Sound check: Yolanda Moon

How college band Yolanda Moon finds the chemistry to keep the music alive

MANILA, Philippines - In the year and a half since their inception, Yolanda Moon has already gotten more exposure than most college bands can hope for. Having played prominent gigs like this year’s Malasimbo and Wanderland festivals, they’re a step closer than most to the ubiquitous goal of world tours and international fame.

Composed of lead singer Cholo Hermosa and guitarist Kyle Quismundo, the band was born when the two Music production majors from De la Salle-College of Saint Benilde were songwriting classmates. The boys resemble many other young bands in that they’re uncomfortable boxing their sound into a genre; instead, they instinctively refer to descriptions of others.

“Most people describe (our music) as chill, relaxed,” says Hermosa. “We also get ‘soul’ a lot.” When pressed for their own thoughts, though, they’re noncommittal. “We’re trying to avoid the labels,” says Quismundo.

But in this case, the reluctance seems justified. While the overall feel of their sound is subdued and stripped down, there’s a complex fusion of multiple elements — among them electronic, indie, soul. While a band’s musical influences usually offer a look into their own work, the artists Yolanda Moon draw from — ranging from The Beatles to Radiohead — are no less varied.

When it comes to production, Hermosa handles the lyrics while Quismundo is the main sound engineer. “We’re working independently now, so most of the demos you hear, (Quismundo) mixed, mastered,” says Hermosa.

Though they’re technically a two-man operation, their gigs often feature band set-ups, with musicians loaned from other groups. “There are always sessionists ’pag live. Very rare na kaming dalawa lang,” says Quismundo. By now, they’ve mixed and matched so as to come up with two, unofficial sessionist teams in rotation. “Chemistry is very important,” says Hermosa.

As with their band structure, their songwriting is also a fairly fluid process. “It’s different every time. For some songs, they’re crammed work for school,” admits Hermosa. Other times, it’s a drawn-out process with no real sense of urgency. “It starts with the guitar, and that lingers on for a few weeks until we take the time to actually build on it,” he says.

Their name, on the other hand, is something they have a go-to answer for. The first half is a nod to Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction: Yolanda is the frenetic, wiry woman who holds up the diner with her husband (“Honey Bunny” might hold better name recall). As for the latter half, there were a number of signs that pointed to “Moon” — the most notable being French filmmaker Vincent Moon unexpectedly walking into Cholo’s condo one day.

Considering recent events in the Visayas, however, the two are having a bit of a disagreement about whether or not it would be wise to change their name. While Hermosa is worried it might rub people the wrong way, Quismundo stands firm about keeping it. “If you change your name, it’s kind of a back-to-zero kind of thing,” he says.

But the boys of Yolanda Moon have already made a name for themselves with their scaled-down sound, and audiences are bound to hear more from them in the near future — changed name or no.