Gab Valenciano: Living life on the 'Go'

Gab Valenciano is pretty energetic and candid (one could say that he definitely has the “gift of gab”) for someone who ended up sleeping at four in the morning. Of course, “energetic” is the key word here, having been sired by Mr. Pure Energy himself. From an early age, when he would dance with his dad for various commercial spots or onstage during concerts, it seemed apparent the Gab would eventually follow in his father’s footsteps. After all, having one of the country’s most gifted performers for a father will certainly play a role in what you decide to do with your life later on. There is, however, a distinct difference between being inspired to do what your parents do and allowing what your parents do to dictate what your passions should be. “A lot of people think that I’m in it — in showbiz — because of my dad. People don’t know that I don’t enjoy showbiz. I don’t enjoy the limelight. I just enjoy what I do and that comes with it,” he says. It’s a pretty bold statement to make, considering how most entertainers his age resort to canned responses when faced with tricky queries from prying journalists. But sitting down with Gab even for just five minutes, it isn’t difficult to see that he has no qualms about being frank and forthcoming. While this attitude may strike others as arrogance, in reality, it comes with the territory of already achieving veteran status at such a young age. “If you really think about it, I’ve lived in Manila for 24 years. I’ve been performing for pretty much 24 years. I have nothing to prove anymore,” he states.

That’s not to say that he doesn’t deal with the pressure of being the kid of an industry icon. During a particularly difficult period in his career, he turned to his mother and manager, Angeli, to be consoled. “My mom said, ‘Gab, you have to think about it this way: A lot of people work hard to be where you are. You were born into it, so you have to accept the fact that a lot of people will not accept it, people will not like that.’ And then I was telling her, ‘But mom, I never chose this,’” he confessed. “My brother and I would talk also,” he continues. “We’d always be like, ‘It’s hard, eh’ It also puts a lot of pressure on you. Not because we have to live up to our dad, but because of the other people that talk about our lives, that give us doubt. That, for me, is more pressure. And my dad always used to tell me, ‘You don’t need to be like me.’ And that helped me growing up. That really, really helped me.”

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Sitting here, while the crew and stylists set up for his Sony Xperia Go photo shoot, it seems that he’s gotten through that ring of fire. It certainly helps that there are a lot of things on his plate, apart from all that movement. Currently, he’s enrolled at Full Sail University in Florida, taking up music production. It’s a hybrid course, he explains. Normally his course is only a year and four months, but since he decided to take his minor subjects online, then fly to Florida to take his majors, it will take two years and a half. Naturally, this interest in music production was also inspired by his father, having practically grown up hanging out with him in the studio. He isn’t reluctant to give credit where it is due: “My dad is another heck of a producer, if you were to ask me,” he says. At the moment, he is experimenting with making electronica and dubstep, but is reluctant to release it before he graduates.

Still, despite his partial hesitation about releasing his work publicly, you may have already heard Gab’s work without even realizing it, having created mixes for ASAP 2012 and Sarah G Live. “That, for me, is the epitome of perfection in my life: When I’m performing something I created. Also when you create something and you see it in action,” he shares. He is also working on scoring an indie film about child-trafficking titled Alagwa, which stars Jericho Rosales, Carmen Soo and Leo Martinez. On top of all this, he is working on his first solo album, but take note: He’s not singing on it — “I leave that to my dad, to my sister and my brother,” he says. Instead, he will be collaborating with his dad, Paolo, and other artists, like Jed Madela, Jericho Rosales, Marie Digby. “My album will be available on iTunes to buy. I want people all around the world to hear it and hopefully, they appreciate it. Hopefully they like it, but it’s my first, so I’m really nervous about it. It’s only six to eight songs,” he shares. He’ll also be recording and producing everything right in his own home studio, which he built little by little using the money he earned from dancing alongside his dad in TV spots as a little boy. “I remember this so clearly: One day I went to my mom’s office and I was like, ‘Mom, I wanna get a Mac Pro, but I’m not sure kasi if I can afford it.’ I was probably 17 or 18. And then she was like, ‘Son, you’ve been working your entire life, since you were a baby, and we never touched your funds,’” he recounts. “So then, that’s when I built up my studio, little by little and now, I’m very satisfied.” Building his studio, writing and producing music for other artists, and producing his first solo album by himself are just the first steps he’s taking towards putting up his own independent record label. 

With everything he has going on in his life, all the responsibilities that he has to balance, and plans set aside for the future, Gab still can’t help but be distracted. He is, after all, still a young man and young men are wont to be distracted by certain things, like technology. A self-confessed “gadget freak,” he confesses that the real reason why he slept so late the previous night is because he couldn’t stop playing with a new toy. “This is honest: this reason why I slept at 4 a.m. last night is because I kept tinkering with the Sony Xperia Go. I like this phone because it’s something I can take around with me. It’s called Xperia Go because it’s water-resistant, it’s shock-resistant, it’s dust-resistant. It pretty much fits my personality,” he says.

Now when it comes to celebrities talking about the products they endorse, there’s always something suspect in what they say because, well, they’re being paid to say it. Bu,t if anything, Gab is the real deal in an industry full of B.S. He takes great pains to make this clear before going on to describe the features about the phone that particularly excited him. “There’s also this feature that I like: It’s called ‘wet finger,’ which is helpful because when I dance kasi, I’m very pasmado. One of the biggest features it has is that it’s water-resistant. Plus, the Bravia engine, like the Sony Bravia TVs, is encrypted into the phone, so it’s HD. And of course, it’s Android-powered. I sincerely like it. You know, sometimes you’re paid to say certain things for a product that you’re endorsing or a product that they’re getting you to represent. But I honestly and sincerely enjoyed it last night,” he finishes.