The album is almost done. After almost 2 years of writing and creating what would be our follow up album, we are finally close to approaching the finishing line. At this point, we are all excited to release this album. We feel that after four years of gigging and struggling to make our songs be heard, these experiences have somehow helped us grow. The first album showed us the potential of what we could reach, of the opportunity to share God’s love and our experiences in our Christian faith through music. The content of this follow up album would showcase our strengthened faith to survive the challenges of life. How we used the learning that we got from the first album and implementing it in our daily lives. We are also taking our Christian Contemporary Power Pop music, to a more diverse Inspirational Rock tag. This new album would also be our debut of some sorts as a band. We recorded the first album with only the three of us, namely Thrina, Wilbert, and me, with the bulk of the songwriting coming from Wilbert and me. This one will involve the band members that have been playing with us in our live gigs since the release of our first album. It has been a learning process. While Thoughts And Notions takes pride in writing songs that aims to uplift wounded souls, the influx of newer and much younger songwriters has given us a new flexibility without necessary sacrificing the quality of our songs. I personally take pride in what Adonis Berongoy, Erikson Gloria, and the recently recruited bassist Doris Bangot was able to write. This brought diversity to our songwriting process (and naturally, relieving me the pressure to write songs after songs hehe). We are hoping to be able to release this one within the year. But I guess we wouldn’t be able to accomplish that. A safe guess would be first quarter next year. We are also doing the indie route (since our previous album was a one shot deal), until such time we could find a record label that would be willing to help us get our music across the archipelago. This is what we initially did in our debut album. Since then, Praise Music picked up the option to distribute that particular album nationwide. We are forever grateful to Praise Music for opening the doors for us. And since the door has finally been opened, we hope that we could step outside and proudly share this new creation. 4 years separated since the debut album, we hope that we can make those who believed in us proud. Thank you for all those who have supported us through all these years. God Bless!
All excited to release our sophomore album. we are holed up in our recording room (and my personal creative space) for a marathon recording. More photos to be uploaded soon. (photos courtesy of Doris and Thrina)
(A Photo of Rico and Me, circa 2004, discussing some music stuffs)
I just missed my band’s biggest gig. Last October 4, 2008, my band, Thoughts And Notions, fronted for Rico Blanco during ABS-CBN’s Kapamilya Caravan event here in Cagayan de Oro. I always have looked up to Rico as a songwriter. In fact I credit him as the one who is responsible why I’m into this band stuff and songwriting. Not only that, I also credit him for introducing me to OPM. Many years back, I was indifferent to OPM and had a preference for internationally flavored artists. Not even the much-vaunted The Eraserheads could convince me to listen to OPM. I stayed that way until I came across Rivermaya’s 214. The first time I heard that song, I thought that it was written and performed by foreign artists. It was one sunny summer afternoon when I was in my cousin’s car that I came to discover that Rivermaya was actually an OPM band. I was listening intently to the songs blaring in his car’s speakers when the sound of the opening keyboard solo of 214 began playing. I was shocked and immediately exclaimed to him that I always thought that a foreign artist made the song. From that self-titled debut album, OPM hits after hits came piling up in the form of Ulan, Awit ng Kabataan, and many more. From that day forward, I became a serious fan of Rivermaya’s music, specifically Rico Blanco’s penned songs. I continued to follow Rico’s career exploits with the band that not even the departure of Bamboo Manalac (the original vocalist of Rivermaya) could deter me from ditching the band. After all I wasn’t into Rivermaya because of Bamboo’s smooth soothing vocals, but more so, I was into Rico’s songwriting. As a matter of fact, I began to appreciate the post-Bamboo Rivermaya more. It was to me an age of the band’s evolution as Rico Blanco took over the frontman duties. In fact, his songs for that particular rebirth were even better. Shattered Like, Faithless, Umaaraw Umuulan, Liwanag sa Dilim, You’ll Be Safe Here, and the anthemic Bandila were songs that not only touches your heart, but inspires you in one way or another to bring out the good in you and not be hindered by life’s challenges. It showed that music could actually be used as a tool to reach out to an audience and share a message that could inspire them and bring out the good in them. That’s why I decided to start writing songs and eventually formed my own band. A Christian/Inspirational Rock band I call Thoughts And Notions.
(The concert me and my friends produced for Rivermaya back to back with Paolo Santos)
I personally met Rico last 2004 when some friends of mine and I organized a concert for Rivermaya here in Cagayan de Oro. A brief chat with Rico would eventually help me make my plans with regard to my music come to fruition. It was at that time that I was beginning to seriously write songs for an album with the intention of using it as a fund-raising project for our Church’s youth group. That conversation would clinch my music career, and thus I decided to form a band by bringing along Thrina Dimaano as lead vocals, and Wilbert Tan as my guitarist/songwriting partner. Praise Music would eventually pick up that particular album, called In Awe of His Amazing Love, for national distribution. From that moment on, it was a dream of mine that someday maybe our band could share the stage with Rivermaya. I believed it would really be an honor to share the stage with them and be a supporting act. Ironically, the band’s baptism of fire in the live gigging circuit would come in the form of a supporting act performance for Bamboo’s (the band) concert here in Cagayan de Oro, a gig that we messed up big time as we were overwhelmed by the enormity of the crowd and the presence of Bamboo. It was our brush with almost making that dream of fronting for Rivermaya a reality because Bamboo and Nathan Azarcon used to be a part of Rivermaya. We would then continue doing live gigs and had the honor to share the stage with among the big names of OPM such as Popstars Mark Bautista (also a Kagayanon himself), Christian Bautista, Cebu based rockers Budoy and Jr. Kilat, Sheila and the Insects, local Christian acts Bo Sanchez and Alvin Barcelona of the Kerygma Preachers, as well as Australia based world renowned Praise and Worship band, Hillsong. But despite all of that, I was still looking forward for that dream gig with Rivermaya. Then news of Rico’s departure from the band would shock me, and the rumors soon after about Rico quitting music for good would push us on the brink of not being able to make that dream a reality.
Here's our performance of our original songs in another concert
Then Rico would make a grand comeback via the song Yugto. Our hopes would come alive again. It was that one fateful night that our band has finally made that dream a reality, with Rico’s help of course. When I heard about his mini-concert here in CDO, I immediately wasted no time in contacting him and asked him if we could do the honors to play as support act in his mini-concert. Rico gave us a go and asked Warner Music (his management team) to try to arrange something with the organizers. Saturday came, and Frey of Warner confirmed the gig through a call on my phone. I picked up the call with a sense of excitement and sorry that I couldn’t watch the gig and join the band. But it was ok. After all, the most important thing was that, the band was finally able to make that dream a reality. The show would be on live broadcast all over the city at ABS-CBN’s M.O.R Radio station. We opened our set with a cover of Moonstar 88’s Migraine, followed by My Love Song, and Brand New Day (two songs from our debut album), we closed our set with a song called Runaway Angel, which is a song that is part of our upcoming sophomore album. It was a solid performance. After all we’ve been preparing for this day to come since time immemorial. As the band would made their way out of the stage, they were in the shock of their lives, as the program hosts would share to the audience that it was Rico himself who requested for the band to play in that event. It was indeed a really great honor to share the stage with Rico Blanco.
We profusely thank him and Frey for finding a way to accommodate us. Rico opened his set with Umaaraw, Umuulan, Ayuz, Bring Me Down, Your Universe, Panahon Na Naman, Bye Bye Na, Himala, and the sonically aural eardrums shattering song Yugto. I wasn’t able to catch the gig, but I could hear stories from the people who were there how Rico regaled them with his musical wizardry and his boundless energy on stage. I could only wink and smile. I hope that this won’t be the last, and that we could once again share the same stage with Rico, and this time, I wouldn’t be missing it. And before I end this blog entry, I recently found out that as an added bonus, Ricci Gurango actually played bass on that night for Rico. For those of you who don’t know who he is, he is the one who is responsible for giving us two female fronted bands, Hungry Young Poets (Barbie Almalbis’ first band before she left and formed her own band called Barbie’s Cradle which was of course before she went solo) and Mojofly (Kitchie Nadal’s first band before she went solo, which later on was replaced by Lougee Basabas as the band’s lead vocalist). In effect helping kick start the careers of Barbie, Kitchie, and Lougee. So if you are wondering why I chose to pick a female vocalist for our band, then wonder no more. Ricci is the one to blame for that. I hold such high respect for him and all his contribution to OPM. I am still holding on to the other half of that dream, being a front/support act for any Rivermaya future concert here in CDO or anywhere.
Here's a cover of Rico Blanco's Your Universe as our tribute to him :)
It was an honor to share the stage with the one that influenced me most to start writing songs and start a band, Rico Blanco. This was a gig of a lifetime.
