I finished my newest song. This was my first Filipino written song so I was constantly struggling with the right balance of simple to complex pinoy words. I wanted to make the sentences simple enough for normal speech/singing, but complex enough to sound… lyrical (for lack of a better term). Anyways I still don’t know if I got it right – and ultimately I could never personally judge because I don’t really “compose” in a Filipino mindset.

Tell me what you think, it can be found in my music page, It’s entitled “Hiling”

There were a lot of mixed reactions to it when I sent the “rough draft out.” I’ll just mention the concerns and not my actual opinions about them. Suffice to say, I appreciated everyone’s input and carved the final version on what I thought was a middle ground.

Again, these comments were based on the rough draft:

1. One person said it lacked “repetitiveness,” or it was too complicated
2. Come final version, one said that he liked the rough draft version better (because of how “raw” it sounded)
3. Another person said the exact opposite, that the latter half lacked “oomph” (too simple)
4. A guitarist, said that it lacked “guitar parts.” Fills, solos, etc.
5. A lot of people asked about, or stressed how they didn’t like a line at the start of the song.
6. It sounds like what certain bands today would write.

The affirmations were:

1. The lyrics were good
2. The song was moving
3. Singing in Filipino actually suited me
4. Almost everyone who wasn’t into music production commented about how it the quality easily match commercial [audio] quality.

So what I did to address most concerns was as follows:

As far as toning the rough draft was (to address #1), it was impossible in my case, the song had 2 verses, the exact same chorus repeating 3 times, and a very short bridge. I just can’t think of a way to make it any simpler. Plus the fact that #3 wanted it to be more complex at the latter parts. He literally suggested adding words, and going wild so the last chorus would sound “busier.”

So what I did was indulge #3, but use #1 as a “limiter” so I wouldn’t get carried away. The result was just putting vocal harmonies here and there while retaining the original chorus track as is.

The guitar parts (#4) I was supposed to put more in, but I saw how many guitar tracks I already had in there just to “stereo-fy” everything – that putting any more “fills” would just make everything a mess. I decided to just put the guitars in front of the mix a little bit more so they’d be clearly heard (hence the little nuances of the riffs could now be heard, and acted as the “extra” detail needed)

5 was a no-brainer. There was a line at the beginning that said “…silahis ng bukang-liwayway” – which roughly translates to the rays of the sun at dawn. Some people would be thrown off by the word “silahis” because of modern vernacular attributing it to “gayness,” or whatever. Another mentioned that compared to the rest of the lyrics, it sounded too complicated/deep. Others didn’t get the line at all. Hence I chose to change it to “…kagandahan ng umaga.”

As for #6, I wouldn’t say that it was a negative thing because I intentionally wanted it to sound Filipino. I guess that somehow backfired as the “sound” is a very common EMO/ROCK sound. This is proven by the different bands which the people mention to when they listen to it. Since I’m always locked in my room, and I never watch TV – I only hear about these bands (and have a basic idea of their sounds) but never really had the time (and patience) to “analyze” their sounds.

Suffice to say, if we were to speak of a direct influence of the sound I imagined when I first wrote this song September last year – I would have to say it was Kitchie Nadal’s hit “Wag na wag mo sasabihin.” I wanted a slow-ish, rock-ish song. Wether or not people can actually find the resemblance of the sound to that particular song will depend on them. But that was my “peg.” Some people didn’t have Kitchie on their mind at all when they heard the song. They mention Sugarfree’s “Panday theme” – which by to me is a compliment, what I wouldn’t give to make a song similar to that. Other people mention a general sound akin to “Hale,” or “Cueshe,” or insert_your_pinoy_emo_band_here. One other person didn’t say anything about a band, instead they said it fit a telenovela quite nicely.

In any case, it just proves that no matter what band/genre/sound you relate it to – as long as it sounds Pinoy, then I probably succeeded in getting the intended sound across.

Anyways, here are the lyrics in case anyone’s interested:

Hiling

09/20/2005 Carlo Santos Theme: Infidelity

Pagdilat ng mata, at nakatitig sa kagandahan ng umaga. Puso Niya’y sa ‘yo at ang pag-ibig na ito’y hinding-hindi na magmamaliw.

Bakit ba? Bakit pa naghahanap ng iba? At inaasahang di niya makita. Dahil ayaw mo Siyang mawala.

Kaya pilit mong tinatago ang tunay mong anyo, nagdarasal na tanggapin ito. Ngunit bawat udyok ng puso mo; unti-unti na siyang nawawala at tuloy ang ‘yong pagiging sakim… tungkol sa ‘yo pa rin ang lahat ng ito.

Andiyan muli ang buwan, kay linaw-linaw ng pagkislap ng mga tala. Kay gandang buhay, kay daling magpasalamat sa Tagapagbigay

Bakit pa… bakit pa naghahanap ng iba? ano pa ba ang ‘di makuha sa Kanya – kung kahit buhay Niya’y nailalay na?

Pilit mong binabago ang tunay mong anyo dinarasal na tanggapin ito. Ngunit bawat udyok ng puso mo unti-unti na Siyang nawawala at hiling mo sa Kanya ika’y patawarin… at palipasin ang lahat ng ito.

Pag-ibig Niya walang kapantay. At ang pangako Niya’y panghabangbuhay.

Pilit mong binabago ang tunay mong anyo dinarasal na tanggapin ito. Ngunit bawat udyok ng puso mo unti-unti na Siyang nawawala at hiling mo sa Kanya ika’y patawarin… at palipasin. Di na uulitin ang lahat ng ito