"A female friend once said that the composition "Escape" off their second album helped her go through an ordeal"

CEBU, Philippines - Dondie band Techy Romantics initially intended to be just an internet band. Which meant they were to just showcase their original music online, and not perform any live gigs or even post photos of themselves. “We didn’t want it to be about personalities. We wanted to simply share our music,” said Dondi Virrey, the three-piece band’s resident rhythms-and-beats guy.

The FREEMAN met the electronic trio when they performed at Bluewater Resort in Maribago, Lapu-Lapu City and in Bluewater Resort in Sumilon Island.

Their guitarist Ryan Villena, formerly of the band Narda, emphasized that they wanted to be different. Going digital also meant their work reached a much wider audience faster. But one of their many listeners over the social networking service MySpace invited them for a one-time gig. That one time led to another, until the band found itself establishing a solid following in the capital’s underground party scene and having enough hits to churn out a physical album apart from those they made available online.

Dondi related that the concept of Techy Romantics was conceived in April of 2008, and put to reality June of that same year. Their vocalist Camyl Besinga and Ryan went to his house one Sunday to jam, where they ended up creating their first hit single, “Out of My Mind.”

“I saw the name ‘Techy Romantics’ in an online wallpaper, and when I looked it up in MySpace, the name wasn’t taken yet. So even when our band wasn’t formed yet, I already had that name in mind. I thought, that’s exactly what I want to do: Romantic, easy-listening and emo, but with a techno twist,” said Dondi, who had been experimenting with the electronica genre since 2005.

Dondi used to be a stock market trader, Camyl is a managing editor at Cosmopolitan magazine, and Ryan is a Filipino Literature teacher at the Ateneo high school.

At first, they weren’t sure what direction to take as they came from different musical inclinations: Dondi was into new wave, Ryan into alternative rock, while Camyl was into pop rock. Thankfully, they all shared a common interest in electro-pop. Thus was born their own brand of music which they coined as “chillelectro,” a lyrically-driven mix of dance progressive and house pop rock.

“For people who are hearing us perform for the first time, they actually just listen first and figure out what’s going on. Our music sounds like house, but it’s not necessarily house. There’s a pop or new wave ring to it, but it’s not purely any of those. It’s really a mix of different genres,” Camyl said, gratefully noting that the mash-up of sorts has enjoyed an appreciative audience.

“I think that’s also a result of our different backgrounds in music. If you ask a lot of Filipino musicians, their goal is really to make Filipinos open to different kinds of music. Music has a very huge scope, and there are a lot of genres apart from what we are familiar with that are great to listen to. So far, it has worked for us. We have people tweeting us that everyday, while struck in traffic, it’s our songs they’re playing in their car.”

They released their full-length debut album “Touch” under the independent label Party Bear Records in 2009. Two years after, Techy Romantics followed it up with their sophomore album “Escape” which is available in record stores nationwide.

Fans describe their sound as hypnotic, relaxing, soothing and “fits just as easily into a club environment as it does in the car while driving on a lonely road.”

Proof of their solid fan base was an award they won last year: They were chosen as Yahoo Rocks Favorite Indie Artist for 2011.

“It was a voting thing online. Yahoo wanted to make the public choose who they want to be part of a concert. They set different categories, such as for solo acts, rock artists and indie bands. We were under the indie bands category. We were surprised and honored to learn that people were really voting for us,” Camyl shared.

But awards like these are only icing on the cake. What they consider a compliment of the highest order is when they affect someone’s life through their music. As Dondi would proudly recall, a female friend once approached him to say that his composition “Escape” off their second album helped her go through an ordeal.

Ryan equally finds it fulfilling how their work can be embraced even by a non-Filipino. “It was during one of our early gigs when a foreigner from the US was listening to us play. It was back when we were on our third month and our regular gig was becoming mechanical. And then this guy tells us that he likes our music, and it would probably do well in the US or any other part of the world. Not that foreigners are the gauge, but the more people that we reach out to, the better.”

Asked what else they wanted to achieve as a band, Ryan answered that they mainly aspire to continue writing and recording more albums. “With the clubbing scene we’re into, I’m happy with the fact that we belong in it because it’s something that we can do until we’re old. Club music is something that we can do even when we have kids. It’s something that people can always listen to, relax with or dance with. So, just recording more material and performing in different venues are what we hope to achieve.” (FREEMAN)