Marit Stinus-Remonde: Pillar of the "Bisrock Movement"

Of foreign descent. Born to a Japanese mom and a Dane pa. Foreign blood manifests in her choices in music-a load of post-grunge-turned-alternative-rock-band Dishwalla of California, an album collection that includes "The Joshua Tree" of British band U2, and a snippet of her favorite foreign songs topped by "Lifetime" popularized by Better than Ezra, an alternative rock trio based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Yet, Marit Kasahara Stinus-Remonde professes to be "very Bisdak too". She loves the beat in every song of Bisrock band "Agipo".

I doff my hat for the "BisrocKabataan" (then Tingog Kabataan) concept, and told her in opening this interview, "I feel you understand Sugbuano better than us. You speak a different language yet you got this heart that's not ashamed for anything that is Bisdak. You nurture the gift of local talents; this effort of yours is amazing. Like music, the concept has evolved into a movement."

"Even if I don't understand Cebuano lyrics, I know that a song is more attractive when it is in one's own language. A song in Cebuano really has an edge over other songs," she replied.

Marit, the current station manager of dyWF-93.1 Smash FM and 909 dyLA, took over management of Vimcontu Broadcasting Corporation when husband Mr. Cerge Remonde was appointed director general of the Presidential Management Staff with the rank of Secretary.

Down memory lane, Marit shared she saw first light in Vordingborg, Denmark in March 8, 1965.

It's as if it was already predetermined by the date on which she was born that she will become an important woman in contemporary times. Call it pure coincidence or predestination, she was born on the celebration of Women's Day as if to herald the direction and purpose and essence of her femininity, and the personification of girl power.

She grew up absorbing the music influences of her siblings Dag (now 44 years old) and Ralf (now 41 years old). "I grew up with The Beatles, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and later Slade, Sweet, Motorhead and Kiss. Those were the bands that my brothers listened to. But would you believe, I wasn't really into rock?" reveals Marit.

"I like Madonna, Donna Summer, even classical music," she underscored. "Especially the Russians. Have you ever listened to Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony? Great music. Then there was my encounter with African music in 1989. That's when I understood that music is a language that cuts across cultures, races, and national languages."

At this point in our exchanges, I remembered one text message she sent to me during the early days of my research work for Bisrock. "Rock is a universal language. With Bisrock, it doesn't matter if I cannot speak well your language. It's music, it's original, and new, and always full of surprises."

Of which I had pondered upon, "bitaw, why would we stop something so good?"

When asked on whether she had considered herself the "karaang rockista," she answered, "I don't think that I was ever of that kind. It just happened that the abovementioned bands were popular when my brothers and I were growing up."

If that's the case, what could have inspired her to come up with a program over at Smash FM that inspired the Bisrock movement? I asked.

"I did have a feeling of 'coming home' when Ramil (DJ Ram Dizon) and I decided that Smash FM would be purely alternative rock. No more reggae. No more R&B," she answered.

"I spent so much time listening to the new kinds of rock that had emerged. I wasn't familiar at all that time with bands such as Linkin Park, Incubus, Simple Plan, Dishwalla, Collective Soul, etc. not to mention OPM bands. But because, Smash is first and foremost a rock station, we thought of playing Bisrock because we wanted to present to our listeners a variety of styles of rock - heavy, folk, pop, alternative, OPM and local," she added.

Further, she said, "We didn't have much material when we started. But our playing Bisrock inspired many bands to come forward, compose and submit their own Bisrock songs. Junior Kilat's 'Ako si M16' also was a big boost to Cebuano language contemporary music."

"It's great to watch so many young people composing, playing and listening to Bisrock. That shows that nothing is impossible. Not even the things that have never been tried before," she stressed.

"Bisrock bands started out as amateurs, but they give it their best and are not afraid. And they have something great that makes a lot of people happy, just like what we did at Smash. The message should be that we don't have to be experts or have lots of resources to make a positive contribution to society," underlines Marit.

"When we started out, we never dreamt of Bisrock becoming the movement that it is today. I would say the concept picked up because Bisrock is us-both familiar (Sugbuano and rock)," she said.

Despite criticisms, Marit stood by her decision to help exemplify Bisaya rock. "Unlike other radio stations, we at Smash listen to every song submitted. If the song fits our format and we like it, then we play it. If it doesn't fit our format or for other reasons like not passing the screening, then we don't play it. But we always listen," she stressed.

"Besides, there are over 20 stations in Cebu. If they don't like our playlist they can always tune in to other stations," she added.

Before closing the interview, Marit called on all Bisrock enthusiasts to never ever give rock a bad name. "Rock is popular among youth not just in Cebu. But it saddens me to hear rock has been given the tag as music that leads to substance abuse and violence. I beg to disagree! Rock and other forms of music as well is a means to self expression. Let's get high on rock, not drugs or alcohol. We all need to release our built-up energy and doing it through rock - playing rock or dancing to it - is a positive and peaceful way of releasing our energy and having a good time with other music lovers."