Lance Raymundo is making a comeback after a 10-year absence from the music scene. No, he was never idle during that long hiatus. It was his choice to take a break after his eponymous first and only album under Viva Records was released. He felt that Viva wanted to create a young balladeer type in him but deep inside, Lance always wanted to be a pop star.
“So I decided to finish school (high school and college in UP where he earned a diploma in BS Biology) first, then put up a forwarding company just to assure my dad that I can still survive when everything is done showbiz-wise,” Lance shares.
After things had been settled in 2008, Lance was ready to swing back to the music scene. Instead, his feet led him to acting when someone urged him to audition for a role in Singapore which according to Lance, “I didn’t want to do it because I wanted to be a singer ever since, yet, I still gave it a try and I passed.”
In short, he ended up working as the lead actor of a Singaporean TV series and right after, ABS-CBN got him for the villain role of Turko in Pieta. His acting assignments didn’t stop there. Lance starred in indies Fidel and Nursery, and in the Carlo J. Caparas’ movie Pangarap Kong Jackpot with Manny Pacquiao and Mario O’Hara’s Ang Paglilitis ni Andres Bonifacio where he portrayed Emilio Aguinaldo.
“After director O’Hara (project), I felt fulfilled as an actor because I had worked in an international TV series, acted in an ABS-CBN show and I was already handled by veteran directors in movies. So I took a break again with a project in mind which I eventually called the Wolf Sound that I now use for my comeback.”
Wolf, Lance explains, doesn’t pertain to the animal but to the idea which he accidentally conceptualized after a show in Papua New Guinea with Gretchen Espina.
“Wolf means Wonders of Living and Freedom. It exactly fits me now that as an artist, I’m free to do whatever I want without having to follow any guidelines from anyone. I started tweeting my friends about my new sound until Wolf nga became my nickname. Then they were asking about my next song and this Wolf Sound is what I’m about to offer next,” he says.
There are supposedly 10 English songs for the Wolf Sound to be released in March 2012, but his manager, Mark Shandii Bacolod, advised him to include a Tagalog song so Lance dug up his old compositions and found one titled Fatanas which he wrote two years ago.
“We made a music video for Fatanas Devil and uploaded it on YouTube which had over 5,000 hits in its first few days and still counting.”
With the song’s meaningful lyrics complemented with a video concept of an androgynous devil dancing at Lance’s back, various comments rained like bullets eventually putting him in hot water. Some said he intentionally composed Fatanas to directly hit the former president and the past government’s wrongdoings.
“The song is about greed because during the time that I’m doing it, masama ang loob ko. I’m a victim of lots of greediness. You know, good plans or good friendship ay nasisira because of greed at dun ko nabuo yun. The song had nothing to do with political issues.”
Line 1 of Fatanas, Lance explains, is about people who became greedy after getting rich and powerful. He used an androgynous character to represent all people — whether a man or a woman. Line 2 signifies people who, after, discovering some wrongdoings, chose to turn their backs and live accordingly while the last line embodies “the temptation that keeps coming to our life.”
“Some people thought that the song is my blunt way of talking about the alleged electoral sabotage of the former president. It’s not. I made the song on Oct. 29, 2009, 10:28 a.m. so people can’t say that I wrote it because of political issues and I made the video for fun lang.
“People are lambasting me that I’m trying hard to call attention para mapag-usapan. We planned to upload it last October but there were some delays like nag-abroad ang editor kaya the past week lang nailabas.”
Lance clears that the song is aimed at discouraging people to become greedy. And whether he admits it or not, the music video is actually doing him good. These days, his hands are full with invites coming from radio and TV shows to perform it live. He, too, is busy with out-of-town and mall shows. Truth is, he will perform during the MMFF Parade of Stars on Dec. 24.
Asked what if a TV station dangles a contract in front of him, Lance replied, “Of course, I’ll sign but I’m just glad all the stations are opening their doors to me. It means that Fatanas is actually creating a lot of interest.”
Aside from music, Lance is interested in sports. He does track and field and boxing three times a week. Find out how Lance spends his day from the time he wakes up until he hits the sack:
“I live a crazy life because whatever time I sleep at night, I still wake up before 7 a.m., maybe it’s part of my being an athlete. I run around the village for two hours daily.
9 a.m. – Go back home. I’ll have my breakfast after taking a shower.
10 a.m. – I start tweeting on my Twitter for 30 minutes. After, I go to Talent Workshop Hub, a dance studio (owned by James Salas of Universal Motion Dancers) to learn new steps. I stay there until lunchtime. I don’t need to go to the office every day. My celfone is my office.
12 noon — lunch either in fastfood or any normal place.
1 p.m. — I visit my girlfriend. She’s a fashion stylist and her name is Anna Araneta. I usually visit her. She’s the one that chooses or repairs my clothing for my usual engagement in the afternoon around 5 or 6 p.m. She takes me to the mall and she picks what to wear and I fit them. S’yempre may halong date yun so we say goodbye around 3 p.m. with my outfits ready for my engagements so are the costumes that I’m using for my shows.
7 p.m. — I’m done with my shows promoting Fatanas. Sometimes if I have TV interviews and tapings, I go straight to the station. Otherwise, if the day is done, I go straight home (in Greenhills) and spend time with my family. I tell them how my day went. I live in the same house as my parents and Rannie’s family so Rannie always gives pointers to me.
9 p.m. — I go back to my Twitter world and tell my followers how the day went or if I did tape for a show, I watch it on TV.
9:30 or 10 p.m. — I sleep na because I don’t want to remove sports in my life eh. I either run or do boxing in the morning.