That time we played at the Kerygma Feast with Bo Sanchez

Thoughts And Notions with Brother Bo Sanchez

Let's do some throwback stories, to the time when we were chosen to play at the 2006 The Kerygma Feast in Cagayan de Oro. It was an honor for us to grace the stage with Brother Bo Sanchez as he is one of my favorite Christian writers. In fact, I was a voracious reader of his published books and magazines. Getting a lot of inspiration from Bo's published works for me to come up with the lyrics that I wrote for the band. This also marked the band's tenth live gig, albeit with a new drummer in tow this time around. Our first drummer Nelson Dychauco Jr. had to take a medical leave some months prior, which would eventually turn out to be his final exit with the band. Though this matter presented a new challenge to the band, however the entry of Adonis Berongoy as the new drummer proved to be a blessing to the band. As he would stay on to be one of the most longest serving band member just next to Thrina, our chief vocalist. Adonis would also contribute a couple of his song compositions in our second album, most notably the praise and worship song "Beloved Savior", which would be featured on Spotify's Official New Music Friday playlists sixteen years later.     

Beating the nervousness in playing in front of a sell out crowd

As for the band's performance on this day, what I could recall was we had a great time churning out tunes from our debut album and some cover songs from Jars of Clay's catalogue. In front of a full packed venue at that! Unfortunately, there was some confusion on stage as we started singing the songs. Because we were not told in advance that we should at least sing songs that were more familiar with the audience. Hence, there was some confusion as Brother Bo himself wasn't able to join us as we performed our set. And the audience also wasn't able to sing-a-long with us. As a budding band manager myself, I failed to make sure to get all the details from the organizers. So I was kind of embarrassed after the show. I do remember apologizing to Bo for the mix up, to which he was gracious enough to accept. He even signed some of the band posters that we brought along. I wonder where those posters went now, because I could no longer find it when I went back to CDO years later. It was also a pleasure to meet Alvin Barcelona, one of the featured singers for the Kerygma Feast that day. Alvin Barcelona if I remember it correctly used to play for OPM legend KA Freddie Aguilar's band, the music icon behind the OPM hit song "Anak". It was my first brush with a veteran Christian Music artist, and I was very much eager to pick his brains and know more about Christian music from him. We did swap CDs (our debut album to his latest album) and had some e-mail conversations months later.

John Fernandez, Co-lead vocals/Rhythm guitars

Though we would consider this gig a very successful one, this engagement however would be our last gig to feature John Fernandez as a permanent member (however he would rejoin us years later as a session guitarist). There's no doubt that John is an uber talented singer/songwriter. But I also thought it was kind of unfair for him to share co-lead vocals duties with Thrina at that time, especially if he would play/sing behind her. I had to make the difficult decision of letting him go. At the time, the focus was in promoting our debut album which featured Thrina on sole vocals, and sometimes there's this invisible push and pull between them. Maybe if the planned nationwide mall tours by our record label pushed through at that time, I could have given John his own spotlight, specially when we start promoting other songs from our record label's catalogue. You see part of the deal was for the band to also promote songs by foreign artists from their catalogue, especially those who can't come to the Philippines to promote their songs. John would have handled the songs by bands that has a male lead vocalist. But the nationwide tour didn't push through, and we were forced to go the independent route playing gigs in Cagayan de Oro. So I guess, for me that time, as an inexperienced band manager, I had to consider making hard decisions. And this was one of those. But that is very well much in the past. Today, John has come a long way with his new band Alternotes. His band has conquered the island of Camiguin, playing in huge festivals there. And I've been encouraging him of late to start recording his original song compositions. So I'm just here waiting for him, always ready to lend a helping hand in making sure his songs would be heard on the Digital Music streaming platforms one of these days.      

(From L-R) Adonis Berongoy, Tim Marquez, Thrina Dimaano, John Fernandez, Alvin Carreon

To close this blog entry, it is with a fond recollection that our band Thoughts And Notions indeed experienced a lot of hardships early on. But I also look back at the innocence of the band and the hopeful energy we had back then. Yes we had a record deal on one hand, yet we also had to survive as an independent band early on. But we never really made those things hinder us from pursuing our dreams and goals as a band. And years later, through all the travails and the times we did break, I think we did well during our stretch run as a band on that year 2006. I'll try to recall even more stories in the next entries. So do keep posted if you are interested to know more about our band.

 

Do check out our full song catalogue on SPOTIFY