A Gig At Last...

hello everyone...

after letting go of Apple last October and getting Carissa, thanks to Celene (Candy - Vox), during the first week of November, it has always been next to impossible getting things for Soft Pillow Kisses organized... Jann Paul's very busy with his Racket situated somewhere down Southern Luzon, Me and Dennis on the otherhand was always pre-occupied with work, even Rene had his own little rackets and during the first few weeks of Carissa's being an SPK member, she was in some sort of a "Cinderella" situation making it very difficult for me to properly orient her at how things are done... Buzz Night was a very good choice for her debut gig but our participation wasn't really that sure because of the nature of my work...

i was able to assume that we'll be able to make it only a week and a half prior to Buzz Night but things got a bit bleaker since Jann Paul had to go to the province by the 28th... i had Gilbert (Ex-Pillow Drummer) as the first choice to session but i had a hard time reaching him only to get a chance talking to him the night before the gig... it was a good thing that Jeff (Candy - Drummer) was always helping us out in times that Jann Paul wasn't around and inspite of not being able to really practice, he agreed to play for us and was ble to pull it off quite nicely during gig time...

so on to the gig... well, it was fun... and we even fooled around with Carissa on stage poking fun at how she talks which was a bit similar to how Celene was during her first few Candyaudioline stints... it was a bit funny really... Carissa brought along with her on stage her lyric sheets - full sized coupon bonds, and everytime we moved on to the next song, she had to go through them finding the right sheet for the right song... Dennis even poked fun at her bracelets telling her to shake it ala-maraccas stlye while singing... me and Jeff made audible side comments everytime she spoke on the mic... Rene commented at how pa-cute her voice was... well, it was defenitely her first gig and it was understandable... at least she took it all in stride and was a real sport... reminds me of Apple... so there we were, all seriously poised to play and after Carissa made her first speech we all...

the first song was sort of a disaster really... Rene's Bass was out of tune and there were annoying low rumbling feedbacks coming from the mics which really made it difficult for us to sing... i also forgot to remind Jeff not to do the rim shots since we already ditched that approach... we paused a bit after the first song and let Rene tune his bass while the rest of us fooled around with Carissa... after Rene was done, i decided to introduce the second song and started playing... by this time, everything was starting to sound good... i guess we were back again... we got settled down and was really comfortable with everything and started to play the way we usually do not being concerned that it was Carissa's first gig or that it was not Jann Paul playing but Jeff... there were still quite a few misses during the set but over all it was really good...



just can't wait to have practice and play again...

Buzz Night @ Sazi's, Tomorrow, Tuesday... December 29, 2009

Hello Everyone,

Tomorrow's the last Buzz Night for this year... here's a list of the bands playing...

Gentle Isolation
Slumbook
Scarlet Tears
Soft Pillow Kisses
Candyaudioline
Identikit
Lazy Lorelie
Phantom Sizemore
Dress

Entrance is at 150 get you 1 free drink... hope you could make it...

Just Like The Sky Album Tentative Tractlisting

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

There will be 16 songs to be included in the "Just Like The Sky" album and here's the list of the titles that made the cut:

01 Waiting For Your Words
02 Stay Here For A While
03 Bean Bag
04 Candy Bar
05 So-Called Friend
06 I Was Right
07 Beneath The Glare
08 Vintage Wine
09 Harsh Words
10 Just Like The Sky
11 Everything Is Wrong
12 Vodka Ice # 3
13 16 Ft.
14 Losing Something
15 Try To Smile
16 It Will Never Last Forever

Songs that won't make it we'll be re-recorded and be included in the next one...

of the 16 songs there are still 4 more songs that need fixing...
"I Was Right" - has yet to be mixed...
"Vintage Wine" and "Just Like The Sky" - bass element needs to be boosted a bit...
"Try To Smile"... - there's an out-of-tune guitar in the intro part...

after these adjustments, it'll go to the mastering stage and at last it will be up for release...

- Tracks 1, 2, 7, 11, 12 are all from the "Waiting For your Words EP" (Eloha Laurel, Allan Montero, AJ Domingo, Lara Agulto, Gilbert Magat and Dale Marquez) recorded 2002that was suppose to come outt on shelflife but never did...
- Tracks 4 and 9 where from the 2000 ABS CBN Studio recordings (Apple Miranda, Allan Montero, AJ Domingo, Lara Agulto, Gilbert Magat and Dale Marquez)...
- Tracks 3, 5, 8, 10, 13 and 15 are part of the original "Just Like The Sky" (Eloha Laurel, Allan Montero, Charles Manjarez, William, and Jann Paul Tatad)album line-up recorded sometime 2006...
- Track 6 is from the 2007 sessions (Apple Pueblo, Allan Montero, Charles Manjarez, Rene Dollete, and Jann Paul Tatad)we did but Lara Agulto sang on this one...
- Track 16 is from that Mutual Admiration Compilation session (Apple Miranda, Allan Montero, AJ Domingo, Lara Agulto, Gilbert Magat and Dale Marquez), i might release the alternate take on this one...

Exciting...

hello everyone...

me and Rene waited for almost an hour and a half for our vocalist... i waited a bit longer than Rene since he came in 20 minutes after i arrived...

anyways, while waiting, i got myself pre-occupied with a few things like playing PSP, tinkering a bit my guitar's bridge and most specially, trying very hard not to get annoyed by some showband character loitering around the studio... i don't have anything against showbands but this one hits the level... if i only had my camera with me that very moment...

it was just me, Rene and Carissa... Dennis and Jeff (whose filling in for Jann Paul who won't be available for this month's Buzz Night) had other things to do... the practice went on really well and i think i was able to assess Carissa's improvements... i could safely say that she did improve a lot... we did about 10 songs and most of them she sang quite good... i even tried letting sing alone in some songs... although she has yet to sing the songs the way i intend them to be sung but with the way things are right now - with most of us not being able to be together at the same time in one instance - i think i will just have to do with what she can do... i'm confident that she'll be a better vocalist for us than what i'm expecting her to be... this means a lot of for Soft Pillow Kisses... it'll be less singing for me, a better female vox representation during recordings - if you notice that most of our recording output is 50/50 guy girl vocals... i'm hoping that with her, it'll be a much more girl vocals-dominated song... i won't concern myself anymore with writing songs based on whether she could sing this or not... etc..., etc...

wish we could still practice some more, in a full band set-up just before the 29th in preparation for Buzz Night...

Some Good Mixes

hello anyone?

i've been visiting the studio for quite sometime lately... reviewing old recording of all my bands... as of yet, i think that all of the Aspirin (My First Band) songs, 12 tracks, are almost good and just need a bit more reviewing before i can safely say that it'll be ready for mastering... but this doesn't mean that it'll be released...

i got a bit disappointed at most of the Candyaudioline and Superminty (My Third Band)recordings specially the Candy-ones during the 2006 sessions... the drum
parts really did it for those songs... at least most of the 2007 sessions like "We've Been There", "Cellophane Smiles", "Flaming Walls", "Together", "You're Not There", and "Nearby Town" are close to being good and done... of the 5 songs Superminty did, only 2 songs ("Silly Thing" and the Pale saints cover) are good and will need a few more mixing the rest will just have to be re-recorded...

For Soft Pillow Kisses, there are at least 9 good songs out of 13 from the 2006 sessions and 2 good ones out of 5 from the 2007 sessions... i've been really itching to get these song out already so that we could have another one really soon...

all in all, 11 songs are already in for the "Just Like The Sky" album and here's the list of the titles included:

--- From The 2006 Sessions...
Just Like The Sky
Bean Bag
So-Called Friend
Try To Smile
16FT
Losing Something
Taste Like Vintage Wine
Under-Cover Angel
Your Shoes Are Untied

--- From The 2007 Sessions
Bathing In The Sun
I was Right

Also i plan to include songs from previous other recordings that we had... and here are some of them that are almost sure to be included:

--- Other Recordings
It Will Never Last (Forever)
Beneath The Glare
Bean Bag
Harsh Words
Vodka Ice #3
Waiting For Your Words
Stay Here For A While...

Songs that won't make it we'll be re-recorded and be included in the next one...

Post Practice...

hello everyone,

we were able to have practice as a complete unit last Dec. 14, Tuesday... medyo bitin nga lang pero at least, after months of just being a 4-piece and most of the time jamming with members of Candyaudioline eh nakumpleto rin lami sa wakas... sadly, mukang yun na yung first and last time na magkakasama kaming kumpleto for this year... the next few days from now medyo magiging busy na ako so i won't be able to call practice before Christmas... at the same time, Jann Paul will be leaving on the 28th so a different drummer will be playing for us, probably Jeff (Candyaudioline) since i can't seem to reach Gilbert (ex-Pillow)...

i was hoping we could practice some more so that we will be able to execute properly some songs we plan to record sometime very soon but with the way things are right now, i guess it'll have to wait for the meantime...

here's a clip from the last practice we had and this one's the last song we played... i guess Jann Paul was a bit tired by this time which made him play the song slower than how he usually does...

Did You Know That...

hello everyone...

did you know that...

matagal na rin pala akong di nag post dito... my last post was last Nov. 25 pa... anyways... there were times din na i wanted to post stuff pero tinamad ako dahil sa bagal ng connection dito sa bahay...

marami na rin nangyari sa Pillow during the past few Months... wala si Apple, si Ralph nabalitaan naming nasa Gen. Santos na naka-base, si Charles nandito lang sa Manila, si Dennis na ang current guitarist namin kaya hindi na talaga mag-iiba ang tunog ng Pillow sa Candy, si Jann Paul eh abalang abala na sa kanyang mga money earning projects nya, si Rene naman eh umaabot sa level 5 ng Ka-Indiehan ako naman eh as usual eh Loser pa rin... may bago nanaman kaming kanta at may bago na rin kaming Singer, Carrissa ang pangalan nya at Mukha siyang tahimik at mabait... di tulad ng Singer ng Candyaudioline na saksakan ng daldal at ubod pa ng praning... pero mabait yun ha...

lately, nagkaroon ako ng interest ulit sa mga recordings namin and i've made a few trips to the studio to check them out once more... actually pwede na talaga mag labas pero i'm still in the process of choosing the songs... this time around, i've come to a decision to compile most of the recordings Soft Pillow Kisses made... it'll be released as an album ang i'll still be using "Just Like The Sky" as the working Title of the project... hopefully it'll be 15 songs in all... still haven't decided yet whether i'll seek the help of a record label or i'll just self-release it...

it's been years since i've promise to come up with a Soft Pillow Kisses Album and i think it's about time that i've to deliver one... after this hopefully another one will follow..