-Playing in a band that is. As far as I know, I've always wanted to be part of one. Not as the front man, I figured I'd be happy just playing away in the sidelines. I was a college Freshman when I got to finally do something about it, and put together a band named Frontier. That was when the so called "British Invasion" was in the thick of it, so lucky for us, a song I wrote became a favorite in one of the bolder stations who played music from unknowns... NU107. Because of this, Octo Arts (wow, have you even heard of that name?) one of the bigger recording companies, signed us to be part of a compilation album. -yes it was a Vinyl long-playing album, that played at 33RPM. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go ask a DJ. Anyway, our song "Take My Hand" was the carrier single, and we did the rounds promoting it by playing in a few TV shows. We lasted for at least 6 years, and the culmination of our so called career was a major concert opening for the Dawn at the Ultra, in front of thousands of people. It was a smash.
That did me in, because even after we disbanded from natural causes (!) I still kept on writing music. After working for about 3 years in 3 different Ad Agencies, I went solo as a freelance Jingle Composer/Arranger. It all went well. In a year's time I was able to build my own recording studio. Two years into it, I was invited by a drummer I met in a gig to form a new band. We all wanted to make an album, and ride the second wave of the music scene... Pitch Black was born, and I produced our first and only album. We did the Club circuit and several gigs. Unfortunately, I couldn't stick with their serious plans of going overseas for long-term gigs, so I faded-out while they pursued it.
Fast forward by uh, A LOT. As a TV Producer of a show on Cars & Motoring, it wasn't long until my musical leanings leaked-out. I was yanked more than a few times up the stage to jam with bands playing for car companies' events. Then one Christmas season, Honda actually approached a colleague of mine to ask us to play a serious gig on their party for the Motoring Media. To cut it short, I had to pull-in a couple of old friends to form the rhythm section, to at least sound decent. The gig went quite well, and that started me thinking seriously about it. the rest is recent history (?) -and SHIFT was born.
SHIFT are Jose Romualdez on Drums, Robert Urbano on Guitar, Roland Roque on Bass, Gani Valenzuela on Keyboards, and I on Vocals. "Honorary" members are heavyweights in the Motoring beat... James Deakin from C! Magazine/Philippine Star, and Dong Magsajo, Motoring Editor of the Philippine Star. -these two cool dudes are called upon whenever we get "Motoring" gigs. So you see, once you get involved with a band seriously at least once in your life... you're most probably destined to find yourself ending up in one in different stages in your life. I certainly didn't plan this "Shift", but I definitely welcome it. -Let's rock!
