| Start: | Aug 4, '07 5:00p |
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Thoughts And Notions live interview at ABS-CBN's M.O.R
Thursday, July 12, 2007
In Awe of His Amazing Love
| Rating: | ★★★★ |
| Category: | Music |
| Genre: | Rock |
| Artist: | Thoughts And Notions |
Matt Slocum, Leigh Nash, Dan Haseltine. What is their parallelism to Jasper Lloyd Tan, Wilbert Tan, Thrina Dimaano, and Adonis Berongoy? It is funny that these past few months, I have come to observe how the story of Thoughts And Notions, a band from the Philippines, would closely resembled with that of Sixpence none the richer and Jars of Clay (apart from their long sounding, not to mention wordy band names). The founding members Jasper and Wilbert never denied that they have been greatly inspired and influenced by both of the aforementioned bands. But it came as a very surprising revelation when I found out how their story closely resembles both bands, especially Sixpence. As everyone knows by now, Sixpence started as a simple project by songwriter/guitarist Matt Slocum who brought along Leigh Nash as his vocalist. Thoughts And Notions started as a simple project by Lyricist Jasper Lloyd Tan and guitarist Wilbert Tan who brought along Thrina Dimaano as their vocalist. In the same way that Leigh Nash totally owned and breathed life into Slocum’s songs, Thrina also totally owned and breathed life into Jasper’s and Wilbert’s songs. While Leigh’s vocal quality has this ethereal and angelic voice, Thrina has a mishmash of a childlike and spunky sound. Despite both of the band’s debut album were little distributed, they managed to enjoy critical acclaims from their peers and newfound listeners to their music. Sixpence would then go on to enthrall and capture the world with their songs of hope, faith, and an untiring devotion to their mission. While Thoughts And Notions, despite being new, is slowly gaining ground for them self. Sixpence’s debut album also once spent for a year in the shelves before their single “Kiss Me” skyrocketed them in the world’s music map. Thoughts And Notions is waiting for the same break. Both of the bands share the same mission and purpose why their band came to be. Jasper was even vocal in sharing that he always gets goose bumps every time he gets to read Sixpence’s story in their Best of album. Their musical styles are closely the same. The only difference is that Thoughts And Notions’ songs sounds like a mix of Sixpence and Jars of Clay. So this is where their parallelism with Jars comes in.
Jars of Clay is also one of both Jasper’s and Wilbert’s influences. But because none of them actually believed they had a good voice, they decided to just let Thrina sing all of their songs. After releasing their album as an indie effort through their church, friends, and workmates. The band decided to send a demo copy to Praise Music, considered as the Philippines largest Christian music store in the country. The band managed to snag a distribution deal with Praise Music, which gave them an opportunity to share their music to a larger audience. With that in place, Jasper and Thrina decided to formally form their band after Wilbert got busy with his other band. This is where Adonis and the rest of his band mates namely, Tim Marquez, Alvin Carreon, and Ericson Gloria would come in. They automatically became a perfect fit for Thoughts And Notions after they auditioned for the band. Jasper was so impressed with Adonis' vocal likeness to Dan Haseltines voice after hearing him sing a cover of Jars of Clay’s I Need You. The parallelism does not end here. While their debut album Thoughts And Notions: In awe of his amazing love only featured Thrina doing the vocal chores, their future second album will finally feature both Thrina and Adonis doing the vocal chores, As seen in their live gigs. A mix of Sixpence and Jars as what a lot has noticed. Now of all the songs that are contained in their debut album, there are two songs that are heavily inspired by Jars of Clay. Jars of Clay’s Love Song for a Savior inspired Jasper to write Savior, and My Love Song. (If you try to read the titles of these songs, you could notice a resemblance of some sort.) Jasper reveals that Savior was not really inspired by Love song for a Savior, but he readily admits that My Love Song was inspired by the aforementioned Jars‘ song’s message. While Love song for a Savior expresses the want to fall in love with the savior, My Love Song already talks about falling in love with the Savior. By the way both doesn’t sound alike. Love Song for a savior has this acoustic feel, while My Love Song has this bouncy and catchy sound. Both of these tracks are way different, it’s only the message that’s kind of the same.
The rest of Thoughts And Notions songs are a mix of brilliant tracks that are unique in it’s own way. Not sounding one bit the same with any of Sixpence’s nor Jars’ music, but the traces of brilliance is there. From infectious Pop-Rock melodies (My Love Song, Earthbound Angel, A Love So Real, Strength I Need, Defender), to stripped down acoustic feel (Healer, My Journey Ends), or even to anthemic alternative rock sounding vibes (Savior, Repentance, Brand New Day). It can evidently be assessed that Thoughts And Notions’ music is one big explosion waiting to happen. With that, all of the parallelisms are there. Good sounding positive music, Faith driven messages, and a mission faithful to its very core. One should catch Thoughts And Notions before the rest of the world catches on them first. I recommend you to buy a copy now and savor their music.
Thoughts And Notions: In Awe of his amazing Love is now available at all House of Praise outlets and selected record bars nationwide.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
purevolume™ | Thoughts And Notions
http://www.purevolume.com/thoughtsandnotions
Click this site to hear song samples
Click this site to hear song samples
Why are we in a Band?
A lot of you might wonder why we started our band. Why we came up with a band. And why it has to be a Christian Pop/Rock band when it would put us in danger of being put in a box, and stereotyped and kept away from mainstream music. Well we don't care. As much as we would want to make it into mainstream music, the mission of the band has always been about bringing positive music to the aural nerves of the people listening to music. It cannot be denied that sad emo songs sell. Because majority of the people in this world are lonely, and they could relate more with sad emo songs. I started writing our songs as such. Sad emo songs. Because I think i could write better when i'm emo. But then I began to ask myself "Why write emo"? Why fuel the sadness of these lonely individuals? Why not instead bring something positive? So from deepest reaches of my soul, I captured my emo feelings and began to analyze it and searched for answers. There was one answer. God's Love. What must we do to find that comfort solace of God's Love? I asked myself. And through prayers, i found them.
Thoughts And Notions came to be out from that experience. Out from that deep conversation with God. Since my artistic talent is only limited to lyric writing (I don't have a good voice, and i don't know how to play any musical instruments), I decided to round up a couple of my Music Ministry team in our church to join me in starting a project, a simple 10-track album with the intention of sharing portions of our profits to our church's youth group. I brought along Wilbert Tan (now with Drizzle) and Thrina Dimaano. Wilbert would be our all around musician as well as our sound engineer and Thrina was to become our vocalist. After a year of recording, we came out with an album that composed of our most sincerest musical work. My lyrics came into life with the help of Wilbert's uplifting sound and Thrina's raw but sincere vocal work. We self-produced 250 copies of that album independently sourcing funds form our own pockets and began selling the album with the help of our peers, church mates, and others. We managed to get positive reviews from our listeners, which eventually inspired us and emboldened us to send a copy to Praise Music, the country's largest Christian Music Store. Not a few weeks after, they signed us to a distribution contract. And as they all say, the rest is history.
Since Praise would be distributing our album nationwide, we were tasked to support it by bringing our songs to the live audience. But long before we could make strides in bringing our music to the live audience, we had to complete our line up first. And we had our first casualty when Wilbert decided to transfer to Manila to join his main band Drizzle. So it was just the Lyricist, the Vocalist, and the Distribution Contract who were left to soldier on. We had to quickly hold auditions and found a good team with the arrival of Tim Marquez (Lead guitars), Alvin Carreon (Bass), John Fernandez (Rhythm), and Nelson Dychauco (Drums). We had a good few months of gigging until some changes happened. Nelson had to leave the band because of health issues. John on the other hand had some problems to resolve. Another line up change was in the offing. But this time, it was more of a blessing than a curse. Adonis Berongoy (Drums), and Ericson Gloria (Rhythm guitars) came into the fold and become the two new key additions to the band. Since then, our music has never been tighter. We have spent a good amount of time gigging for a year and a half here in Cagayan de Oro city. And just last summer, we were given the opportunity to bring out our music to a live audience in Metro Manila with the help of Contact TV. A church community based in U.S.A who came here in the Philippines for a four night Concert and Healing crusade. It was the band's first ever out of town gig. And through there, we saw the opportunity of how our songs could touch other people lives. Not just in our city, but to other places as well.
This all did not come easy. Countless of times we were close to giving up because of the pressures that come playing in a band. including the financial aspect that is badly needed to keep this thing going. But God's grace has lifted us. If there was to be a band manager who's capable of bringing our band to the next level, it's not me, it has to be God. Right now, we are in the process of starting to write new songs for a new album. And we hope to get it out the soonest time possible. Thoughts And Notions is not a band that is relying on the individual personalities to bring our songs to the next level. It is a collective unit. A collective team. We have all come to understand that the songs must come first. We want the people to love the songs more than the individual personalities that created them. This after all is not a mad rush for stardom. But this is an ongoing mission to share our songs to touch the lives of those who wants to be touched. And we are doing this without borders (thanks to the internet technology). The personalities involved in Thoughts And Notions might come and go. But there is one thing that will never go away. And that is the idea why the band came to be, and what the purpose of its existence is. I wrote this blog as an open letter to everyone who would come accross our band. There is such a thing as Positive music. Let's put an end to all those sadness, and let God's Amazing love touch us.
Jasper Lloyd Tan
Founder/Lyricist
Thoughts And Notions
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Band Pix
Anniversary concert at lim ket kai mall January '08. Wilbert Tan returns to join us on stage!
Samsung Launching
| Start: | Jul 27, '07 4:00p |
| Location: | Divisoria Park |
3rd Skateboarding challenge at SM CDO
| Start: | Jul 22, '07 4:00p |
| Location: | SM CDO Parking Lot |
Blog Announcement
www.thoughtsandnotions.blogs.friendster.com
Thanks and God Bless!
Jasper Lloyd Tan
Band Manager/Lyricist
Thoughts And Notions
Announcement
Hi! Hop on to our Purevolume sites for event/gig dates and song samples at www.purevolume.com/thoughtsandnotions
Add us up in our Friendster account at
And for up to date news and stories about us, hop on to our blogsite at
www.thoughtsandnotions.blogs.friendster.com
Thanks! and God Bless!
Gig Pix
Thoughts And Notions Live at Xavier University Gym with Bamboo for XU Schoolfest Event. Our First live gig performance that was a disastrous appearance :)
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