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| Galactic Fiestamatic |
“Hayup talaga ‘tong Rico
Blanco na ‘to. Pinapakinggan ko yung bago nyang album ngayon. Nakakatakot. Para
syang mad scientist ng music.”—as tweeted by Chito Miranda, Parokya ni Edgar
And that, in a nutshell, is what you can expect from
Rico Blanco’s second album, “Galactik Fiestamatik.” It’s been four years since
the former Rivermaya frontman’s solo debut “Your Universe,” which spawned such
hits as the orchestral masterpiece “Yugto,” and the sweet title track “Your
Universe,” and Blanco’s back to rock you out of this world with a totally
different sound.
Eluding definition, Blanco shares, “The title IS the
genre,” and a quick listen takes you on a festive adventure through the magic
and mayhem of Galactik Fiestamatik, Blanco’s parallel Pinoy universe. The
story of this album begins with fulfilling the dream of having a home studio.
His eyes lighting up, Blanco shares, “I’ve wanted my own studio since I was a
kid, and now I have it in my attic. So it’s like me again in third year high
school, when my classmate lent me his double cassette player and keyboard, and
I could record stuff at home!”
For
this album, Blanco takes the sounds he grew up with—the thundering ethnic beats
of Ati-Atihan, analog synths of New Wave, and even the catchy groove of
contemporary pop—and mixes it up all in his head in a tribal punk rave that
defies time and space. Orchestrating his own mad symphony, his signature
songwriting takes center stage, flanked by an assortment of ‘found’ objects and
unlikely instruments (a melodica, a lyre, a gigantic cowbell, a violin that he
picked up while walking around Araneta with Ira Cruz while killing time at a
concert).
The madcap journey begins with Amats, the creepy yet intriguing carrier single which has already
been dominating the airwaves, making its mark in iTunes, and proclaimed by fans
as a “stalker anthem.” A departure from
his trademark sweet, melodic ditties, Blanco reveals, “I wanted it to be in
your face, like a stalker you want to get rid of.” He continues, “It’s always
the first song that I create [for an album] that takes me where I want to go;
that’s what happened with Yugto, I
just took bits and pieces of Yugto
and turned them into other songs. This time, it was Amats.”
With a genius ability to turn the commonplace into
catchy, listeners are bound to enjoy the electro-pop Burado (“Wala na sa USB, wala sa phone book, inbox at sent items,”
Blanco sings wryly) and the folksy Lipat-Bahay,
which captures the nostalgia of moving house and letting go. Played on the
piano and accompanied by snare drum for a more earnest, acoustic sound, Lipat-Bahay plucks at the heartstrings
with a deceptively simple inventory of everyday, ordinary items sure to resonate
with his generation. The backstory: “My family’s from Laguna, so to be closer to
work, I live in the city. I had been condo living for the last ten years, but
last year, I moved to a new place so I could have a dog (an affectionate Dutch
Shepherd named Bowie). Sometime during the songwriting period, I bumped into
Dong Abay. I told him I was writing a new album, tambay tayo. He asked, ‘Saan
ka ba?’ And I said, ‘Kakalipat ko lang, hassle nga, nasa mga balikbayan box
lahat ng mga gamit ko,’ and he said, ‘O ayan, isulat mo!’ The minute he said
that, I was so inspired, I was already writing the song in my head while
pretending to listen to him—sorry Dong! I’m thankful for [the advice from]
friends I respect; they have no idea how much confidence I get from the little
things they say.”
A dark track with an industrial yet unintentional New
Wave feel, When The Wheels Turn came
about organically. “The Warner A&R dropped by and wanted to see my
progress, but with this song, I only had the music cause I junked the previous
lyrics and was about to ditch the song entirely. But I told him I’d give it
another shot, and the minute he left, I pressed the record button and just made
up the first line as I was singing into the mic. ‘I’m waiting in the corner of the sun.’ I didn’t know where the song
was gonna go, but I did the same thing for the second line, then the third
line, the chorus, and then the rest of the verses. This is the first time I’ve
ever had the exact moments of lyric and melody creation actually recorded. It
was as stream of consciousness as I could get, and I love it now, because it
felt like someone [else] wrote it, and I’m trying to figure out what he said,
because I was that person that day! But now I realize, it’s about fate, it’s
about things falling apart, it’s about trauma, but also about hope.”
Shifting musical gears again, Blanco shows his disgust
for the national addiction (“ang pambansang marijuana”) in “Chismis,” a social commentary cha-cha
he bangs out on pots and pans and cups and saucers. Mr. Good Vibes (especially
when it comes to social media) turns vicious on the topic of gossip. “It’s a fucking
waste of time. To me, it’s just glorified too much on a national level—I mean,
it’s on the evening news!—that we end up doing it on a personal level 24/7, and
it’s just destructive. And so there it is, in my album, the crappiest sounding
of all, with trumpets that sound like ‘Humanap ka ng Panget’—no offense, that track
is brilliant—and pressing the spacebar to end the song. But it deserves a space
on my album because there’s a message in there, somewhere. It’s stupid how
engrossed we are with…whomever John Lloyd is dating now! Leave the man alone!”
Deep into the album is the beautifully melancholy
sound his more romantic fans may be looking for. The haunting, atmospheric track
and hushed lyrics of “Hours and Days”
make it the perfect post break up choice, the type that begs to be played while
you sit in the darkness and wallow in misery. You’d never guess that it started
out as a pop song, along the lines of Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake.
Blanco’s original plan was to have a double album: one would be totally pop,
and the other, garage punk. Eventually the album ended up not being one or the
other, not even a combination of the two, but something totally different, with
bits and pieces of both. “There was one song [intended for] the totally pop
album, too catchy for its own good—so I attempted to present it here in the
opposite manner.”
Just when we think we can’t be surprised, Blanco
springs the techno-influenced “Sayaw”
on us, probably the most radical departure from his musical style. Upon first
listen you might take it as a cynical rockstar making a mockery of clubbing,
but Blanco attests, “It’s not a joke; it’s as serious as my songs can get.
Dancing is one of my greatest loves and I’ve never really written a song I
could dance to; and the message of the song is just about not caring, not
giving a fuck about what people will say.” And true enough, as you get into the
groove, you close your eyes, thrust your hip to the beat and give in. “It’s
about forgetting your problems, leaving school or the work week behind, and
enjoying the night. We work so hard as human beings, trying to be the best we
can be, so we deserve…to dance!”
With such a motley crew of songs, the album takes on
the feel of an epic quest to outer space, where you hop from planet to planet discovering
alien life forms dancing the Ati-Atihan. “If there’s anything that ties it [the
songs] together, it’s the goal I had in terms of the process.” His parameters:
that he was going to record everything from home, going back to basics and
doing things as he did in high school when he didn’t have a band yet, and see
what happens. He set up the studio with all the gear a band needed to record
with, and then abandoned the idea of recording a band, and did everything
himself. Blanco threw all his usual tricks out the window, purposely rethinking
and challenging every single aspect of the way things are traditionally done in
the studio. “Although they were lying around, I didn’t use any of the
instruments that I, or most bands, would ordinarily and automatically use in
recordings.”
You realize that it was mostly curiosity, not ambition,
when he shares his obvious delight in undertaking this solo project. He enjoyed
discovering sounds, tinkering with synths, drums, a violin, lyre, cow bells,
and other ‘found’ instruments (“pots and pans, metal tubes from the hardware
store, a section from my neighbor’s abandoned rooftop
gutter which I recorded in my bathroom…”). “My dog would hide behind me every time I hit an
instrument—he would get so excited and run behind me, but he knew I was working
so di niya ako pwedeng guluhin. When I’d stop, he’d relax, but when I hit
things, he’d be like, what’s going on,
what’s going on?” Brilliantly experimental, the album presents a sound that
is raw, imperfect and deeply personal—occasionally bizarre, but inimitably
Blanco.
The album closes with Ngayon, a quiet anthem that shimmers with bells and chimes,
celebrating the here and now. This is the track made for road trips with the
windows rolled down and the wind in your face, or swaying on the beach in total
abandon as the sun comes up. Blanco likens his songs to “taking snapshots of
now”—not of all he knows, but just of his current state of mind and the influences
he happens to draw from. “When I was starting out, my influences were artists,
like the Beatles, XTC… but now, I’m inspired by producers, sound designers and
engineers, like how songs or movies sound. My influences can be experiences,
like fiestas, or a story, like how Dong Abay talked to me [inspiring
“Lipat-Bahay”]. At this point, the biggest influence is from the sounds that I
hear, the experimentation that happened here; I was inspired by my new place. I
also went to a couple of festivals last year in Spain and in Corsica, and it
gave me the confidence to do what I love, and not care about what people are
into now. At the festivals, on any given day, each band played a totally
different kind of music from the last band, and they’d get the same
appreciation from the crowd. And I thought, if they get the same appreciation,
all you have to do is make music you like. It’s something I’ve always known,
but its good to be reminded of that every so often. It totally freed me from
thinking in genres or music direction.”
The ultimate multi-tasker, Blanco also his hands full
with his clothing line Koboi; LoudBox, a thriving advertising audio production
studio; and the underground club Time, as well as Alphonse and The Vault, a restaurant
and a bar he recently opened with friends. A producer at heart, he’s also been
known to take promising talent under his wings, like the breakout group Never
The Strangers. Blanco’s also passionate about photography, a hobby he’s
nurtured since the third grade when he asked for a camera for his birthday.
Though he only considers himself a hobbyist (view his photos at www.lagunaboy.com),
he’s both shy and stoked to be chosen as one of the Nikon ambassadors.
Never half-assed at anything he does, Blanco marches
to his own drum, dreams boldly, and declares, “if we fail, we fail boldly.” Mad
scientist, indeed.
Brought to you by Warner
Music Philippines, Galactik Fiestamatik, is available for download on
iTunes worldwide starting today as well. Text “AMATS” to 5677 to get the
ringback tone. Log on to http://www.facebook.com/ricoblanconews for more updates on Rico Blanco.
For bookings contact: Frey Zambrano
+63928 503 0305
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