So how did we ever get here? We've pretty much decided that we'd go on a hiatus for this year. And we did take a long vacation from releasing any new songs. But then, as we were looking at our song catalogue on various digital music streaming platforms, we realized how disorganized it had become. Under album releases, we had two full length albums that featured our chief vocalist Thrina Dimaano-Escaño on vocals. With the music genre predominantly being pop/rock. But then since she's not yet ready to go back to her vocal chores yet, we decided to continue writing and releasing songs but decided to collaborate with different artists to do the vocal work instead. This venture allowed us to experiment with our music as based on the chosen artist that would be interpreting the song. The end product would be a number of single releases that would each feature a different sound from each other and from our usual catalogue (you can get back to reading about those releases on this link). This resulted to a confusing song catalogue that is now inhabited by a mix of various music genres. And because of this, we're kind of worried that when new listeners would discover our songs, it might confuse them as to how to appreciate our songs. Would they prefer to listen to our old songs when we were more of a pop/rock sounding band? Or will the new genres that we were exploring with would be their preferred thing? It was because of this thought that we decided to compile our recent releases and release them together and come up with a compilation album. Just so we can put into context all of our song releases and make them more organized.
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| Cre8Music Records artist Soleil Misalucha |
But then again, we wouldn't have decided to push through with the compilation album if Cre8Music Records' top boss Calvin Anchores; didn't pitch the possibility of using one of our songs as part of the featured cover song for the newly created Cre8TV show called Soleildified on YouTube. Soleildified is a concept show that features Cre8Music records artist Soleil Misalucha doing her own cover rendition of select songs but giving it her own twist. And Calvin happened to suggest to me that he would like to have Soleil cover one Thoughts And Notions song of my choosing. So, I thought it had to be a ballad. And the choice came down to the songs "Earthbound Angel" or "Safer in My Heart". I eventually chose Earthbound Angel as I feel that the song didn't reach the expectations that I have when it made its digital music debut. You see back then; the song experienced some sort of popularity when we first released it in our hometown's local radio stations. So, I'm thinking maybe it's worth a shot to have this song redone by Soleil. Besides, Safer in My Heart had already reached more than 100,000 streams and continues to be one of the more popular songs in our catalogue. Soleil's version of Earthbound Angel will also premiere on her show Soleildified a week or so after this album's digital music streaming release this July 26, 2026. You can actually watch the previous episodes of her show on this link. Soleil is one of the most versatile and talented artists from Cre8music Records' pool of singer-songwriters. And it is a great honor of ours to have her interpret one of our songs and give it her own spin. (Soleil actually appears in another track in this album, the previously released OPM Bossa Nova Christmas song that I co-wrote with her).
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| Wile Lile, the musical engine behind our songs |
However, Soleil's Earthbound Angel won't be the only new song that you would be hearing in this album. Because for the first time ever, we'll be releasing one of our old songs that we had kept in our vault all those years ago. This song has been our well-kept secret, that only the band members of Thoughts And Notions had actually heard of this. Long before we invited Thrina to become our chief vocalist, we actually were able to record a song with Wile Lile on vocals. You see, the song "My Love Song" was originally recorded with Wile Lile doing the vocal chores. But we decided to ditch it in favor of letting Thrina be the sole vocalist of our debut album. That decision actually led to the fortuitous happenstance of us getting signed by a record label and have our debut album released nationwide. The two versions of the song diverge from each other in such a way that Wile Lile's version veered more towards the acoustic pop genre. While Thrina's version was done in the pop/rock genre. And it was the guitar riff intros of the pop/rock version that drew the ear of the record label's A&R guy. I don't know if in another alternate world wherein we released Wile Lile's acoustic pop version instead, would get us signed to that record label. You'll have to hear it for yourself and let us know which version you like better. But this I can say as much that the band dig the song so much. And they have been egging me to release that version of the song. I guess their request is finally granted. So, you'll have to watch out for it.
But before I end this post, let me reveal to you the entire track listing of the soon to be released album:
1 Iglap (feat. Novelista Pasta)
2 Heartbeats (feat. Rochy Dadivas)
3 Kusog nga gi hinumdom (feat. Oquilla)
4 BNR (feat. Kai Huyno, Dud Lemon)
5 My Love Song-Alternate Cut (feat.Wile Lile)
6 Earthbound Angel-Soleildified (feat. Soleil Misalucha)
7 Brand New Reason (feat. Kai Huyno)
8 Mighty (feat. Ben Oribe)
9 Sentro ng Pasko (feat. Soleil Misalucha)
10 What Real Christmas Means to Me (feat. Tirada, Elvis Roca, Wile Lile, AJ Alburo)
11 Kusog nga gi hinumdom-Radio Edit (feat.Oquilla)
12 BNR-Radio Edit (feat. Kai Huyno, Dud Lemon)
So after the long winding road, our "unofficial" third album is finally set to be released!
Why unofficial? Because this is just a slight detour of our planned trilogy of albums. We have always reserved the seat for Thrina to one day record a new album with us. But for this project, this is me and Wile Lile plus a host of up-and-coming artists that we have met along the way. Collaborating on this project where Thoughts And Notions features new voices, experimental sounds, and genres we dared not go into during our band days.
It's like listening to a playlist. Different voices, different genres of music, but all bound together by Thoughts And Notions' distinct words.
This is Thoughts And Notions Plus: A Compilation of Song Collaborations!
Coming this July 26, 2024
Be sure to hit the Pre-save link!
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