Paolo Sandejas juggles careers as music artist and AI engineer

MANILA, Philippines — Paolo Sandejas has displayed his potential and promise as a music artist in previous tracks and the EP Bloom. He continues to move forward in his recording journey with the label Sony Music Entertainment.

Paolo is marking it with the single, sirens, now available on all digital music platforms, and perhaps a preview of his upcoming album.

“It’s exciting,” said the singer-songwriter of the latest development and milestone in his career during the virtual exclusive interview with The STAR. “I think new beginnings are always exciting.”

What also thrills his following and the listening public, aside from the moody guitar pop track sirens, is the new collection of sounds and themes Paolo may explore in this new start. But something will remain constant in him. That’s his passion for music.

“Definitely, I see myself as a songwriter,” shared he. “I love writing and telling stories, but I also like producing. My production skills are definitely, like, not world-class. I use it to just kinda brainstorm and you know kinda get my ideas out there. Yeah, singer, songwriter, producer. But I just love music. At the end of the day, I’m a music lover.”

He also views his stance as a songwriter this way.

“You also have the chance to tell your own personal stories, like through your own writing and through your own words. I think that’s a beautiful thing.”

As a producer, Paolo is “not constrained to, like, use only a set of colors” or if one may add, palettes, in his chosen art.

“I’m just trying to learn as much as I can definitely, and everything I learn is exciting because I have a new way to tell the stories of my life and the people around me,” said he.

Asked if he’s the kind of creative who works with clear-cut planning or on the spur of the moment, Paolo said that he’s “a little bit of both.”

He plans a lot and tries to “keep things as free-flowing as possible in terms of, like, genre,” shared he. “I try and keep things more fun, and I write whatever comes to mind and whatever feels natural for me at that moment.”

If ever an idea doesn’t fit his genre, Paolo would give it a try and see it through.

“It’s still your own work at the end of the day,” said he, who considers the genres, narratives and themes in his songs to be evolving and growing. “I feel like it’s more and more me. The more songs I put out, the more it (the music) sounds more like me.”

Paolo mentioned that he’s very proud of Bloom, which featured the hit single, Different Shade of Blue, and came out after V of BTS shared his song Sorry in the latter’s vlog. All this did contribute to his career and introduce him to a new audience.

Looking back on his work in Bloom, Paolo had fun.

“It was very bright. Bloom was a signal of, like, a new beginning,” said he. “It was very bright, very colorful. I really like to think of it as, like, a sunny day, flowers blooming, that was Bloom.”

Comparing it to what he’s working on, he shared, “This one is a little more moody. A lot of the songs I worked on for this new album, a lot of them were written late at night as a result of overthinking and, you know, introspection. It’s definitely a more vulnerable album for me.”

He continued, “It’s definitely exciting for me because my goal for the longest time (has been) to really release a full album. This is definitely, like, one of my career milestones to release a full album.”

And sirens is part of it.

“It came from overthinking,” said Paolo about his source of inspiration. “I wrote most of the songs late at night, and this is one of them.” Through the song, he’s expressing the feeling of getting overwhelmed. This stems from worrying about what comes next after finishing college and feeling a bit of physical and emotional distance and disconnection from friends.

“There’s like a lot of things that I think as a young adult, you’re kinda worrying about and sirens is that, like the first line of sirens, it’s like you’re talking about, I guess, feeling like there’s so many things demanding your attention and your worries, taking up your headspace, but at the end of the day, sirens is about finding someone who makes the world go quiet and it’s about finding peace in the noise of, like, everyday life nowadays.”

Like Paolo, one can find that peace of mind and sense of solace in one’s loved ones, from special someone and friends to family.

As a music man, he describes his genre as hybrid.

“I’d like to say that I’m a mixture of, like, all my musical influences,” said Paolo. “I’m a result of my musical influences and the genres that I like to listen to, and that tends to be, like, a lot of pop, neo soul, alternative rock, indie pop.”

When not busy with composing music and writing lyrics, Paolo, the Computer Science graduate at the University of the Philippines, can be found in a software consulting company as an AI (artificial intelligence) engineer. In August, he’ll be heading to CalArts in the US for the Master of Fine Arts (in music technology) program to further his interest in music and software.

This is another new beginning for Paolo, which will help him discover and navigate uncharted territories in his recording career.