Would you believe that the last Gig that I co-produced and actually attended was in 2009 when our band Thoughts And Notions had our album launching for our second album? It was that long ago when I last attended a gig at a resto bar. Today also marked the official anniversary of our band's official Digital Music Release on various Digital Music Platforms. Mind you, this was unintended, and it was a mere coincidence when we officially set the date of our Record Label Launch. That it coincided with when I officially announced my return to the Indie Music scene a year ago. Yes! What a difference a year make. And to be honest, this was part of a longer plan, and I did not expect to make the leap in just a year since my return. But I guess I just had a lot of confidence with the team that I am with. First off, with Miguel Llado (of the band The Mox) and Namfi Fernandez (a budding Christian Singer/Songwriter), they have been instrumental for me to build my confidence to give this music thing another try. I was just observing on the sidelines how to navigate this thing all over again, and I saw the passion Migs has with his New Pinoy Music Collective, an Indie Music group that he had been nurturing and leading since before the Pandemic. I had a peek of his future plans in one of our conversations. I took careful notes of it. Namfi Fernandez, who I saw has this overflowing and infectious passion for Christian Music (something I have never shared with since I started way back). I feel that this is God's intended connection for me to find that drive and motivation to pursue the mission in bringing Christian Music to more audiences in our country, outside the confines of the Church. A personal mission of mine since before. And of course, the icing on the cake, Calvin Anchores, the President of Cre8Multi-Media, who embraced my original endeavors of starting a music label that aims to bring positive uplifting music to the listening audience. Cre8Music is under his umbrella, and I couldn't be happier to establish that as it goes in sync with his greater plan for Cre8Multi-media. These are the people that made the Record Label Launch happen last night. Dubbed as Cre8ion: The Official Cre8Music Launch, we finally formalized our entry to the Indie Music scene by featuring four of among the best and talented artists that we could find in the local indie music scene. Namely, ForSomeReason, Nico Frayn, Rockalyt, and Nadj Zablan. Of course, we have more on the wings like Jonah Agas, Dud Lemon, Rochy, and Ramen Response. But due to time limitations, we decided to launch the aforementioned four instead.
The event was officially opened with Migs and guest Co-Host Beverly introducing the other artists under us who were not performing on this night. This just gives our audience an idea of who are the other artists on our roster. The rocking evening however officially began when ForSomeReason took the stage and performed their original songs, including exclusive previews of songs that are being currently recorded. ForSomeReason was a personal recruit of mine to join us in our fledgling label. And actually, one of the strongest reasons why I decided to kickstart this label in the first place. The band used to be called Blameless 8:1, a Christian Rock band who were very active in Christian Band competitions back in the day. If memory serves me right, they've made it to the finals one or twice. So, it was a natural that their vocalist Benedict and I bonded on a common mission and goal, promoting Christian Contemporary Music in our country. And while we do acknowledge that it will be a tall order, getting people to buy in to the shared vision on how to approach that, makes things much easier for me. But for now, they go by the name of ForSomeReason, and they are singing about some mundane tunes of the daily laments of the common folks in the Rock/Alternative genre. Be it love, aspirations, pet peeves, or just the daily relatable journey of the common folks. But we are definitely preparing for the ressurection of Blameless 8:1's songs in the very near future.
After ForSomeReason's rocking set, we tried to tone things down a bit and introduce Nico Frayn, our new Best Fraynd! For the evening's line up, it was only Nico who did the solo acoustic music set. I've heard some of his full band songs, and we believe that Nico also needs to have a backing band in the future, but we'll probably figure it out. But as it is, Nico can still hold his own with his acoustic guitar companion. I love Nico's confidence to banter with the audience. And I do feel his songs are what is more palatable to the current listening public's musical preferences. So, his set might not be as loud or as rocking as the others, but he held his own to tone down the crowd's energy a bit and prepare them for what was to come next. But yeah, his catalogue is something to watch out for. And we are releasing his EP very soon. Should be out maybe next year January with a new song and carrier single for his EP. So all I can say is if you are looking to hear some more tunes that are relatable to what is popular in mainstream radio now, then I suggest giving Nico's songs a try. Maybe someday, you'll make him your best Fraynd too!
Rockalyt follows Nico's set, and oh my, I was totally floored by their performance. The venue was shaking as the crowd totally gave them all their love and audience participation. These guys have so much potential and just needs to be heard on a wider scale because they are in their peak element already. They've got a versatile eclectic mix of songs, and while rock music is still prominent in most of their songs, elements of Rap, Pop, and other influences abounds their song catalogue. Songs that harken back to the best days of the 90's and 2000's band explosion heydays. On a personal note, I also have a certain kinship with them as three members of the band are full blooded Mindanaoans who are now settling here in the Nation's Capital to pursue their musical dreams. In fact, the lead guitarist, Elpidio Ragas Jr., comes from my hometown in Cagayan de Oro. And had shared to me one time that when he was still a kid, he was able to watch one of our shows in Cagayan de Oro. So, talk about having a certain connection with his band. But to be honest, his story did tug at my heartstring a little. Because that just cements our band's legacy in Cagayan de Oro's local music scene. So while Thoughts And Notions never really went big on a national scale, but at least in our hometown, we were heard on a larger scale than we originally thought. So maybe, having Rockalyt as part of our start up label, would also mean that my dedication and mission to promote Cagayan de Oro's local music scene (and to an extent, the neighboring cities of Butuan and Surigao as well) would be represented by our partnership with Rockalyt. There are only two reasons why I'm in this music thing in the first place. And that is Christian Contemporary Music and Cagayan de Oro/North Mindanao Music. And Rockalyt will represent the other half of my advocacy.
And for the Grand Finale, well, there's no other artist to showcase from our label but the Veteran Rocker, Nadj Zablan. There's a funny story about how I met Nadj and kind of reeled him in to join my cause. I actually found his songs on one of the foreign playlists that my songs were in. Being the only Filipino on the playlist, I reached out to him and asked him to confirm if he was a Filipino too. And when he responded in the affirmative, I told him let's start something that can help our fellow Filipinos navigate the Digital Music thing. So, after months of exchanging ideas and thoughts about how to navigate this Indie Music thing together, well here we are, working together under one label. One thing I can say is that Nadj does have a huge, amazing heart to help fellow indie artists. In fact, two weeks ago, he rounded up some Indie Musicians we know from social media to guest on his regular Saturday shows at Cafe Lupe Antonio and shared the stage with them. Now that's talking about putting all the talk about supporting each other into action. Nadj's set was rocking in a more mature energy coming in from the crowd. A lot of his songs reminds us of the early U2 days and other such bands and I believe his songs best would be appreciated by the rocker kids of the 80's who are now basically the people running the economy now. So, I guess he'll be the older brother that should serve our roster of artists well as the one that they could run for advice. He's got the veteran presence of a battle-scarred rocker who had seen it all back in the day. Did I even mention that his old Rock Band Treadstone won a prestigious Nationwide Battle of the Bands as the Metro Manila Grand Champion? But he's not bringing that back, but instead transformed into another persona. A more Positive Rocker with a Positive Force to be reckoned with. And we are hoping that we can harness all of that positive energy to pass around to the rest of the artists on our roster.
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| Missing Namfi for this evening |
To end this blog, I apologize if these pictures don't look very good. I seemed to forget that my old job with Thoughts And Notions besides being the lyricist was being the designated photojournalist. That's the reason why I managed to have a lot of photos preserved in this blog, albeit using an inferior camera phone back in the day. But maybe I enjoyed the show so much, I forgot that there was another job that I was supposed to do. So, I just took screengrabs from some of the live videos we fed to our
Official Cre8Music Facebook Page. But we'll be uploading the official gig videos soon on a much more clearer video quality. So hit the like/follow button and wait for the videos to go live. It will be all worth the wait.
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