Creative Play: Music These Days

MANILA, Philippines - A Last Saturday, at a cozy and dimly lit gallery at the corner of Zapote and Suez streets in Makati, Music Colony and Team Manila presented “Creative Play: Music Workshop.” While most urbanites were recovering from their Friday night hangovers and traffic fatigue, a young audience of musicians and enthusiasts sat tight to listen to what Sandwich frontman Raymund Marasigan, Abdel-Aziz and DJ Paul Macapagal (with Mon Punzalan), all had to say about songwriting, music production, and DJ-ing.

Asked how exactly he prepared for his talk entitled “Songwriting and Arranging Using Reason,” Raimund quickly replied, “Natulog ‘tsaka nagswimming — 40 laps.” And that helped? “Syempre, gutum na gutom ako pagkatapos, eh. Kaya pagkarating ko pa lang dito, tinanong ko sila, ‘May cheeseburger ba kayo?’”

Half of him was serious, half of him was munching on a square slice of pizza. He then fixed the direction he was seated and said, “Kasi alam ko na ‘yung gusto kong ipresent, tatlong klaseng kanta — mga magkakaibang paraan kung pa’no nagsimula mga kanta namin atsaka kung pa’no ko talaga ginawa. Hindi ko na pinraktis kasi ginawa ko naman sa harap niyo, pero sinigurado ko lang na ayos lahat ng gamit kong dadalhin. Tapos, nagswimming ako.”

Raimund confessed that he doesn’t often talk about his songwriting. “I wish, nung bata tayo, mero’n nang ganito, eh,” he said, “Kami no’n, parang — ‘Pa’no ba ‘to! Ba’t ayaw magrecord?’ (to which someone would reply) ‘I-arm mo kasi ‘yung track!’” His talk barely touched upon the abstract and “artsy fartsy” side of songwriting. There wasn’t much dissection of hifalutin ideas such as “inspiration,” “musical aesthetics” or “poetry.” Instead, it delved into the practical nitty-gritty of recording, and the conveniences that digital music production offers songwriters these days. “The only difference (between) this talk and my real songwriting process is that naka-brip lang ako sa bahay habang nagsusulat. At hindi ako naka-sapatos,” Raimund said.

A casual and informative workshop

Regardless of its casual setup, “Creative Play” was, nonetheless, an informative workshop. Considering that each speaker was only given two hours to speak on courses that take years to master, the tidbits of information were enough to get any budding musician on his/her way. One of the most useful takeaways from Raimund’s talk was that he learned a lot listening to Gary Granada and Ryan Cayabyab, such as the odd relationships of notes with one another and the artist’s right to indulge in “creative borrowing.” His recognition of such influences puts things into proper perspective — showing that even the pros see themselves as students, and that music is a continuous process of learning and re-learning.

Abdel-Aziz talked about the new freedoms that the digital platform, Ableton Live, gives electronic music players and producers alike. He showed how “digital” does not necessarily mean throwing all your music sense out the window. “As a rule of thumb: If everything sounds right — ‘pag di nagbabanggaan mga naririnig mo and the master track doesn’t hit the red mark — then technically, you’re fine,” he said. “But you’ll actually understand analogue music-making a lot more once you’ve gone through the digital platform. You see, digital gives you visuals and puts all the numbers out there, so, if you’re into math and logic, you’ll understand why a note is a note.”

He noted, however, the high costs one has to deal with when taking digital music seriously. “The benefit is that, when you buy the original software and hardware, you’re also joining a community that will help you maximize your equipment — and your creativity is not bound by some crack code you get illegally. There’s so much more you can do.”

Unexplored possibilities in digital music

In listening to his talk, we were given an idea of how largely unexplored and numerous the possibilities were in creating digital music. With the direction pop music is going to these days, I wouldn’t be surprised to find the usual rock band setup done away with, and replaced with just one player sporting a purely digital setup.

The final speaker was DJ Paul Macapagal a.k.a. Supreme Fist, aided by Mon Punzalan. For a lot of us, non-believers in the whole DJ razzle-dazzle, their talk was eye opening to say the least. With all the bad publicity the DJ community is getting from overpriced DJ performances and lazy sync players (e.g., Skrillex), it was a smart move for the two DJs to show us how the whole thing works — using an old school setup of two turntables and a mixer. Somehow, it made the task more human, considering all the counting you have to do while playing.

Together, they walked the audience through the instrument’s history, what exactly makes it work, and what the biggest challenge is for DJs. “You have to make your whole set of two, three hours, sound like one long and seamless song,” Mon said, “and that’s a difficult task because you have to be the host and the unforgiving crowd at the same time.”

Music has always been evolving, meeting, merging, and colliding different styles and perspectives at specific moments in time. Musicians who deny music’s fluidity are likely to deny growth in their own musicality as well. The great thing is that, once in a while, musicians stop and share whatever they’ve learned with whoever’s willing to listen.

* * *

Tweet the author @sarhentosilly.