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[strum-along]

Was lying here for a while now, and thought i’d post it. it’s been so long since I wrote something.

Say what you wanted to say and i hoped that it was easy to say i know why you hesitated but i swear i understood and there was nothing else to say but i can’t help but feel stuck in this moment while you’re there giving everything but care though i don’t care, but really what’s the matter with me am i gonna find someone who cares for me? am i gonna find someone who cares for me? it started with a kiss and ended in bliss now it’s all in a dream no proof that it exists

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I hope this doesn’t take down.

I canNOT believe the half of 2017 has passed and I haven’t posted a cover or an original yet!!!!!!!!!!! >:( But I AM performing at BGC Boni High Street so maybe it counts? :))

anyway this is what i’m listening to. a bit lazy tho cause it’s 4am and I has work tomorrow and am still not sleeping. goodnight.

*song not mine*

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Project Sakura

Last February was my birthday, and aside from the awesome birthday concert surprise (super super thank you and love you to my family, mom and dad <3) we got to go to a musical instrument surplus someplace around Sucat. There were dozens of second hand classical guitars, electric ones, bass guitars, drum parts, keyboards and accessories that were still functional or can still be repaired and refurbished, and was sold at a low price. So, with parents, we bought a nice electric guitar, electric bass, and this very simple classical guitar that I decided to paint on.

A rundown: (1) after sand paper-ing; (2) completed painting; (3) with varnish/finished product

The guitar is a Kiso Suzuki Guitar, originally made from Japan. Its origin instantly inspired me to paint it with a Japanese theme, thus the cherry blossoms or Sakura (and yes, the guitar’s name is Sakura). I also considered The Great Wave off Kanagawa, but I think the cherry blossoms were a better fit to it.

Before starting, I removed the strings, and my dad had to remove the tuning pegs. To paint on the guitar, we had to sandpaper the surface first so we could remove the varnish. Next is the outlining of the branches. I asked my lil sister, @tumbke to help me with drawing (’cause let’s face it, I suck at drawing haha!) and later on, with painting. We started to paint the branches, and then we let it dry.

After it’s dry, we then painted several solid white flowers of different sizes so that the pink color for the petals would be visible when we paint it on the guitar.

The next part was the hardest part, and that was to paint the petals and the details. We had to practice a lot on a piece of paper so that we could get the (at least nearly) perfect stroke for the petals, but at the end, we didn’t really get that one way of doing it so that it would all look the same. BUT, we did discover that by adding small details like the three dots at the middle and lines that would make the petals more prominent, they would eventually all look the same. We also painted petals on the neck part so it’ll look continuous.

Random photos of @tumbke painting the petals pink.

After everything was dry, we head on to varnishing the guitar. I didn’t varnish the sides and the back because I didn’t change anything on it, and we didn’t even sandpaper it. Then we let it dry too.

The last step was to put the tuning pegs back, and put new strings on it. I just realized that nylon strings don’t have that end stopper unlike those of steel strings, so you have to tie the other end on the bridge part. Asked dad’s help on tying them because I didn’t initially knew how to tie them in properly (learned something new! :D)

AND FINALLY! Project Sakura is finished!!! Special thanks to my dad, mom and lil sis for helping me finish it!

I’ve been testing it lately and i’m loving its sound! It’s more for plucking and fingerstyle-ing because the bass always stands out when strumming, and it’s very easy to get out of tune so I tune it every now and then. But overall yes. I love it. I don’t even care if it doesn’t have a pick up (I’ll use the detachable one so we don’t have to make a hole on the guitar to put a built in one), I love it.

So here’s a little test video. The song is “What I Really Wanna Say” by Nicole Serrano. Enjoy watching and thanks for getting this far! :D -T

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I found this note in my guitar case just now. To whoever you are who was at my impromptu, please keep watching and better if you'd introduce yourself. I'll sing a song for you. Am happy I helped, but I hope no one should ever feel this way. Speading lots of love ❤

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Day 13 - Questions

I am in a current state of... confusion. I don’t know about you but what I know is what I feel. But it’s a need, to know, what’s this?

But I’m afraid to ask. I’m afraid to know. They say “if you don’t want to get hurt, if you aren’t ready for change, then don’t ask and just let everything in. If you want to be happy, then don’t ask.”

I don’t know if i’m ready today. But it’s a need so big I have to let out. So I wrote it in a song. 

If he ever find this... bahala na. 

Questions (Why Do You Kiss Me?) Original by Shathree - Lyrics

Why do you kiss me? Why do you care? Why do you hold my hand? Why do you stay?

Why do you touch me? Why do you call? why do you make me laugh when no one else can?

Your voice it haunts me forever Your eyes I see The light you bring to me makes me feel like i’m alive

why do you kiss me? I don’t understand You don’t want me but you want me so why don’t you want me?

Why do you touch me In certain places like in my heart where there you’ll always stay in my heart

Your voice it haunts me forever Your eyes I see The light you bring to me makes me feel like i’m alive

Why do you kiss me? Why do you kiss me? Why do you kiss me? Why do you kiss me?

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Day 12 - Sabi

Another original!! On a roll!

This, though, was written by my high school classmate and friend, Erik, and one day sometime in 2014, he asked me to pick a poem he wrote (he had a couple) and make one of it a song. I picked his “Sabi Mo, Sabi Ko”.

I had to tweak some of the words though, for it to fit altogether.

I actually had a version #1 and it sounded very differently compared with this. It was sadder. But I still had doubts on it, so I really hadn’t had the heart to record something out of it. But remembering my promise that I’ll do something with it, I made a version #2, which was this. It has a more heart-touching melody, that seems like it’s a happy slow song, but the lyrics is heart breaking. I find that contradiction very satisfying, and more true.

Read my friend Erik’s original poem, and his other works here

Sabi mo ako'y mahal mo Ngunit di tunay ang pag ibig na kay tagal Sana man lang ay sinabi na agad Na ang mga mata'y nakatingin na sa iba

Sinabi mo walang ibang mahal Tuwang tuwa naman ako'y puno ng  saya Wala palang katotohanan ang lahat Iisa ang ating puso, hindi ba yun sapat?

Sabi ko, ay kaya kong patawarin Nangyari na, at hindi na iisipin Ngunit ako pa ang naiwan mag isa Bakit ang puso mo sa kanya na nakalaan

I hadn’t included it but it actually had an extended part:

Sabi ko, kakayanin ang sakit Sabi ko, hindi na ipipilit sabi ko, maging alak man ang dugong dumadaloy Sabi ko, hindi papatak, tuloy ang buhay

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Day 11 - Fall For You

Here’s another original song. It was sitting somewhere and I thought why not shed some light on it? It was always fun for me to sing it. There are days, when i feel i’m indestructible Nothing could break me Then it'll rain, and i have, to hold on to you So that i wouldn't slip and fall

The effect was titanic It was always so romantic

There are nights, when i walked, out into the dark Finding my way home Now and then, i go back, but it was never the same Cause you'd bring the light with you

I was wrong, to assume, that i couldn't care less I was wrong to believe that i wouldn't fall Fall for you

So many days i was alone So many nights i was all alone Then you came The effect was titanic We never thought it was romantic The effect was titanic It was always so romantic 

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Ever since the Joseph Vincent cover, the song was stuck in my head, and I just HAD TO get it out, HAHAHA :)

I missed making videos and more legit arrangements, but right now I wanted to play and sing more than I wanna do videos, because playing and singing only requires 5-30mins of your time than a 2-day video. yea some passion right haha.

MEANWHILE, I have more songs (like this hahah) that I wanted to quick record soooooo here’s hoping I do them! 

i’m blabbin’ too much again, sorry! :)

-not my song of course.

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I SHOULD BE WORKING.

I was supposed to record this yesterday evening when fire broke the area beside our subdivision, and we had to temporarily evacuate our homes in case it spreads to our side. Thankfully firetrucks and firepeople came and washed the fire away. and it also rained. 

Now i’m supposed to work (at home) but I’m procrastinating in between moments. 

also wanna go to #inthemix because of james bay. and 1975. and panic. 

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Secret Someones

I remember roughly about 5 years ago, my friend @kamolsky​ showed me her:

and I was immediately hooked. had hit the subscribe button as fast as i can, and every now and then i’d go back to her video and just watch her and listen her sing that rendition of her song. It was SO good.

Fast forward to last week, I hear this on spotify:

And saved that song on my playlist.

NOW I was trying to look for the chords for it, and I stumbled upon the music video:

and THEN I tried to look for an acoustic version cause it was the first version I heard on spotify:

THEN... The way the lead singer sang, her face expression is so familiar.

I looked on their facebook page... and BAM. It was like a light had turned on and suddenly I can see. Had a bit more proof when I googled her name and BAM BAM. IT WAS HER. I have seen that set of photos before, when I googled her 5 years ago.

Leila Broussard. I have admired you and your singing and how you are so good, and now you have a band, and a beautiful song, and as a listener [and a fan of course] I am so very proud of your success. I have loved “Let You Go” and I listened to the rest of Secret Someones’s songs and they’re all so awesome. I hope for your continuous success and more songs <3

- shathree

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a friend of mine mentioned that I try to cover this, when I asked her about it. I didn’t really had any plans on how, but when I listened to it, I just knew I wanted to learn it. It’s not really a clean and mastered track, but I love how it sounded so raw, completely opposite of the original sound of the song.

hehehe, cel! sorry I don’t have any video prod for this. Hope you still like it heh heh heh heh :D

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Soundworks

6 years ago when I was in college, our professor gave us a homework: to interview an artist who pretty much do what we wanted to do for our thesis. My thesis was sound installation, so I had to look for artists who do stuff like those. And I found Ms. Susan Hawkins. 

She is a composer and a sound artist by profession, and fortunately, she had the time to squeeze me in for an interview. 

I posted this before on my old blog, and i’m reposting it here because it needs to be out there. Here’s how the interview went:

Trisha Laya: how did you start making your works? and what medium did you first use? Susan Hawkins: I started writing music at the age of 15, and went straight to university to complete a Bachelor’s degree in Composition on leaving high school. I had studied classical piano from the (relatively) late age of 13, but was always more interested in expressing myself through sound than ever attempting to become a classical pianist or play in jazz bands. Of course, I did also spend a lot of time playing in bands, and wanted to really try out as many parts of the music industry as possible. A lot of my early composition was for solo piano, and strings. I started experimenting with music software like ProTools and got really excited by the way the technology could open up the possibilities for sound, and creating an experience for a listener. I think over the years my work became more sound and texturally focussed than actually about writing scores for ensembles. It was cheaper, easier, and I could produce a lot more work with the technology available. TL: how do you generate your ideas? and how do you translate this to sound? SH: I take a lot of inspiration from visual media – and usually my music is written specifically for a visually-based projects .Ideas will come from a variety of places – either from the visual material itself or the visual artist has specific ideas, or maybe I have been playing around with particular textures or harmonies that I think will really fit with the image. I don’t really have a method of generating ideas that stays consistent for each piece – each project is different in content, in collaborators and process. Translating ideas in to sound is easy if your ideas are sounds. If the ideas are more conceptual, I will try to explore the best way to represent or express the ideas using whatever techniques are possible. TL: are there any 'special processes' that you use to make your artworks? SH: I have really focused on combining traditional or organic instruments with electronic processes as an attempt to make something new that is still accessible by a general listening public. For example, a lot of my works will use samples for cello or clarinet that I have written and recorded, then will digitally manipulate them to create new textures, harmonies and melodies. TL: when and how did you start making experimental music and exhibiting them? SH: I really started making installations only when I began working with my friend Olivia Pisani, and we started showing works together under the name ‘imaginationandmymother’ – we started working together in 2005. We were both living in London at the time, and we started doing performance installations within the experimental sound community there. Contacts then led to more installations, and I then went to the USA and Canada to make some installations with artists there. TL: how and where do you get inspirations from? SH: Good question for any artist, I think – and a hard one to answer!! I think that I get inspired and encourage by hearing and seeing other amazing works. Even less-than-amazing works can inspire, because I get determined to make something beautiful. Like most artists, I have a day job that isn’t related to the arts, so I tend to search out art that I find beautiful as soon as I leave the office! I listen to a lot of music, in very different styles, watch a lot of films from all over the world, and try to get to as many performances as possible to feed my need for inspiration. TL: did you knew that you were going to do this kind of art before? is what you are doing everything that you have imagined? SH: I had no idea I’d be making the kind of things I have! When I started writing music I thought I would be writing orchestral symphonies and making film music. I guess the joy in that is that I have experienced so many amazing collaborations with such amazing artists, and made work I could not have predicted. TL: how can you differentiate sound from music? SH: That’s actually also a difficult question. Part of me says there is no difference – in the John Cage way of thinking, of course. Everything is music, everything is sound. I think really the difference is about purposeful intervention in sound, which (may or may not) make music as a result. I struggle with music or sound that is made purely as an intellectual exercise – for me it really has to try and connect with a listener on some emotional level. In a way, it is like asking what the difference is between speech and poetry – where is the intention? Is there a craft involved in shaping an experience? TL: how do you know if you have the right material? the right sound to produce, and the right concept even? how do you know if it's the 'right one'? SH: The only real test is whether I am moved by what I have created – this can give a false impression that the concept is right, but usually it’s a good indicator that maybe other people will connect with it too J If it is a collaborative project, that can change whether the right material is right for me, or for the other artists, or for what we are trying to achieve. TL: is making sound more difficult than making paintings? maybe in terms of concept, or process? SH: I can’t really answer because I can’t paint! I think it might be just as difficult – any real creative output like painting, or sculpture making or video making or sound, involves some kind of link between the creative process and the actual thing that you produce. TL: i love your "we are not alone" works! can you tell something more about it? "We Are Not Alone" (for more details about the "We Are Not Alone" project, click HERE) - I think this specific project of hers is not on her folio anymore, but link still gets you to her site. SH: I had two works in the We Are Not Alone exhibition – ‘buddha’s lightbulb and ‘music of the spheres’. Music of the spheres is the installation with Wesley Mulvin, where I made 16 tracks representing sixteen constellations. Wesley crafted the ‘listening cones’ (that you see on the front page of my website) for the constellations to play in. Part of the idea was to have sound spilling over in to the space of the gallery – you could hear quite clearly the separate constellations when you sat under the cones, and when you were outside, there was a lovely spilling over of sound in to the rest of the space. ‘buddha’s lightbulb’ was another experiment in using sound to fill a space – it was a 30 minute prepared piano piece that was looped, and speakers were placed coming up the stairs as you entered the gallery. I was playing with the idea of accompanying or enticing people up the stairs, and then allowing a spill of energy in to the space (by which time they could also hear the ‘music of the spheres’ spilling from the listening cones. It was a wonderful experience being in Canada working with the artists in the exhibition – it was very collaborative, and all of the artists involved made such dramatically different, but complementary work. TL: what kind of music do you listen to? what's your favorite? SH: I listen to loads of different things – from Fardu (Portuguese folk music) to Ethiopian jazz to Bjork and Radiohead to Mahler, Schumman to Arvo Part, Steve Reich, John Adams, Brian Eno to John Coltrane and Miles Davis. At the moment I’m enjoying listening to Lee Morgan (jazz) and Morton Feldman. TL: how do you get people to see sound art like something of those of the usual exhibitions? i mean because the usual exhibits are paintings, etc. SH: I think the key is how to make it accessible to a general audience. People who go to see an exhibition of paintings know what to expect in some way – there’s a history of how the art is communicated to the viewer. With sound, it’s a bit different, and there’s less of a history in one way. You’ve got to count on people’s curiosity in some ways, but also thinking about where the installation is and how and where it is marketed. You need to know what kind of audience you’re looking for. TL: how do you usually set up your exhibitions and installations? SH: Usually it’s just me, with the most low-cost sound solution possible. Especially doing installations in different countries, it’s not so easy to carry (or buy) a lot of technology, so usually I’ll try to make something with the least amount possible. TL: do you have a certain number of works in an exhibition? SH: No, it really depends on the project, who else is involved, what the budget is, how big the space is, etc. TL: what can you advice to artists that would want to pursue making art through sound/music? SH: That’s a difficult question too! I think, be as flexible as possible and try out lots of different ways of working. Look for opportunities to collaborate with other artists and be part of a community, because sound and music is the thing that keeps humans together!

It’s such an interesting thing to know about a person, especially if you’re going to talk about their profession, or what they do. You get insights you haven’t seen, know things you haven’t known, and you get to know a person in that moment.

You can find Susan Hawkins here on her website. 

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Day 10: Songs At Sea

Anyone who knows the struggle of shooting a live video knows how sometimes it takes a lot of ‘takes’ to get the perfect shot. And even the final clip isn’t the perfect one. For me, this happens EVERY TIME I shoot. It’s so frustrating when my practice takes are the perfect ones. 

This is a song I wrote that had countless takes. My raw video originally was 20 minutes long, with the most okay version at the end. Edited into a 3 minute video with the fail takes and with one of our dogs, apple (such a cutiepie!) :)

Songs at Sea

Look into my eyes Can you read my mind Feel your hands into mine Let it intertwine 

Cause this will be a memory Of you, me, the crazy songs at sea That you will sail along with love from me And i'll be here 

How do i forget those eyes Every time we'll meet Tell me how to not linger for so long When you hold me In your arms, before i wake 

Listen to my heart Every beat is for you Igniting every spark Do you feel it too? 

How can every moment only be A memory of us When you're always there And everywhere

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please don’t mind the crappy recording haha :)

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I may be quite late on this but rest in peace David Bowie. I'll never forget you here (especially) and your contribution to music. You were legendary.

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this is wonderful!!!

The lyric video I made for The Caulden Road’s Winter’s Song is already up! 

Here are some little previews and a bonus speed gif of how I built the room from scratch. I’ve worked with the amazing @alandistro to establish the right mood and feel of the whole video. 

The initial plan was to use typable fonts for the lyrics but I decided to just hand-letter everything to make it look more “raw” and “personal”. It also feels more appropriate for the message of the song :)

I’m personally very happy with how it came out and I hope you guys will like it too. You can go ahead and watch the whole animated video here and I’d love to know what you think! 

Enjoy!

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In honor of star wars.

Oscar Isaac and Daisy Ridley on their “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” duet.