Rico Blanco’s song tribute to COVID-19 frontliners

Rico Blanco has released his first solo single in four years after quietly retiring from the music industry late 2016. Released under Sony Music Philippines, This Too Shall Pass is his song tribute to the country’s “unsung heroes and frontliners” in the ongoing fight against the pandemic.

With equal measures of upbeat and downbeat, inspiration and reflection, the song has the hallmarks of Rico’s gift for anthemic songwriting.

In a recent Zoom interview, the rock star candidly talked about the challenges of being creative amid the COVID-19 situation. He acknowledged that the song, which took him two weeks to complete, is easily the hardest to produce.

Despite having his own recording studio at home, living and being quarantined alone didn’t exactly give him the most conducive environment for music-making.

“This is the hardest song to produce. This is more because of my domestic situation because I’m quarantined alone. I have my challenges here at home which, of course, in the light of the entire global situation, I’d like to think I’m really in a more comfortable situation than many out there. But it’s not the most comfortable of situations in terms of my entire body of work. This is the most difficult situation to produce a song in,” the singer-songwriter opened up.

Like many others, Rico also had to concern himself with other (non-musical) things such as checking on his family in Laguna and taking care of his team and other businesses. “Yung main concern ko was survival,” he admitted.

“I found out that it’s very difficult to be creative when your survival mode switch is on. It’s hard to think of songs,” he continued. “So parang music was the least important thing. But there was a nagging thought... I was also helping frontliner groups in a very quiet capacity, but parang for me, it wasn’t enough.”

It so happened that he was also recovering from a carpal tunnel surgery and it was only on Day 20 of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) when he was able to begin work on This Too Shall Pass. “There was a time that I considered, you know what this isn’t the priority because I was feeling the pressure to finish it. Sabi ko di ko kaya. I didn’t have an engineer, I had to record everything, mix everything, master everything myself, that’s why I feel easily, this is the most difficult song that I’ve released.”

He confessed to feeling envious at the same time thankful to fellow artists who have managed to stay productive during this lockdown.

“I’m part-envious of my peers and colleagues in the industry who have been able to do their online concerts and daily musical contributions and then sharing them to the world. I’m also part-thankful that at least not everyone is like me, doesn’t have the same situation. And I enjoy their music, too. Like Gary Valenciano has a concert, sige let’s watch, and I’m thankful that they’re able to do it. I wake up every morning and Raimund Marasigan has a new upload. I’m envious and thankful.”

Despite challenges and the pressure he was experiencing, Rico truly wanted to send a message out. “I had not given a message to our frontliners and essential workers or our fellow men and women and everyone going through this.”

He finally released This Too Shall Pass on May 7, which was followed by a resilience and hope themed music video last May 17. “My efforts are little in light of a pandemic like this. As big as my imagination is for this song, I also feel that it’s not enough. But it’s what I can do and contribute as a musician,” he said.

The song is uplifting message, a prayer even, sent across via a global, genre-defying sound with sonic elements spanning continents, some personal anecdotes like samples of nieces laughing culled from a family group chat, and infusion of European techno, hip-hop beats, Asian riffs, Afro chanting and the Pinoy fiesta.

For Rico, This Too Shall Pass is “real — inwards and also outwards.”

He further said, “It’s something that I really want to tell every single person. I wasn’t able to give a message to the frontliners, and I feel very guilty about this. I needed to finish this, and I want them to hear this. I know each one of us is going through something. I wrote this song as my way to reach out.”

To help fund the collective COVID-19 response in the Philippines, Rico is also waiving his artist royalties for the music video of This Too Shall Pass, and Sony Music Philippines will be donating 100 percent of the global proceeds to fundraiser www.puhon.ph for the first six months of release.