Songwriters Night Features "Jesus Per Jesus" By Curan

Michael Anthony Curan of Alicia, Bohol was one of the featured songwriters in The Outpost’s “Songwriters Night” last April 14. In a brief interview prior to their Wednesday night gig (“Songwriters Night” is a regular midweek happening at The Outpost except first Wednesday), Curan shared that he has no formula in writing songs.

“Style and technique vary from song to song. Sometimes, I do the melody first. Sometimes it’s the lyrics that come first and sometimes it’s both. But what my songs have in common is that they’re all based on true emotions whether lyrically abstract or a direct slap on the face,” Curan pointed out.

“People can tell who I am or what I did or what I wanna become just by listening or reading my lyrics,” he went on. “And most of my lyrics don’t rhyme. I don’t measure it like poets do. I just write whatever I have in mind and set the music to fit the lyrics or vice versa.”

Also, Curan shared that he doesn’t put himself in a box musically, but that he puts a string to weave them (songs) all together.

“I may write a song with a folk, or country, or rock, or freak folk arrangements, but I always tie them all with an underlying rootsy feel so it won’t disintegrate,” he stressed.

With “Jesus Per Jesus”, written the other week right after he finished reading “Lord, Save Us From Your Followers” by Dan Merchant, he said that this is about how people in the so-called “evangelical community” tend to twist and misquote the Holy Scriptures to fit their own political agenda.

“Or to make them feel better ‘bout themselves like most televangelists. Even Jesus’ words have been corrupted nowadays,” lamented Curan.

He explained that “Jesus Per Jesus” is an uptempo folk-pop song with a little weird section in the bridge. ”I wrote the lyrics first. [It’s] supposed to be just a poem but then a melody came up while I was mindlessly strumming my guitar and when I was singing the first verse... it fit,” he said with a big smile that reminded me how champions would do such during their moments of triumph.

“However, there’s no rationalé as to why it’s uptempo. It just came up that way. But I arranged it in an alternative country style so that the lyrics will float,” he added.

Curan spent his grade school and high school days in Alicia, a small town in the northeastern part of Bohol. But he pursued his college education here in Cebu. He recently graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology degree from the Cebu Doctors University and will be applying for the College of Medicine this schoolyear.

He mentioned of growing up listening to a lot of music, mostly his mom’s vinyl collection that includes Elvis Presley, Paul Anka, Ray Conniff Singers, and 80’s pop 45 RPM (Kylie Minogue, Madonna, New Order, Duran Duran, et cetera), but it was in grade one when he discovered Ka Pedro of 99.5 RT (back when their format was still alternative rock) that he started “really paying attention to music.”

“I fall in love with Pinoy rock particularly the music of Yano and the Eraserheads and later foreign rock (acts) like Nirvana, Sunny Day Real Estate, Weezer, Blur, Oasis, and Bon Jovi,” he enumerated.

By the time he got into fifth grade, Studio 23 came into their house, and along with it the simulcast of MTV (there’s no cable TV services yet in his town at that time). “It was on MTV where I discovered a wide array of music. I learned to love hip-hop and dance music through it. But what really caught my attention was its constant playing of pop music, particularly boy bands.

“Coming from the Ka Pedro background, the music of Boyzone, Backstreet Boys, and N’Sync were all fresh air to me. I was impressed with their harmonies and dancing.

“But I wasn’t at all inspired to pick up an instrument or become a musician. I was just contented with being a music fan... until the Canadian teenage band The Moffatts came along.

“Armed with their instruments and simple melodies and lyrics and how the girls respond to them, the band totally changed my life. I know it’s not cool to admit that but I am not ashamed of my roots. The Moffatts were the reason why I picked up the guitar and started writing songs,” he shared.

Also at that time, the song “The Gift” by Jim Brickman featuring Collin Raye and Susan Ashton was a huge hit. He said he loved that song so much so that when he saw a cassette tape of Collin Raye’s “Direct Hits”, he instantly bought it.

“What I heard was pop but it was slightly different than The Moffatts’ pop. The songs were in story form and the instrumentation was simple and rootsy and there’s this thing that sounds like it’s a wailing or crying guitar,” he said.

Later, he came to learn that it’s called a pedal steel guitar.

“I love it. I still do. And so I made a research all about Collin Raye and his brand of pop music. It was pop country,” Curan added.

“And that’s how I discovered this great spectrum of American music. Some people refer to it as alternative country or simply folk music - the folk of Bob Dylan, the traditional country sound of Hank Williams, and the bluegrass of Bill Monroe.”

“I just dig deeper with pop country as my starting point. And today with the Internet, music is everywhere,” Curan further shared.