Orange & Lemons sheds light on band’s bad breakup

MANILA, Philippines — Eleven years after their highly-publicized breakup, the remaining members of pop rock band Orange & Lemons and their former vocalist Mcoy Fundales are still not in good terms.

In an exclusive interview with Philstar.com at the University of the Philippines’s recent Roots Festival, Clem Castro, the band’s guitarist and also now their vocalist, said they are still not communicating with each other because of what happened back then.   

“Kung okay ‘yun magkakasama pa rin kaming apat eh. Iba ‘yung direction niya eh. ‘Yung breakup namin medyo malalim talaga. Personal and professional reasons. So, ever since di kami nagka-ayos,” Castro said.

Orange & Lemons rose into fame for their hit track “Pinoy Ako,” theme song of hit ABS-CBN reality TV show “Pinoy Big Brother.”

According to news reports, the group disbanded in 2007 due to differences between the members and their managers. In 2017, 10 years after their hiatus, the band re-grouped as a trio but without Mcoy.

“We were re-recording the 2003 album, as in lahat, may kasamang bonus track. Just to preserve and ma-monetize namin. ‘Di kasi kami may-ari ng master recording. The only way to put it up in Spotify is to re-record it,” Castro said.

Clem, however, assured that Mcoy will still get royalties from them as he helped write some of the songs.

“May song writing rights siya with some of the songs. We will still give it to him. Mayron pa rin siyang future royalties from us for some of the songs. Most of the songs naman ako na ‘yung gumawa eh.”

Orange & Lemons serenaded the crowd at the UP Roots Festival last weekend. The concertgoers sang their heart out to the songs of the band, including “Just Like a Splendid Love Song,” “Heaven Knows,” “Hanggang Kailan” and their new song, “Lovers Go, Lovers Come.”

Raymund Marasigan of Sandwich supplied the needed energy in the concert as he and his band Sandwich rocked the stage with their hits such as “Betamax,” “Procastination,” and “Sugod.”

Bands such as Ben&Ben, IV of Spades, Imago, Urbandub, Franco, and Aegis to name a few, made the visitors’ night a memorable one.