Although both Freeverse and Freestyle dish out the same brand of groove-inducing barroom staples, Freeverse had its headstart as early as 1995, when they did the front act for Side A’s Forevermore campus tour.
Because of the good crowd response, they were soon prodded to audition for Music Hall, where they eventually made their name as another formidable crowd-drawer in the live performance arena.
Freeverse is composed of Ned Esguerra on bass, Ryan Ortiz on vocals, Bong Maquito on keyboards, Joel Tolentino on drums, and Kiko Verzosa on guitar and vocals.
The band’s name, coined by their former keyboardist Khavn de la Cruz, smacks of poetic undertones.
Freeverse recently released its second album under MCA Universal, Alive. It features four original compositions: Make Believe, Tell Me Why?, Don’t Set Me Free, and Alive, alongside a bevy of nostalgic remakes of such hits as Bakit Ba Ganyan? (originally sung by Dina Bonnevie), Maybe This Time, All Behind Us Now, After All, I Just Can’t Let Go, Send Me One Line and Always Be There.
Their first album, launched in 1999 under MCA Universal featured all originals, including their first single, Muli, written by Ned.
Despite their foreign influences, Ned acknowledges a host of local influences that have contributed to their sound, such as South Border, Side A, Gary V, Joey Benin and even Ryan Cayabyab.
"I’m proud to say that I studied under Mr. C (Ryan Cayabyab) at the UP College of Music," Ned narrates. "I actually sought him out, and enjoyed every minute of his music theory classes. Ryan has his way of making his lectures sound interesting and light."
And has his academic experience helped his musical creativity at all?
"When I got in, the school was kinda lenient towards pop music. They were really more into the avant garde approach, which I couldn’t really dig," Ned continues. "So, in my spare time, I started writing my original tunes, which were all released in our first self-titled album in 1999."
Freeverse plays regularly at Padi’s Mindave every Monday; Studio One Alabang on Wednesdays; Suburbia on Fridays and Virgin Café every Saturday.