Wuv and Sonny of POD

Wuv Bernardo leans back in his chair and held his hands together to summon the ages. He scans the air as the visions appear. In a prayerful tone, he looks back at a troubled time: poverty, kids, drugs, destitution. His father was a poor Filipino immigrant who grew up in the mean streets of San Diego, California. His mother was a young Italian-Guamanian lass who worked double-time to make ends meet. Wuv was forged in a fiery moment of youthful abandon, but like most struggling young couples still growing up in a dead-end neighborhood, having a child was an inescapable burden.

"As a kid, I saw the things my parents had to go through. At that time, my dad’s life was going through a hard time. He was basically a young teenager who still wanted to be a kid, who wanted to do the things he likes to do. He’d do drugs or sell them here and there to have some money. Eventually, that took a toll on my family and my parents split up," Wuv shares.

After a short period of time, however, things began to change. Wuv’s father sought the light again and, as the POD drummer put it, he turned to God for help.

"My father’s transformation was something that I witnessed from the outside," Wuv recalls. "It wasn’t like he was telling me that he was going to change. I was watching him – and everybody was watching him. And he was changing and everybody could tell that he was changing, so it was more of an example that hit us. When we were kids, people were always saying ‘love God’ or ‘go to Church’. But when you actually see a life being changed and transformed, then it starts to become real for you."

Wuv continues: "After a few years, my father began to make an impact on my mother again and they started dating and seeing each other again. And before you knew it, the family that was torn apart was restored. They’ve been together for 28 years now. My dad’s 44 years old. It’s a pretty amazing story but it’s something that built character in us and gave inspiration for our band."

POD or Payable On Death, which Wuv formed more than 10 years ago with his cousin and vocalist, Sonny Sandoval, has been on top of the airwaves and music channels lately because of their thundering music and uplifting message. At first glance, the heavily-tatooed, hulking members look like they have just escaped from San Quentin Penal Colony to give the dorks of Linkin Park some mean trashing. But they’re not. POD is among those rare, unique bands that combine positive (and sometimes religious) messages with riffs and rhyme that rock.

POD recently graced Manila with a one-night concert at the Le Pavillion in Roxas Boulevard after their rousing MTV Asian Music Awards performance. The show, sponsored by Pulp and presented by Warner Music Philippines, was flooded by thousands of POD converts that made the whole area a giant slam pit. Outside, fans staged a mini-riot after Le Pavillion guards refused them entry to the jampacked venue.

Fortunately, Warner managed to arrange an interview for Young Star a few days before the concert. Wuv and Sonny share some of their insights about music, faith, and family.

Young STAR: You’re here in the Philippines to promote your new single, Youth of the Nation. What do you think is wrong with the youth of today?

Wuv: We don’t go around and pinpoint what’s wrong with the youth. But I think, in general, the direction the kids are going, especially when you see them in the States, is that they have to go to school and shoot people because they’re feeling depressed or they’re feeling lonely. It makes everybody wonder what’s going on. I think it’s the job of parents to feel responsible, to look into it a little more and see what they can do – whether it’s spending time with kids, whether it’s talking to them, whether it’s doing the little things that turn into big things when they get older. Those kinda things.

Sonny: We’re not pointing our fingers at the youth. It’s more like feeling sorry for them that because they have to go through so much garbage today. It takes away a lot of innocence, with a lot of the garbage that come out from TV to music. They’re making them grow up too fast.

Who’s to blame for all the youth violence that’s going on?

Sonny: A lot of it comes from the trouble that surrounds our society. We grew up around the coast where we go to the beach, hang out with friends, and do anything from sports to skating. I don’t know if you really can do anything about it. It’s just in the air. Some people seem to have never been taught about respect. But for us, we’re a band that’s about respect. We treat people with decency and with love. I don’t know if you have to grow up a little bit to learn these things or learn it when you’re young, but in the meantime it’s about taking care of each other.

Does music play a major factor in youth violence?

Wuv: I think it’s like anything. What you put in is kinda what you gonna put out. I don’t particularly blame music for kids being violent. It’s the same thing as anything. If you’re gonna listen to music that makes you feel angry and you wanna go out and be aggressive, you’re gonna do things like that.

Sonny: If you listen to song that says "kill your cat, kill your cat," pretty soon you’ll be looking at your little kitten it’s not gonna be soft and cuddly anymore. You’re gonna be angry towards that. It’s what you take in, it’s what you put out, whether it’s music or something that you’re reading. There are songs out there that are 95 per cent cuss words and I’ve seen kids listen to that and walk around cussin’ people on the street. That’s a shame.

In other interviews, you said the band members value their respective families. A lot of convictions you have now were formed when you were young. Can you tell us how were you brought up?

Sonny: We were always raised in respect, but we were also given the freedom to make our choices. Wuv and I grew up in a young family. Before, there was a lot of fighting but our faith in God restored the harmony in our family. After a certain level, there were no fighting, no screaming. And we have been blessed because of that.

Wuv: We were together in the same family. We were taught to respect and we were showing and giving love. We’ve seen our parents struggle, you know, growing up young and trying to raise us when they were kids themselves. We learned to appreciate things a little more. For the most part, I can’t complain. I love our family and that develops who you are as a person.

What are your insights about God and religion?

Wuv: God is always full of grace and mercy. I don’t see God as a religion like what you see on TV. God is in the heart. If you believe it, then he’s gonna shower you with blessings. It’s a personal thing and for us as a band, it’s a personal belief that we have come to know and it makes us want to be better people and it makes us want to share what we feel because we’ve seen the other side of things. Like Sonny always says, this is so good, why should we hide it from people? And that’s what makes POD different from the regular rock ‘n’ roll bands that have to have demons or have to be evil or whatever. We don’t believe in that. We believe the things we want to believe and we sing about them because they’re real to us. That’s the way we worship God, by playing music.

Sonny: Religion has been used for years to keep people in fear. It’s almost like God is a burden. Like, I have to love God to go to heaven. But for us, especially when we were kids, it’s nothing that’s forced. God isn’t a burden for me. I don’t feel like I have to do this because the preacher told me to. I feel blessed because now I get to see the world, my family is fine when I leave, we have an album that rocks and people are respecting it.

What’s your message to the Filipino youth?

Wuv: Take care of each other, respect each other, and treat people like the way you would want other people to treat you.