Wilbert and Thrina. “Countdown to Forever” is a sort of declaration from the band that we are back for good and here to stay for the long haul. The song is a back to our roots approach, drawing influences from the era when we started the band while also updating our sound with a modern twist. We also took a conscious effort to double down on our positive themed Christian Faith based lyrics that aims to uplift wounded souls with our brand of music. And the song expresses that firm resolve to commit our life to God in spite of the turbulent waves coming our way. We believe that the song is the perfect comeback vehicle for us as we are reinvigorated to restart the mission that we've started 20 years ago. 

But instead of releasing new songs, we decided to revisit our debut album from 2006 called "In Awe of His Amazing Love". Since it's going to be the 20th anniversary of the album next year, we decided to re-record the album and give it an updated version. And the first song that we decided to re-record was the song "Savior". “Savior” was one of the first songs that we’ve ever written when we started this Thoughts And Notions project. At that time, there were no expectations or any plans except to just write this song as our way for praising and worshiping God. 20 years later, we decided to update the song by improving the sound elements and added new textures to the song.  We released the updated version of the song during the Holy Week this year while hoping that the song will live on for a new generation of listeners to discover… and hopefully to find God during their times of trouble and uncertainties. The original version had a more edgier sound to it. Giving it a more "rock" music feel with the heavy electric guitars. The new one however featured a lot more layered keyboards. Giving the praise and worship song more at home for Praise and Worship use in churches. We took inspiration for this direction from the time when the original version was used in different churches for their Praise and Worship activities. So we're hoping that this new version would be even more conducive for Praise and Worship use.  

 

The next song we released was “A Love So Real”. This was the song that surprisingly made it to Spotify’s New Music Friday Philippines Playlist. And we are thankful for the opportunity that this playlist placement gave it a wider audience reach. “A Love So Real” is a song that we hope pierces through the heart of our listeners as we speak about the truth that we have always been loved. That our failures, inadequacies, dark days, could not match the love that was promised to us by our savior Jesus Christ. That is the gist of the song, and we hope that the song would heal wounds being experienced by the loveless and the hopeless. The song is the third song that got featured on Spotify’s Official New Music Friday playlist (Beloved Savior and What Real Christmas Means to Me were the previous ones). With another song called “FREE” being featured on Spotify’s Fresh Finds Philippines Playlist. This 20th anniversary re-recording of the song features improved production and musicality that doubles down on our 90’s pop/rock roots. Drawing influences from popular female pop/rock acts of the late 90’s to early 2000’s, the song is like a time machine ride for our listeners who had grown up to the music of their youth as they head on to their mid-life adventures. I think this song would basically represent the sound that Wilbert is going to produce for the other songs in this album. Because while the songs in this album's basic melodies were from 2006, there's a conscious effort to modernize the re-recordings. Perhaps make it sound nostalgic while also introducing some of the best music influences that we had from that era to the current audience.

 

And that's where "Brand New Day" comes in. This was the last song that we released this year. We were supposed to release the song this December as a bridge to the New Year, which we feel the song is a perfect theme. But we encountered some delays in the recordings of our other songs due to the earthquake and typhoons that ravaged Cebu. Thrina, who is now based in Cebu, had to delay the recordings as she focused on her family after all the calamities subsided. And since "Brand New Day" was already finished, we decided to just release it last September. This was also during the time when our country was facing with the flood control corruption scandal. So the devastating events of the typhoon and the calamities coupled with the corruption of the ghost projects and substandard flood control structures felt so deflating. So we thought that maybe it was the right time to release the song. At least to help remind our fellow Filipinos that there will always be hope that a Brand New Day brings. I also guested on Jam 88.3's MONDO Manila program to reintroduce the band to the radio listening public. It was a decision I made as I feel it was the right time to talk about our music to Manila's radio listeners. And we submitted Brand New Day for their radio's regular playlist consideration. And months after the song premiered on Jam 88.3, and after being on their radio's regular playlist rotation, we've been getting quite a considerable number of SHAZAM's for this song. So I guess we've made a successful attempt at making this song relevant and interesting to the current generation.   
 

So what's in store for 2026? We're diligently finishing the recordings for the 20th Anniversary Edition of our debut album "In Awe of His Amazing Love". We're dropping a new single this January and followed up by another one on February. So you'll have to look out which song these are. We just can’t wait to finish the entire album and share it with you guys. So from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for joining us in our journey this year. You guys continue to inspire us to write and produce more songs in line with our mission to “help uplift wounded souls” with our brand of music! We wouldn’t be here without your valuable support! Do revisit our full song catalogue on these links:

 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6i9X1vKsBAUjGqFPmRWXgy?si=cc8mUmiGSYC2NOx-9uZ0pg

 

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@thoughtsandnotions?si=F5XVR1MlY1AgN2Cm

 

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/thoughts-and-notions/1590631542

 

 

To God be the Greater Glory!