After two months, new frontman now at home with InnerVoices

MANILA, Philippines — Two months after he was taken in as the new frontman for the six-man band InnerVoices, led by lawyer and founder Rey Bergado, Patrick Marcelino is thankful for the reception of the crowd everywhere they perform.

“In a span of two months, we did many new cover songs,” Patrick admitted. “Being together became stronger, although we started really happy from the very beginning. The past two months that we’ve been performing together, our boding and connection on and off stage, came out naturally.

“Every night that I’ve been performing with them, I really want the atmosphere to be happy. I make sure that I connect with the people. I make them dance, clap or sing. I make sure I’ll make someone laugh every night of the performance.

“We just tried to mix and match when they launched me as the new soloist, so that will be different from their previous soloist (Angelo Miguel) until we go back to the original music of InnerVoices, the ‘80s pop tunes.”

InnerVoices revived many of the ‘80s songs in their set list. “We work so hard for our performances,” Patrick said. “Every week, we always rehearse what we will sing onstage. We added to our set list of ‘80s new wave songs.

Patrick gave up his singing career after he left Singapore when his wife passed on in 2018 and he returned to Manila. But he was given a new lease on singing when he was launched as the new soloist of InnerVoices.

“Maybe we can do Earth, Wind and Fire like Reasons and After the Love Has Gone. When we sing party songs, there are many in our set list.”

Thankfully, Patrick has not encountered any problem after two months of performing with InnerVoices.

“So far, there haven’t been any serious issues,” he said. “We’ve known each other for a long time. In the industry of musicians in Manila, now is not just the time when we started performing together.”

InnerVoices has started compiling new, original songs that carry the sound of millennials and Gen-Zs. “We will launch the new songs on June 25,” Patrick offered. “The songs still carry the tunes of ‘90s OPM (Original Pilipino Music) like the ones of Neocolours and (current hitmaker) Dionela.

“We decided to join them together. If you will notice, the songs are merely going around in circles. We have more variety now. But, of course, we always need to focus on the ‘80s new wave, where InnerVoices started.

“Then we mix and match with some current songs, some pop music, like a little of Bruno Mars or Maroon 5.”

Singing ‘80s music is not a tall order for Patrick as the new frontman of the band. “I was also born in the ‘80s,” he granted. “So far, some of the challenges are singing the band’s original songs. If we do cover songs, that’s our listening session ever since.

“If you do original songs successively, that’s a bit hard to adopt. We’ve finished eight original songs. Almost for the whole album already. We really need to constantly rehearse and keep on listening to our new, original songs everyday.”

The group has many other original songs that they plan to release soon. Patrick plans to release an original song, Hawak sa Kamay, that he wrote.

“We’ll get there,” he said. “There are many others in our vault.”

Patrick included the ballad Idlip, to their set list.

Galaw was penned by Glenn Mapwe. Tubig, Hangin Ako ay Lupa was composed by Edward Mitra. Rey gave him the song he composed, Meant To Be,” recorded in November last year.

InnerVoices will release a new EP (extended play) for the new songs. “Now, we finished eight original songs,” he said proudly. “Yes, we can release an album soon.”

InnerVoices performs every Thursday and Saturday nights at Hard Rock Café in Makati. They do regular gigs four nights a week. On Mondays, they sing at Bar 360 at the Newport World Resorts and on Fridays at Bar IX (Nine) at Molito in Alabang.

They sing on special nights, once a month, at 19 East in Parañaque, like on June 25 (Wednesday) and Aromata in Quezon City.

“We need to keep other days open, since we also do private events,” Patrick said. “We’re good with regular gigs four times nightly.”

Lately, InnerVoices has also been doing TV guestings, like with “Kada Umaga,” with Pia Guanio on Net25.

Patrick gave up his singing career after he left Singapore when his wife passed on in 2018 and he returned to Manila. But he was given a new lease on singing when he was launched as the new soloist of InnerVoices.

“This is like a dream come true that I didn’t expect,” Patrick said. “I thought my singing career ended when I left Singapore after a decade.”

His children are Shanice, now 12 and son, Jacob, now 10. The kids were merely four and two years old when his wife died.

On Sundays, Patrick brings his children to church where they sing for the choir in the 2 p.m. Mass at Don Bosco Makati. “That’s family day for us,” Patrick said.

Last month, Patrick proposed to his new girlfriend, Mel Pechera, in Japan. There is no date yet for an altar date. “We just got engaged,” beamed Patrick.

InnerVoices is managed by Rey Bergado. “He’s my second manager as a singer,” said Patrick of the lawyer. “The first one when I was 18 years old. Now, I got the chance to work with Atty. Rey. He didn’t require me to do so many things.”

Even if his nightly gigs end up at nearly midnight, mornings for Patrick see him attending to his two kids and bringing them to school. Mid-day, he also picks up the kids and gets to share lunch with them.

“That’s my normal, everyday life,” said Patrick.

Other members of InnerVoices are Rene Tecson on guitar, Alvin Herbon on bass, Joseph Cruz on keyboards and Joseph Esparago on percussion.