Chris Cayzer: This time, I wanna do it right

You must have heard his name before. Chris Cayzer isn’t exactly an unknown in the local music biz. A few years ago, the good-looking Filipino-Australian singer signed a record deal with Star Records and produced a hit single, a pop-rock cover of the Lisa Loeb hit Stay. He also had brief appearances in shows like ASAP and Bituing Walang Ningning.

At that point, like all newbies, Chris expected big things to start happening. But instead, his career stalled, and Chris (whose Zamboangoeña mother and Manileño father migrated to Australia where they started a family) — left the country. He went back to his native Australia, wondering what to do next.

He put up a business and focused on that for two years, but kept     music on the back burner. He performed all over Brisbane in his spare time. “I was doing gigs, I was growing as an artist, nagsulat din ako ng mga kanta. May English, may Tagalog. May mga kaibigan akong Pinoy na doon din nakatira, so nagkikita kaming lahat araw-araw para makapag-jamming. Sa mga gigs ko naman sa pubs, I would play for four hours. Four sets na 45 minutes yun,” he recalls.

However, the artist in Chris longed for an opportunity to reach more people in a bigger way. So when he found out about the auditions for X Factor Australia’s third season, he went for it. “Na-miss ko lang talaga yung music, kasi when you get to a certain age, you just experiment, you want to become better as a musician.”

So one rainy day, Chris lined up for a chance to battle it out with thousands of other aspirants on the X Factor Australia stage. At the live auditions, he sang his rocked-out take of the Vanessa Carlton hit A Thousand Miles for the judges: Spice Girl Melanie Brown (popularly known as Scary Spice), Boyzone’s Ronan Keating, Australian Idol Season One winner Guy Sebastian and platinum-selling Australian recording artist Natalie Bassingthwaighte. After Chris’s first audition, Mel B gave him a standing ovation and even said, “I really like him.”

Chris moved on to Boot Camp, where he earned more praise from the panel, thanks to his performance of Baby, I Love Your Way. But his X Factor journey hit a pothole when he was put in the Over 25s category, mentored by Guy. During Chris’ first audition, Guy was the only judge who didn’t show much enthusiasm for his performance — and the whole thing ended right there.“Siyempre natakot ako nung nalaman ko na siya, kasi lahat ng mga kasama ko sa Over 25s, yung Top 6 na Overs, he said yes to all of them. Sa akin lang siya hindi nag-yes. So kinabahan na ako.”

After his X Factor Australia stint, Chris and some of the other eliminated contestants put together a tour called EX-Factor and played shows in venues all over Australia. Now, Chris is back in the Philippines and is working on making a comeback in the local music scene. Offers have been made by several different labels, but he has yet to sign any contracts. Right now, he wants to take things slow and be more sure of every move he makes.

“I missed the scene here,” he says. “There’s no definite plan for me right now because I’d love to just see what’s best out there for me, you never know, ‘di ba, if you just go ahead and sign the contract, sign your life away and you’re just, like, OK, you never know what’s gonna come in, what train you’re gonna miss, and that’s what I felt before. This time, I wanna do it right.”