Future Perfect: Hometown glory

MANILA, Philippines - As a 25-year-old, Emmanuel Natola has also moved places about 25 times in his life. Born in Toronto to a Filipina mother and an Italian father, he has since lived in Switzerland, US West Coast, Vancouver and, currently, Manila. The moving situation eventually forced him to drop out, but in his new Manila home, with his wife and three-year-old daughter, things are giving him a new perspective — that besides art direction, modeling, music-making and writing, he is a now a father freed from trying to meet unreal expectations.

What have you been reading lately?

It’s called A Journey to the End of Taste. The narrative starts with Celine Dion and the concept of how she is a huge hit, but then she’s not someone you would call high-brow. It examines why people gravitate towards, for lack of a better word, trash.

Last time, you were into Umberto Eco’s Travels in Hyperreality.

It’s says that everything we see is a copy of a thing that we can’t even remember. It means nothing is real anymore. It sort of drills these expectations in life that are not realistic, so we start to indulge in fantasies.

Where did you pick up reading?

I spent a lot of time listening to pastors, my mom telling me that things were a certain way. It became really obvious to me that what was being told was not really how it was. I became very interested in finding the hidden side of things.

What made you start blogging?

I started blogging when I quit my job. The hours were really, really long. I really didn’t get to do anything else. It was in the advertising side. I would do copywriting and graphic design. My main responsibility was to create campaigns. I’ve been writing in one shape or another since I was like 12.

Have you heard any criticisms of your writing?

Natola is working on his space rock project called Grandcross, for which he has enough material to make an EP.

I really wanna be caustic, so I’ve got feedback that I’m obnoxious, like “Why are you pushing people’s buttons?” But I really think it’s important to force people to re-examine things that they take for granted.

The strong opinions may come from being a white boy. You were writing this piece about being one?

I’m half-Filipino, half-Italian. I’m in this weird middle ground, where I don’t belong to any ethnic group. What do I base myself on? It’s about finding your identity outside of any cultural background.

You have a music project.

I have a hip-hop project. I have a space rock project. I have enough to compile an EP already, but I really don’t wanna show anyone until I’m finished. Even with my writing, I’m constantly self-editing. My space rock project, Grandcross, is the concept of living in a space where humanity had already left.

How is having your own family changing your life?

Before I had a wife, before I had a kid, I was just sort of floating around. We got married in 2009. I had a hard time focusing on things, deciding what I wanted to be. When I had a kid, it sort of decided it for me. I find the barriers of marriage and having a child very liberating.

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Emmanuel Natola blogs at negavibes.wordpress.com.