Up in the air
MANILA, Philippines - Since releasing their first album “Fragmented” in 2004, Up Dharma Down has challenged Pinoy pop sensibilities, giving listeners songs that brim with love, thawing heartbreaks and familiar futures. Next week, the band releases "Capacities," their much-awaited third album that brings the band back to the roots of their aural upbringing.
Supreme recently sat down with Up Dharma Down’s Armi Millare (vocalist), Ean Mayor (drums), Carlos Tanada (guitar), and Pol Yap (bass) and talked about their new material.
SUPREME: “Capacities” took four years to make, and fans kept asking when the album would be released. Did the pressure ever become annoying?
ARMI MILLARE (AM): Hindi naman. It’s a good thing they want to know what we’re up to but we’re also hoping that they find it worth waiting for because four years, that’s a lot of time. But in the Philippines it’s like an artist releases something every year or every two years…
EAN MAYOR (EM): Filipinos are used to the idea that every year, you have a single, you have videos.
AM: The music industry is becoming fast food, which it isn’t supposed to be.
Your fanbase has also grown since your last album.
EM: Maybe because there’s Twitter and Facebook.
AM: They get to connect with each other because of the mighty hashtag. It has actually become a community. There’s a UDD community on Tumblr and on Facebook. Even in Davao they built their own page. It’s enriching. It works for us because we’re not exposed on radio and TV. Even when we play Indak during gigs, people sing along. It’s not due to the radio, it’s the Internet. It’s so surprising how they know the words now.
Did you guys get a chance to travel more outside Manila?
EM: A lot in the last four years. Surprisingly, about once a month. We’ve been learning a lot in those gigs about how to deal with suppliers. We already know the possibilities if we perform “Capacities” live. That’s why we’ve been rehearsing.
AM: For example, it’s a big gig with 20 bands. They give us five minutes to set up. That’s impossible, to put all the stuff that we use in the studio, that we use for the new songs and the old songs. We have to teach (the suppliers) that every band has a different setup, so you can’t rush them.
CARLOS TANADA (CT): Most of the bands here, they’re plug-and-play. (The gig suppliers are) used to that setup. They’re used to having the guitars this loud, the vocalist this loud. In our setup, we can’t just do plug-and-play because we won’t be able to produce the sound we want to.
In recording “Bipolar,” there was a certain point that you guys lived together. Was it the same with “Capacities”?
AM: We’re more remote. We can work from cubicles and Dropbox stuff. I e-mail stuff to them wherever I am.
EM: [It's also the same] even with our collaborator abroad.
AM: It’s still difficult, but it makes things possible. You just have to respect the capability of technology. If you understand that or if you want to work with that difficulty then you will get the results that you need.
CT: It also helps that I work in a studio. I get files from Armi or whoever and I lay it down on the computer or sometimes I ask Pol to go to the studio “Let’s experiment.” (Laughs)
PAUL YAP (PY): Most of the demos were made on the iPad. It’s the mobility. Wherever you are, you can capture that certain thought.
AM: I use the iPhone when I record demos. I just give them the demos from the phone. I don’t have to bring a laptop anymore.
Can you tell us more about “Capacities?”
AM: They’re mostly influenced by the songs that we’ve grown up listening to, not even knowing that we love them. With this one, it’s like “Oh yeah, we were born around the ‘80s, not so long ago.” We just went back to the stuff that we find ourselves listening to. If you check the most played songs in our iTunes, I can bet you that the stuff on “Capacities” are all those songs from the ‘80s. Like The Blue Nile, it’s still a strong ‘80s influence; and New Order for Ean.
PY: (In terms of songwriting) what I want to say is more concise. More direct. For me the more you simplify something, the better it is.
CT: It’s our take on pop music, something nostalgic for us. Unlike the first or second album that people would say “Oh, fresh, I haven’t heard this.” Here, people are gonna say, “Ah, it’s like so-and-so.”
AM: Don’t expect something mind-blowing.
EM: This album isn’t about proving something.
AM: We’re just doing what we love.
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“Capacities” album launch is on Wed, Nov. 28, 7 p.m. at the One Esplanade, Seaside cor. J.W. Diokno Blvd., Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City. P500 gets you in with a regular edition of the album.
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