A tale of two musical visitors

Text and photos by Kap Maceda Aguila

The contrasting energy levels and age groups surely weren’t lost on concertgoers who binged on both Wilson Phillips (at the Mall of Asia Arena) and Foster the People (at the Smart Araneta Coliseum) this month. Both also served as a means to check how old you were on the basis of how much (or little) you could relate to the music.

It took them an astounding 22 years, but the ladies of Wilson Phillips must have surely felt the undiminished love from their Filipino fans. The ’90s trio responsible for the monster hit Hold On

(which propelled its debut album to sales past 12 million worldwide, not to men-tion awards and nomina- tions) was watched by a very good-sized crowd aged 20 to (dare we say) 50-somethings.

Sisters Carnie and Wen- dy Wilson and Chynna Phillips were visibly ex- cited even as they met the press a day before the show. “We want to connect with our fans (in the Philippines) in a way that we have not been able to for the past 22 years. We’ve never been here and we can’t wait,” gushed Chynna, who now sports long blonde locks.

“It’s so fun here,” joined Carnie. “We knew it was going to be this way. Our cousin’s grandmother is Filipino so we grew up with Celia and all her lumpia all these years.”

Last year, Wilson Phillips celebrated two decades as a re- cording artist with the release of its fifth album Dedicated (distrib- uted locally by Ivory Music & Video). The 12-song collection is comprised of classic songs from Beach Boys and The Mamas & The Papas. The two legendary acts are not only cover-worthy. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys is father to Wendy and Carnie; John and Michelle Phillips are parents of Chynna. This is very personal stuff, and one can point out that it took the ladies 20 years to do this as well.

I asked them how difficult it was to cover the songs to which they have such affinity with. Did they want a certain degree of faithfulness to the original?

“Very good questions,” said Carnie. “These songs are some of the greatest songs ever writ- ten and obviously very close to our hearts and our family. They’re beloved around the world. The approach that we took... relied a lot on our producer, my husband Rob (Bonfiglio), and he really took his time to feel it out and keep it organic and keep it somehow true to the original version.

“But you never can dupli- cate those and we did not try to. We thought of some new harmonies and new arrange- ments. But once we put our vocals and our harmonies and these tracks were pretty basic — that’s where the magic came in.”

At the concert, the ladies were visibly at ease with the appreciative audience. The ladies’ fascination with har- mony surely must have ema- nated from their distinguished, aforementioned progenitors. We were taken back to the ’90s and further back with staple Wilson Phillips tracks and excellent covers of Beach Boys and The Mamas & The Papas. Music is clearly in the blood.

At the press conference, Chynna said: “We just want to keep going back to the Philip- pines and sing here.”

Is that a promise, I asked. “Sure, just send me a ticket,” she replied with a smile.

If fans were able to, well, hold on for two decades...

Meanwhile, Grammy “Pop misfits” is an oxymoron, for sure — but so is “indie pop,” come to think of it.

Still, under that most nebu- lous of categories falls the Los Angeles-based band Foster the People. Mark Foster (vocals, keyboards, piano, synthesiz- ers, guitar, programming, percussion), Cubbie Fink (bass and backing vocals), and Mark Pontius (drums, percussion) serve up a mélange of guilty pleasures, amalgamating mel- ody-fueled dance music with often pointed lyrics.

No matter how you see the genre-smashing band, its music has certainly resonated with a great number of listen- ers and industry critics. The 2011 album Torches debuted at No. 8 of the Billboard 200 chart — thanks largely to the runaway hit Pumped Up Kicks, which Foster released as a free single on his website prior to the band’s creation. Despite its syrupy, infectious tune, Pumped Up Kicks is a dark tale presumably about a disturbed kid who shoots up his school.

“The theme for Pumped Up Kicks is really (about giving) hope to the underdog,” said Foster at the pre-show press conference. “I tend to write joyful music when it comes to melody, but when it comes to finding the right lyrics, another side comes out. Happy song with happy lyrics is boring.”

He continued: “Pumped Up Kicks is about a kid who is an outcast who does not really wear the right clothes and does not fit into the culture — and he starts to lose his mind. It’s empathetic towards a sad place of youth. Kids these days, a lot of times, do not really get to have a real childhood and they grow up so fast.”

As for the category-defying music: “We all grew up with different kinds of music — electronic, rock n’ roll, blue grass, country. Our influences are all over the place. Our favorite bands are bands that do not really stick to one genre that falls in different places, making the music new and fresh,” Foster said.

It was a viral hit and charted third on the Top 100 list, while having the distinction of being the sixth bestselling digital song of the year (with 3.84 million copies sold). Foster the People’s year was further sweetened with nominations at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Pop Duo/Group Perfor- mance for Pumped Up Kicks and Best Alternative Album for Torches. The band was also nominated five times in the 2012 Billboard Music Awards while receiving the Top Rock Song award for Pumped Up Kicks.

The creative process, dis- closed Foster, starts “tapping into the source.” “I find that experiences in life, trying to do as many things as I can, open my eyes whether it’s traveling or meeting people, staying social, reading the news — (or) being in touch with what’s happening in the world, what’s happening to people. Over time when I go into the studio, music is always the first thing that comes out. I never really come into the studio and say I will write a song about this.”

At the tail end of the presser, Foster revealed how special to him this Manila trip was: “I’m so excited to be here right now. My grandfather lived here in the ’40s... he was in the mili- tary,” he shared. “My dad lived here for two years in the ’70s. I’m the-third generation Foster to come to the Philippines.”

Foster further revealed that his dad was a “hippie” in the Peace Corps. The story goes that his father had gone to the Baguio Cathedral (or the Our Lady of Atonement Cathedral) to look around. “He had really long hair and a red beard. So he stood in front of the people who were intensely praying, and a guy turned around to him and said, ‘St. Peter?’”

The men of Fos- ter the People don’t appear to be com- fortable in the lime- light — or at least they don’t pander to whoever is in front of them. When a rhetorical bait of a question was delivered: “You’re on stage looking at a sea of people, why are they there to see you?” The band members looked at each other quizzically. “I don’t know,” Foster deadpanned.

A young lady hurled a question about Foster’s girlfriend. “Let’s keep it about music,” he again deadpanned, an inch away from a reprimand.

What Foster the People did want Fili- pinos to know is that the band is aware of the sort of following they have in these parts — and the kind of concertgo- ers they can expect. Volunteered Foster: “The guitar player from Maroon 5 (James Valentine) said he saw posters of us com- ing over here. And I asked him what the vibe is like here, he said that everybody can sing on pitch. The crowd would sing along and they would all sound amaz- ing.”

At the Araneta Coliseum concert, youngsters were aplenty — quite many sporting homemade “torch” signs (al- luding to the album). The darkness was lit with glowsticks and filled with energy.

Foster tested Valentine’s observation by making the crowd sing. “He was right,” he said to the roaring concertgoers — who rarely took to their seats. The en- ergy output just getting higher — peaking at the performance of Pumped Up Kicks.