Laro: The artist at play
Mea culpa.
If this article reads like a shameless plug for the new album I have recently released, it is because I can’t help writing about it. I am excited, thrilled, proud and giddy about the product of my latest passion.
It is called “Laro” and the songs on it are all mine. Almost all the songs I had ever done in my close to 40 years as a recording artist have been part of an APO album. “Laro” is a solo undertaking.
It’s not the first time I’ve done something like this. In 1996, while APO was hosting a noontime show, I did a solo album called “Ako Lang,” for obvious reasons. It was a strange experience recording without my two friends, expressing all that music and emotion all by my lonesome. But it was a very personal album that I had to do alone. I was mid-lifing then and faced many personal issues involving family, my mom who had passed away, my newly awakened spirituality, my worldly possessions, discontent, lust, etc.
“Laro” is quite different. It is a motley collection of songs with different themes. I also got a few songs from “Ako Lang” and included them on this album. Some of the new songs date back to the ’80s when I made them and had put away in a baul in my head. I never presented some of them to APO or anyone else because I felt they were not ready to be heard. Some songs were written for APO but never saw the light of day. In our last few years together, Danny and Boboy had pretty much lost interest in making records so I kept these songs somewhere and promised myself I would record them someday.
After APO split up in May last year, I made an effort to inventory all the unrecorded songs in my mental baul. There were many half-songs — incomplete musical pieces that were waiting to be finished. I revisited some and reconnected with the original emotional and musical vision I had for them.
It was a wonderful experience going back to these half-creations and completing them finally. It was like returning to a familiar place that you could not previously stay too long in but promised yourself you would return to. I also wrote new songs in the months after the split that I hoped to record someday.
As part of my strategy to keep busy and not fall into a creative rut after APO’s last shows, I plunged into writing, giving workshops, photography, teaching and getting involved in the last presidential campaign with a passion so intense I surprised even myself. But I knew that one involvement I had to get back to was recording.
I’ve always loved being in the studio working with musicians and technicians and creating sounds, verses, phrases clothed in notes that magically turn into full songs. It feels very powerful to create something beautiful and coherent and connects to other people emotionally. It’s the ultimate creative high making something magical and wonderful out of nothing.
I worked with APO’s pianist and arranger Ernie Baladjay. We had worked well together on albums in the past and doing “Laro” was no different. But what was new was our attitude while we were making the album. We made sure we were not paying attention to what was currently popular. We did not even ask ourselves what was selling these days. We did not want to be straitjacketed into conformity by bringing in the “Is it commercial?” question that can turn a decent piece of work into something awfully compromised. We had no crowd in mind to play to. We just wanted to play, doing music that we enjoyed and liked.
If some of my themes are outrageous, it is because I was out to have fun tackling topics and themes that OPM has not explored.
“Laro” is my gift primarily to myself. I have worked really hard all these years to please audiences through and with APO. I wanted to do something to surprise and delight myself. Besides, I feel that not recording my songs that have something to say is tantamount to creative abortion and sooner or later, I will suffer the psychological trauma of not having believed enough in the integrity of my own work.
My purpose with this album is to bring forth into the world my creative offspring. Like real kids, some are modern and hip, some are old-fashioned, some like to experiment, some are moody and some are the cuddly types who enjoy making me feel good and mushy. Whatever, however they are, they pointed the way to how best they should be treated. In all my years of recording, I have always wanted to rap, and I did on “Laro.” I thought it would establish the fact that this is laro and I am “playing.”
I asked my daughter Ala to design the album cover and I am more than happy with the outcome. Financed the entire project. I did not seek the blessing of people who know the market while doing it, so I may or may not get my investment back. But who cares? I acted in the simplest way I know. I felt I had something to say and I said it as I wanted to.
A writer writes. A creator creates. It is as simple as the sun is meant to rise and the day is meant to end. At some point in ones’ life, one must express love and passion simply and with as few conditions as possible. “Laro”was my attempt at doing that.
If you get to listen to this album, I hope you enjoy it.
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1) Now, finally in Alabang! Songwriting on May 27. Call 850-3568 to 70 or 0917-8080627. Venue is at Pixie Forest Amusement Center, Level 3 Festival Supermall, Filinvest Corporate City, Alabang. Call for reservations.
2) Basic Photography in QC on June 4. Call Olie at 0916-8554303 or 426-5375 for all workshop inquiries. Or write me at mailto:emailjimp@gmail.com. Check jimparedes-workshops.com for details on all workshops.
