Acoustic Live at Lim Ket Kai Mall and my New Year musings

PRESS RELEASE

After having their recently successful album tour last month at Lim Ket Kai Mall, Thoughts And Notions returns once again to Lim Ket Kai Mall this saturday, july 8, 4pm at the Mall's rotunda. While they rocked the crowd last month, this time they'll be performing with an acoustic set showing their slow and intimate side. Witness their acoustic renditions of My Love Song, Earthbound Angel, and other songs from their debut album Thoughts And Notions: In Awe of His Amazing Love, as well as various well loved covers of the decade. This Kagayanon band is slowly contributing their part in making CDO local bands be heard in the country and for the promotion of the local music scene. After all, CDO is not scarce on musical talents. As what Thoughts And Notions and other CDO bands have proven. Their album is now available nationwide under Praise Music with House of Praise branches here at Lim Ket Kai Mall, Gaisano Mall,  SM CDO, and at Musicvision and Maan Video and Sounds. You can request their song Earthbound Angel thru Sandy101.5, 89.3 Killerbee, 96.9 Love Radio, 94.3 Wild FM, and 103.3 the New J. Or Visit their site at www.purevolume.com/thoughtsandnotions to hear their songs and for contacts and bookings.

EVENT PHOTOS

The band rarely plays in acoustic sets back then. Because the main focus was to perform the songs live exactly as how it sounds like in the album. Now, 15 years later, it would seem that as we got older, the musical tastes of our peers also had gotten old with us. In the past two months, I've been aggressively promoting the old album in my social media accounts. Reaching out to old and new friends, sharing this 2006 recording. The most common reactions I get is that they are surprised that the music sounds loud and upbeat. Contrary to what they were expecting that as a Christian Band, our songs would be more mellow and solemn. Instead of lulling them to sleep, it raises their spirits to rock out with the songs. Older people also tend to prefer to listen to more mellow songs. Another common reactions we get is that our vocalist, Thrina, sounds so young and that her voice has not matured to adulthood yet. I think most of the listeners overlook the fact that Thrina was only 15 years old when we did this recording. Far from being a woman. Just on the cusp of adolescence. I think I just wasn't able to highlight to the listeners the fact that this was already a very old recording. So my fault there. But I remember back then, these were not an issue as the band played live on stage in various gigs and concerts. The band basically played to the college crowd. Our audience was younger. So yeah, the band blended in with them just fine. And a 15 year old Thrina as a recording artist with an album released nationwide under her belt was a prestige not every 15 year old could easily have. But times have changed. And we've decided to change with it. 

John on Vocals with Thrina

The band was never really a part of the recordings. As the story was told in the previous entries. So I thought maybe now that we are planning to re-record the songs, I could regroup the band and do a new recording of the first album. Maybe it is time to update the 2006 album, in such a way that our grown up listeners would be able to appreciate the songs now as some of them have before. And I thought, we'll do an acoustic recording instead. Repurpose some lyrics to make the songs more worshipful and less vague as the original recording was. Make it more solemn. Give Thrina a chance to update the songs with her more mature voice. And most importantly, give John Fernandez an opportunity to showcase his talent in arranging the songs that suits the current times. The plan is to get the band involved in the new recordings. But geographical issues will be a huge challenge. So I don't know who's in yet. But I installed John as the project manager for the new recordings. In fact, he was already able to finish one song, A Brand New Day, which was supposed to be released this New Year. But time constraints prevented us to finish the song on time. An initial edit was already done, but John is still perfecting it. So the release of the song and the acoustic album would be pushed back to maybe second quarter of next year. I'm actually excited for it. Not only will Thrina and John be involved, we also got Doris Bangot (our second bassist after Alvin Carreon) to record as a guest vocalist in one of the songs. So that's probably something to look forward to. And I'm glad to share this to you, our loyal readers. But for the meantime, while waiting for the new recordings to be released, let me share to you again the first album that started everything for us. The journey of a 15 year old kid (Thrina). Two long time friends and music fans (Wilbert and Me) who are opposite in some way but bonded on the common love for Music and the desire to serve God. And the unity of the three of us that started this little band from Cagayan de Oro called Thoughts And Notions. Check out our debut album in the Spotify Player below (you'll have to go to the Spotify App on Desktop or download the IOS or Android app to access the full album.)   

 

Oh for other contents, we recently just had our YouTube page updated as an Official Artist Channel. So we are planning to put additional exclusive contents there in the days to come. You can check out our past live performances, photo collage music videos, exclusive interviews, cover songs, and other things that we were able to preserve in our 2006-2009 Musical Journey. Our digital journey has just began. We got more songs on the pipeline. 30 more songs we hope to release next year. We're hoping you'll stay and join us for the ride. Just like the years that went by when you were one of those who inspired us to soldier on and just sing our songs as we aim to share God's Amazing Love thru music. So click on the link below and subscribe to our Official Artist Channel. Thank You and more stories to come! Promise!

https://www.youtube.com/totsandnotions

 

Tabularaza Music Video launch guesting

Just a few hours after the band's Album Tour at Lim Ket Kai Mall, the band was off to perform as guests in a private Music Video Launching of Tabularaza's carrier single of their 2006 sophomore album Shewowah. The band played with a laid back set, opting for a semi-acoustic set just to change things up.  The band's cover version (with John on Vocals) of Madonna's song Crazy for you drew loud cheers from the audience. Of course, original songs by the band like Earthbound Angel, My Love Song, and My Journey Ends were also featured in their acoustic debut. It was a good change of pace as the band just came from a grueling and highly charged mall show. It was the first time the band ever performed at such an intimate event and it's in large part to Tabularaza's unwavering support for fellow CDO Bands who are just starting out. We were also joined by Fayeed Tan that evening as he was the other guest performer for the night before Tabularaza took the stage to premier their music video as well as put on a show to rock the evening out.      

Iking Raneses is the rightmost guy on the photo

On a personal note, let me share this personal story with how I met Enrique "Iking" Raneses, Tabularaza's main man, singer/songwriter extraordinaire. Long before I came to personally know Iking Raneses, I was already a huge fan of his music. I've seen Tabularaza perform in past gigs and I was always caught mesmerized by the tight quality of their performances and their edgy Alternative Rock songs. In fact, I always thought that they were a band from Manila or nearby Cebu. So as I was frequenting the usual record bars in Cagayan de Oro (Maan Video and Sounds to be more specific), I came across a Tabularaza CD being sold. Being familiar with the band and its songs, I did not hesitate to purchase a copy and popped it in my CD player. And true to my expectations, the album did not disappoint. Specially that haunting ballad ASK, which remains to be my all time favorite Tabularaza song. But what caught me most by surprise was when I found out that they were actually from Cagayan de Oro City. So I sent the band an E-Mail that I found in their CD Inlays and introduced myself (and the band) as well as commending the band for their brilliant tunes. This was my initial contact with Iking. And when Iking knew about our band, he did not hesitate to invite us as guests to their Music Video Launch. That's typical Iking for you, always had the knack to readily support Indie bands in Cagayan de Oro who is awaiting that break to be discovered. But that's just one part of it. Because not only does he have that passion to support CDO bands, he's also active in promoting the city of Cagayan de Oro as a whole. And there's no greater evidence than that but the Music Video of Shewowah itself. Check out the video below as the opening scenes itself pans to the City of Golden Friendship, Cagayan de Oro! In fact, the music video itself was shot entirely in Cagayan de Oro City. The first CDO band to do so!

Through the years, the band had played alongside Tabularaza in various shows in Cagayan de Oro. And it all culminated on our sophomore album's launching when we returned the favor and had Tabularaza as guests. And it all began on that night when Tabularaza proudly presented their Music Video which started their own series of bar tours from across the country in performing their songs to a larger audience. To this day, Tabularaza remains one of the most active CDO bands right before the Pandemic Hit. And I'm sure they can't wait for the day when eveything goes back to normal and they can strum their guitars, beat their drums, and sing their songs to a live audience again. But then let us all not despair. Because all of Tabularaza's songs have been immortalized through various Digital Music Streaming Apps. And as a treat to my readers, I'm attaching the Spotify link to their sophomore album Shewowah so that you can listen all of it in its full glory. This music player will just be 30 second samplers but click on the Spotify icon on the top right corner and it should lead you to the in-app Spotify player for this album. And while you are at it, browse through Tabularaza's entire song catalogue to discover more of their music. I promise you, it will not disappoint. Tabularaza is one of the most finest bands Cagayan de Oro has ever produced. In fact, we are so not worthy in sharing the stage with them. And I'm saying it with all honesty. But with Iking, everyone deserves a shot. And we are truly blessed to have shared the stage with one of the greatest CDO bands ever!

 

Thoughts And Notions Lim Ket Kai Mall Tour

PRESS RELEASE

Cagayan de Oro’s Newest Pop-rock sensation comes home to CDO’s Premier malling destination, Lim Ket Kai mall this coming June 17, 2006 at the Mall’s Rotunda at 4 p.m.

Thoughts and Notions is the city’s newest pride as they were able to release an album nationally under Praise Music. Composed of Thrina Dimaano on vocals, John Fernandez on Guitars, Tim Marquez on Guitars, Alvin Carreon on bass, and Jun2x Dychauco on drums, the band has been making Kagayanons proud by releasing an album of all original songs that showcases Faith driven positive messages to their positive sounds.  The band, founded by Jasper Lloyd Tan and Wilbert Tan, had its humble beginnings as a fund raising project where they self produced, recorded, and marketed their indie released album and donated a part of their CD sales to their church. Inspired and emboldened by the reviews that they got from their peers and church mates, they decided to send a demo copy to Praise Music where it didn’t take that long for Praise Music to sign and offer them a distribution contract. The band officially released their album, Thoughts And Notions: In Awe of His Amazing Love, last March 1, 2006 nationwide. It is bannered by their carrier single entitled “My Love Song” (the song that got them noticed by Praise Music) and the newly released single “Earthbound Angel”. These songs are currently being played at 103.3 the New J, 94.3 Wild Z, 89.3 Killerbee, and 96.9 Love Radio. Or you could visit their Purevolume site to hear their songs at www.purevolume.com/thoughtsandnotions. They are set to electrify the country as they go on a series of mall tours which kicks off right here at our very own Lim Ket Kai Mall this coming June 17. A great CDO band plus one great CDO Mall. This is the perfect combination. Don’t dare miss it. ATO NI BAI!     

Thoughts And Notions: In Awe of his Amazing Love is now available nationwide at all House of Praise outlets and at Maan Video and Sounds and Musicvision here in CDO. 

Stage Set Up

Posted on top was the original PRESS RELEASE published in a local CDO newspaper way back in 2006. The Lim Ket Kai Mall Tour is another one of Praise Music's initiative to feature our band in a public space as we aimed to promote our album and share our songs to a live audience. One of the key memories I have about this event is that it felt surreal to perform in a Mall that as a kid was one of your favorite hang out place. Back then you can't really say you've gone malling to CDO if you haven't set foot to shop and dine at Cagayan de Oro's premier Mall destination. Being able to perform at this place was also a strategic location for us because not only does House of Praise have a store here, but local record bar favorites Maan Video and Sounds, and Musicvision also had stores here. Both of these stores were the go to source for music loving fans in the city, long before the arrival of Manila based record bars Odyssey Music Stores, and Astrovision. So imagine the feeling of finally seeing your CDs being made available in these stores. It was so surreal.  

It was just more than a month ago when the band launched our album at SM Cagayan de Oro. And the gap in between afforded the band to prepare for this show. I can't recall the songs that was played on this event, however I'm pretty sure it was probably the same as the one we played at the SM Mall album launch. Sixpence None the Richer and Jars of Clay songs were a regular staple to our set list. The originals that we played were mostly the songs released on radio stations. I think that's how artists/bands usually come up with their set lists. The limited time to perform in Mall Shows would make the band focus on the songs that are familiar to their audience. In our case, that was Savior, which was a Praise and Worship song played on Christian Radio Stations like 103.3 The New J. My Love Song and Earthbound Angel on the other hand were staples in mainstream radio stations like 94.3 Wild Z, 89.3 Killerbee, and 96.9 Love Radio. Then there's another song that's a favorite of mine. The song A Brand New Day. I think this Pop Rock sounding song was the first to breach the 89.3 Killer Bee Top 20 Local Vocal countdown. One thing I regret the most was not being able to get more videos of the band's live performances back then. iPhones weren't a thing yet. And you are stuck with grainy videos and limited storage space for Camera Phones like Nokia had back then. I did however managed to find a video clip of our performance of this event. Albeit a short clip of the song A Brand New Day. 

We still managed to pack a crowd. As seen in these photos. Also, this wasn't the last time that we played at Lim Ket Kai Mall. In fact, less than a month later, we had our return engagement. And we played an unusual set up. We decided to go live on an acoustic performance. But that will be for another post. Right after this mall show, the band was also invited as guest performers in a Music Video Launch event by one of CDO's most popular bands ever, Tabularaza. More of that story on my next entry as I attempt to retrace the early history of the band. I'm still trying to reach the farthest reaches of my memory to reassemble the events that the band had taken part of.  

But for the mean time, why don't you listen to our album for FREE! And all the links to where you can hear them are all right here by just clicking the link below.

LISTEN FOR FREE

Oh for other contents, we recently just had our YouTube page updated as an Official Artist Channel. So we are planning to put additional exclusive contents there in the days to come. You can check out our past live performances, photo collage music videos, exclusive interviews, cover songs, and other things that we were able to preserve in our 2006-2009 Musical Journey. Our digital journey has just began. We got more songs on the pipeline. 30 more songs we hope to release next year. We're hoping you'll stay and join us for the ride. Just like the years that went by when you were one of those who inspired us to soldier on and just sing our songs as we aim to share God's Amazing Love thru music. So click on the link below and subscribe to our Official Artist Channel. Thank You and more stories to come! Promise!

https://www.youtube.com/totsandnotions

Album Launching at SM Cagayan de Oro

Thoughts And Notions circa 2006

It was on May 7, 2006 when we had our album launching at SM Mall Cagayan de Oro courtesy of House of Praise's initiative to launch us in our home province. It was the first of a series of mall tours that was planned by House of Praise. It took us months to prepare for this event. And we were able to invite friends and visitors from our church. From as far as Iligan City and Ozamis City. From what I could remember. The band experienced some jitters, specially guitarist Tim Marquez, who was battling a bum stomach because of extreme nervousness. Of course, this wasn't the band's first live performance. Under their belt, they already experienced that disastrous debut in front of a sold out crowd. They also guested on a Live Event sponsored by Love Radio on an open concert as guests. But it was never at this magnitude where they have the whole show for themselves. Where they were the main feature. So the band played their original songs while also doing covers of Jars of Clay and Sixpence None the Richer (two of their major musical influences) songs to get the crowd going. Back then, Christian Contemporary Music has not exploded into the mainstream market yet. And although both of the aforementioned bands had a modicum of success in mainstream radio, some people still thought that the Jars of Clay song "I Need You" that we covered during the album launching with John Fernandez doing the vocal chores was an original composition of the band. 

Praise Music (our debut album's national distributor) took care of the preparations and mall booking as they have a store in this SM Mall branch in Cagayan de Oro. I guess it was part of their privilege as Mall tenants to have a free use of the Mall space that served as our stage for the album launching. Preparations for this event started on November 2005 as me and Al Torres, the A&R head for Praise Music at that time, were in constant communication in preparation of our Debut Album's production and release. It was Al who gave us the break for our album to be distributed nationwide under Praise Music, the distribution arm of House of Praise. It was the song "My Love Song"  that caught his ears. Specifically the catchy opening guitar riffs of the song. It was also Al who advised us to build a band so that we could promote the album properly and do a series of Mall shows not only in Cagayan de Oro but in other cities as well. Though the latter never came to fruition for budgetary reasons I guess. I think I could understood the circumstances because the mid 2000s was the peak of the rampant piracy. Music downloads off the internet as well as those cheaply replicated CDs being sold in flea markets were rampant during that time. Hence, record companies hesitated to "invest" in marketing and promotions for an upcoming artist as they deem it too risky to spend and lose money in the end. But looking back, I find it a missed opportunity. As we could have done more to help promote not only our songs, but other artists' songs on Praise Music's catalogue as well. Later on as we continued our live gigs, we went the independent route and was promoting the album online and thru local live gigs and I've managed to create a decent following. In fact, when you do a google search of "OPM Christian Contemporary Band from the Philippines", Thoughts And Notions always appears among the top of the search results. And that's something that I'm trying to take back now as the 12 year hiatus seemed to cause us to lose the digital footprint we were able to build back in the day.     

Anyway, back to the album launching. The band back then were in the age range of 16 to 18 year olds pursuing their passion in music. Pretty young to be given this platform to sing and honor God through our songs. Thrina Dimaano (the band vocalist) was I think turning 16 during that time. And she was challenged to command the stage and own the performance as the band played the music. Good thing that she was largely helped by John Fernandez (guitars/vocals) who alternated the vocal duties with Thrina. John brought a certain "Jars of Clay" dynamic to the band's live performance as I was encouraging him to cover Jars of Clay songs every time the band had a live gig. Alvin Carreon (bassist) was steady doing his bass lines while Nelson Dychauco Jr. (drums) had a good command of the drum beats. He was the keyboardist in our Church's Music Ministry. So doing the drumming for the band kind of felt a little bit alien to him at first. Though for every performance, there was a markedly huge improvement. And the album launch would prove that he now had better controls of the drum beats. The band played eight songs. Two original songs by Jars of Clay (I Need You) and Sixpence None the Richer (Kiss Me). An original composition of John (Feeling I Found in You). And five songs from the debut album, namely Brand New Day, Defender, Savior, Earthbound Angel, and My Love Song. I think this is the only time we played Defender live. The other songs were a regular staple in our succeeding live gigs. Defender is what I would like to say as a Coldplay inspired song. I say that because of the keyboard backbone of the song that I specifically requested for Wilbert to do when we arranged the song. I'm a huge fan of Coldplay, and I remember I requested Wilbert to try to come up with a "Coldplayish" song. Defender is the result of that.     

Brand New Day is what I would call our Pop Rock influenced song in the veins of my other all-time favorite Filipino band Rivermaya. This song breached the Top 20 countdown in 89.3 Killer Bee Cagayan de Oro's Top 20 Local Vocal song countdown. Killer Bee was one of the most popular radio stations back then. They are currently reformatted and renamed to Magic 89.3 Cagayan de Oro. Savior was a favorite alternative rock sounding Praise and Worship song that was played by various churches in Cagayan de Oro back then. It was also the first song that we ever wrote and recorded for the debut album. And we were able to previously perform this song with the FCCY CDO Music Ministry prior to the formation of the band during a Praise and Worship event in our Church. Earthbound Angel was a moving ballad that enjoyed mainstream success among college kids back then. It really appealed to the listeners who were yearning for a sincere Love Song. I wrote the lyrics of the song that details what a Christian Love is. Or how God's love is. The finale was My Love Song simply because we owe it to the song for serving as the bridge to jump start our career as musicians. The debut album consisted of ten songs. So basically in our Album Launching, we played half of what was in the album. We left out the other songs because we planned to play them in other venues. We felt those were the five best songs in the album. Though personally, the remaining five aren't that far off. It was an eclectic mix of our influences. From Pop, Rock, Acoustic, Ballad, and anything in between. We just decided to make music that we would enjoy listening to and hope others would too to match our Christian themed lyrics.

 

John Fernandez on Vocals/Guitars

Now going back to John's song, Feeling I found in you. He was already playing the song with the band (minus Thrina) when they were still called Sadhana. This was before they were recruited to join Thoughts And Notions. We had a rough recording of this song. But we were never able to truly finish a proper recording of the song. Maybe one of these days it would be recorded. But I guess that will be up to John. The song had a following when John was playing it. It's a song with Pop sensibilities that appeals to the college crowd. John is currently back in the fold and doing a re-recording of the debut album in whatever form he likes. I gave him the freedom to experiment on the songs from the debut album. We have one song, a rearranged version of Brand New Day all set for release this January 2022.  Even though the band were never a part of the debut album's original recordings (except for Thrina, and it was my songwriting partner Wilbert Tan who did the instruments and song arrangements as detailed here), I'm hoping that this iteration of the band could do a recording and join John in the re-recording of the debut album. I truly appreciate their time with the band and would really want to make them own the debut album even if they were not part of the original recordings. They hold a very important place in Thoughts And Notions' history. And what way to immortalize their talent by putting it into a recording and cementing their place in the band's recorded history. Well that's my fervent hope at least.   

Let me take this opportunity also to thank those who supported us from the beginning. To the FCCYers from CDO, Iligan, and Butuan who traveled all the way from their cities to join us during this album launching. Good thing I was able to retrieve these old photos in my old e-mails. I barely remember the huge crowd we gathered on that day. SM Mall Cagayan de Oro's event center was packed as seen in the picture. With mall shoppers stopping to check out the band's performance. We were able to sell out the CDs in House of Praise's store that day. The next mall tour will take us to Lim Ket Kai Mall, CDO's first local Mall. And that will be for my next entry. 

We are very much thankful to Praise Music for changing our lives. And for making us a part of their instrument and having us join their cause in sharing God's good news thru music. I've personally known their founder and CEO Mr. Johnny Sy. And the guy is really dedicated and passionate in the mission to share God's good news thru music. God Bless his heart. I'm looking forward to work for him once more once I'm able to figure out the next step in the band's digital journey. House of Praise had a very good run as the number one retailer and distributor of Christian Music in the Philippines. Sadly, business closed down as they were not spared from the Pandemic that we are facing right now. Still, they have managed to shift to digital distribution and we can still support them by listening to the songs that they distributed on Digital Streaming sites like Spotify. It's ironic really. If in the 2000s, Free music is supposed to be killing the music industry, now Free music is what is running the industry. To support your favorite artists (and us too if you could lend us your listening ears), all you have to do is login to Spotify and listen to the songs for FREE! But, there's also a premium account that will give you all access to million of songs and unlimited downloads for your listening pleasure anytime anywhere. A FREE Spotify account allows you to listen to songs randomly. A premium account (at a minimum fee) allows you to not only listen to the songs but download the songs too. Check out the entire details here. And if you don't have Spotify, there are a lot of other options too. So if 2006 would require you to buy our album to fully experience and listen to our songs, then this year it is easily available for FREE! All you have to do is click on the link below and you are set to choose which Digital Music Streaming platform to access our music and listen to it........ FOR FREE! Really! No kidding. It's FREE!

LISTEN FOR FREE

Oh for other contents, we recently just had our YouTube page updated as an Official Artist Channel. So we are planning to put additional exclusive contents there in the days to come. You can check out our past live performances, photo collage music videos, exclusive interviews, cover songs, and other things that we were able to preserve in our 2006-2009 Musical Journey. Our digital journey has just began. We got more songs on the pipeline. 30 more songs we hope to release next year. We're hoping you'll stay and join us for the ride. Just like the years that went by when you were one of those who inspired us to soldier on and just sing our songs as we aim to share God's Amazing Love thru music. So click on the link below and subscribe to our Official Artist Channel. Thank You and more stories to come! Promise!

https://www.youtube.com/totsandnotions