Kean Cipriano’s OC Records on a roll

OC Records is on a roll. The three-year-old label owned by rocker Kean Cipriano, has been churning out one big hit after another. Best of all, he is discovering interesting new talents from all over the country.

OC’s banner act nowadays is heartthrob Arthur Nery of the sexy R&B sound. Kean convinced him to join OC Records over the phone while the young singer-songwriter was doing a gig in a remote town in Mindanao. The result is the massive seller Higa. Arthur has a new single out, Take All the Love, that promises to be even bigger.

Expected to give Arthur strong competition is Adie, who is on his first time out as a singer and songwriter. Adie Garcia, in real life, is 20 years old and comes from Biñan, Laguna. Kean issued this call to unknown artists to join the Callalily Open Collab. Join and get a chance to collab with the famous rock group. The Callalily is Kean’s band which he continues to front in between his solo stints. Anyway, Adie sent in an entry and made it to the Top 10.

I do not know who placed No. 1 in the Callalily search but Adie got an even bigger prize when Kean signed him to OC Records. Adie does acoustic ballads with an old-fashioned vibe. Think kundiman lyrics and harana feel. His first release was Luha, which is as tear-jerking as the melodramas of old. Then he came up with Paraluman and made his way to the top of the hit charts.

Paraluman is like a paean to a beautiful girl. Think of a winner in a beauty contest in a long-ago time and Adie is there to serenade her with this song. Rumors have it that Adie’s inspiration for Paraluman is the lovely Angelina Cruz. A singer and actress, she is the daughter of actors Cesar Montano and Sunshine Cruz.

I do not know how Angelina feels about Paraluman or if Adie has already met her. It is quite likely that he will one of these days. Given his current success, I am sure that Adie will soon be doing the performing circuit online, on TV, radio and maybe even the movies. So there is a strong chance that he will run into Angelina soon.

Paraluman made it to No. 1 in Spotify’s Viral 50 and Trending Tracks Playlists. This is a neat way to find out how a new song is performing on online platforms. If it makes it to a playlist, then you can bet that listeners streaming that playlist will get the opportunity to hear the song. If they like it, then they will include it in their personal playlists. That was what happened to Paraluman. As of this writing, it is also big in the OPM Rising and Tatak Pinoy Playlists.

It was not that difficult for Kean to find the band that calls itself The Pub Forties. These guys have been around for quite some time, solo or with other bands or as something else. Frontman and songwriter Yugel Losorata is also a music journalist and published author. His first novel The Lust Regime came out early this year. The other members are James Casas, Aries Espinosa and Vince Borromeo.

The Pub Forties’ OC entry is Nung Tayo Pa. It is about an old love now viewed with wistful regret and comes with music to match. It is fun, enjoyable rock and roll of the old school kind. I just have one beef though. It comes in at over five minutes and that is just too long. You do great riffs guys, but I think your song will do better at only three minutes or so.

Now just because he is very busy being a music executive does not mean Kean has given up on his music. Not true at all. In fact, he has a new album titled childlike. It is made up of a varied lot and has Kean going from grungy rock, Took Me Out, to jazz pop in Make Me Fly to alt-pop in his solo take on his duet with Nadine Lustre, Sa Ibang Mundo and good old rock in Walk on Water featuring wifey Chynna Ortaleza.