My journey into music...

Music has been one of my greatest passions in life. The moment my Nanay bought me my first guitar when I was twelve, i never stopped playing it since. I can still remember that guitar... It was a cheap ol' guitar bought at the "Kalakalan 1989" (an event held on the UPLB grounds way back then..), but it sounded really great! I learned the guitar chords all by myself, and when I turned 14, I became a member of our highschool band Entity. I was "forced" by my bandmates to play the bass, because nobody wants to play an instrument with such huge strings... but since I was the one in the group who had the biggest set of fingers then (Ha!), I started learning to play it. My first formal bass lessons was given to me by the late Arnel Amonggo, our idol way back then... His house is just near our guitar player's abode in Umali, so every time we see him hanging out there, we would approach him and ask tips on how to play. During that time, we were so much into playing Guns and Roses songs. Arnel was the one who taught me the bass lines of one of the famous GNR songs, "Sweet Child O' Mine", and after that, I never stopped learning how to play the bass.

I started listening to bands like Skid Row, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Cinderella, Posion, Warrant, Trickster, Slaughter, Damn Yankees, etc... and began to emulate them as I play "air bass"! Then I was introduced to bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, Death Angel, and other trash metal bands... During that time, it was my friend and fellow bass player Sheldon who influenced my bass playing into the next level. We were jamming into the tunes of heavier sounding bands (Pantera, Sepultura, etc.), and this time he introduced me to a new genre of music: funk. I would watch him do the slappin' and poppin' on his old Gibson SG Bass as he plays along with songs by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. This time, I just copied his technique, and somehow I began to have a liking to this new sound... though heavy Metal was still my choice of music then. hehehehe!

Entity disbanded after our graduation from highschool. Most of the members had their own bands right after, like Alex, our drummer, and George, our Lead/Rhythm Guitar Player. Jay, our primo lead guitar player, studied classical music in Manila then. Mailyn and I were both in UPLB, but we were not so much into playing during college... Maybe it's a phase in one's life when you just want to try other things. Though during inuman sessions and or class presentations I still get to play the guitar... Being on a band was not on my mind way back then.

After 12 long years, I began to feel again that certain itch... to be in a band once more... but where the hell will I find such musicians that share my same passion and musical preference? Fortunate enough, I was asked to audition for VCF's music team last 2006... it has been years since i grab hold of a bass... but, nonetheless, I gave it another try. It was kinda funny, because i was one of the "oldest" who auditioned, and on the audition proper, I did the bass intro of Metallica's "My Friend O' Misery". It probably sent the panel off their seats... hehehehe! Why the hell would someone play a heavy metal song for a church bass player audition! To cut the story short, I didn't get the post, hehehehe!

I met Cesar, a drummer, who auditioned that time, but didn't qualified either. He was so much into Led Zepplelin, and from that day, we began jamming together as a bass and drum duet. After a few months, the VCF music team, asked me and him to audition once again, and gave two standard Hillsong pieces for all auditioners to play. Cesar got the post after his audition! But when it was my turn, I did the standard pieces as anyone would play it, but then again, my crazy ol' self did some twists on the songs... I improvised some of the bass lines by adding extra notes on each piece! The guitar player, keyboardist, and drummer was surprised with what I did! But nevertheless... they let me in the team. hehehehehe!

Since VCF had a stable of musicians in the music team, Cesar and I, being "rookies" in the team during that time, served only as replacements for absent players. With that, Cesar and I continued our duet, playing songs by Led Zep, Hendrix, and Deep Purple. After a while, Cesar and I was joined by Sherwin. A guitar player who loves to play jazz. We introduced him to classic rock, and later on, we were playing a lot songs by Blue Oyster Cult, The Beatles, and the mighty Black Sabbath. We called our band SABBATHICA for our love of playing Sabbath songs. After a few months, all of became busy with other things (family, work, etc.) and our jamming sessions lessened. Cesar and I also formed a band in UPOU, with Al on guitar. We were playing songs by the Police and U2. We were a crowd favorite in the UPOU campus...And Al had the most number of "fans" hehehehehe!

I also played bass for the band formed by members of the UP Jammers club, who played for a UP Jammers event on January of '08. We played songs by Megadeth, Anthrax, and Metallica. That was when my metal madness began again!

On the birthday party of a friend one time, I was introduced to Mr. Alberto Mercado, or Abet, and Moi DelaResma. Both were long time bandmates and had their passion for playing a lot of heavy metal songs. Me, being the ever friendly and accommodating new comer in their group of friends began talking to them about Heavy Metal. Moi began conversing to me about his influences and his experience in the music scene, yet, Abet was somehow, quite reserved. They were supposed to play on the party, but certain fuckups happened that time. A resident called up the police and complained about the so called "noise" when in fact, the sound level was tolerable during that time (to us perhaps... heheheheeh!). So, with that, they laid down their instruments and began drinking instead. While they were busy talking and drinking, I picked up the bass and began playing some bass lines from Iron Maiden songs. With that, Moi, went up and sat on the drums and jammed along.That caught Abet's attention. As he heard our duet, he picked up his guitar and began to jam along...

Hehehehehe! After that short jam, I was invited to their drinking session and Abet now began talking about himself and his passion for music. Weeks later, we started jamming at ENSAYO Band Studio, and it has become a regular stint whenever we are free on weekends. We called ourselves XYZ (pronounced as 'Zaiz'), a modification/disambiguation of the title of a Rush song "YYZ". Our common grounds include playing songs by Metallica, Megadeth, Dio, Rush, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Led Zep, Anthrax, etc.

Music, as once quoted by Shakespeare, is the food of the soul. I cannot imagine myself not playing music. It's probably one of the things that i will be able to do even at an old age... hehehehe! So, with Abet on Guitar, and Moi on the drums...we are out to conquer your ears! hahahahahaha! Rakenrol mga pre!

(This coming Dec. 30, XYZ will be playing at Cabuyao for the event called: "Time Machine", some sort of a reunion of old school metal bands paying homage to our heavy metal roots.)

#tips #lifehacking