Achieving Happiness

I wrote this article in May 2004. It was supposed be 

published in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine.

 I don't know why it didn't come out. In any case,

ONL is one of my favorite groups ever (yes,so 

lahat ng kokontra wag nang magbasa-okay Gian Paolo, hmmmm?!)


I wish I brought with me a copy of their first album. 

I like some of the songs in the second album,
but the first is really, well,I could play the
 CD all day and not get tired of it. Clem, the composer of the group,
is referred to O Brilliant One by this writer. 
He's humble to boot.

-----------------


Their first release "Just like A Splendid Love Song" has been number
1 on NU107's midnight countdown for three straight weeks. Snatches of
their other songs have been used as background music for GMA's teen
dramadies such as Click. In Cebu and Davao, many are frustrated to
find that their album can only be brought in Tower Records and Music
1 stores. With little or even no hype, a new band is slowly moving to
centerstage on the strength of their new-wave sound and the loyalty
they are generating among Manila's twenty-something to early-thirties
yuppie crowd.

Meet Orange and Lemons (ONL), four boys from Bulacan whose collective
slogan is refreshingly unpretentious: play well, make listeners
happy, and make more music.

The band's frontmen Clem Castro, 27 and Mcoy Fundales, 26, are
hometown boys, born and raised in Baliuag, Bulacan. They struck up a
friendship, and afterwards forged their musical partnership as high
school freshmen. Like many of their older contemporaries, they
idolized The Beatles, and it was the legendary band from Liverpool
that in inspired them to write their first songs and construct their
first melodies.

ONL's drummer and base guitarist are brothers from neighboring
Plaridel, Ace Del Mundo, 26 and JM Del Mundo, 25. Both are
determinedly into music for the long haul, , saying they'd even work
as clerks in a rinky-dink record store just so they can continue
being part – however obscurely – of the music scene.

With the release of their first album under Toti Dalmacion's indie
label Terno records, Orange and Lemons is swiftly becoming known as
the latest newest new wave band to follow, taking up where the
Eraserheads and Rivermaya have left off. The boys, however, hasten to
say that they're not strictly a new wave band.

Not a new wave band

Mcoy who acts as the band's spokesperson, says that it just so
happened that their sets – they play regularly at Gweilos in Palanca
St. Makati and Mayric's along Espana – in their earlier gigs mostly
included new wave songs. The audience, college students and yuppies,
and a few older denizens of Makati's corporate world clamored for
more, and the boys ended up playing new wave songs more than any
other kind of songs.

ONL's first album "Love in the Land of Rubber Shoes and Dirty Ice
Cream," is composed of 10 songs that pays tribute to the legendary
Beatles, Morrissey, The Smiths and other bands of the 80s. The
comparisons between ONL's music and those aforementioned are rife;
and more often not this is enough to get listeners to pay closer
attention and want to rush to the store to get the album. But beyond
the comparison, "Love in the Land of Rubber Shoes and Dirty Ice
Cream" can stand on its own and claim fame for the band that produced
it.

Named after an album of a Wiltshire, UK group XTC (the actual name
of the album is Oranges & Lemons), the group owes much to the Beatles
and Morrisey and other bands of the 80s. The band, however, pays its
debts promptly and with interest. Though composers Clem and Mcoy
cannot be credited for having composed anything really new or
definitive, what they have done, however is to create more of a great
thing and add to it their own unique and to some degree brilliant
touches. The melodies and song structure may bear strong semblances
to those of the artists they emulate and count as biggest
influences, but the sentiment and the lyricism are most definitely
their own.

"We can play other kinds of music. We're into RNB, jazz, metal; but
right now the people who come to our gigs want to hear new wave, and
that's what we give them," he says. "The nostalgia factor is very
strong. New wave immediately connects people to their past, and it
makes them remember happy times. Our sets are always happy events
that way."

Sure enough, Gweilos on a Wednesday is jampacked with twenty and
thirty-somethings yelling out song titles by The Wild Swans,
Psychedelic Fur, the Sundays, House Martins, The Cure, and of course,
the Smiths and Morrissey. The audience sings along to the band, and
ever so often, Mcoy would oblige and turn over his microphone to a be-
necktied yuppie, crooning "If you leave, don't look back. I won't
waste one single day…"

Mcoy has boy-next-door looks and has a free and easy manner, even
malambing. When performing, he looks like he's really enjoying
himself, and establishes contact with the audience by smiling and
nodding. During the seconds-long lull between songs, girls in the
audience call out to him and take pictures with their camera-phones.
As for Clem, he fits into the role of being the group's John Lennon.
Her wrote most of the songs in the album as well as the 10 others
that are scheduled for the second, although he shares credit for the
melodic structure and arrangement with Mcoy.

On stage, Clem is barely contained energy and adrenalin, his guitar
taking a beating yet producing amazing sound. Off stage, he is
alternately quiet, even reserved. Then, when the conversation takes
an interesting turn and he is gripped with an opinion, he speaks with
intensity. He excitedly runs a hand through his curly hair, his China
eyes bright.

And has it been mentioned that these boys can actually sing? Unlike
many of their counterparts in other start-up bands and even in the
established groups, the boys' vocal chords are trained to produce
actual music, and not just screeches, moans or agonized screams.
Clem's rendition of "Kailangan Kita" or McCoy singing "Days and
Nights" are enough to prove that these boys are for real.

Musicians in training

If ONL has a John Lennon in Clem, and a Paul McCartney in Mcoy, then
the band should also have a George Harrison and a Ringo Starr.

Bassist JM, the youngest in ONL, certainly fits the Sir George mold.
He sits quietly in his corner, listening as the others do the
talking, only answering when directly asked.

"I wish I had more time to practice," he says plainly, when asked
what he wants to do to improve his skill. "I want to read more books
and get a better guitar, and make fewer mistakes when playing." JM
looks more boyish than Mcoy, and does remind one of the late George.
Performance wise, JM provides a steady backbone, a hardy rhythm to
the lightning-swift playing of the two leads. He keeps his head
bowed, as if concentrating.

Drummer Ace is his brother's opposite. Where JM is quiet, Ace is
gregarious and communicative. He offers his opinion frankly, calling
a spade a spade.

"I believe we have what it takes to succeed. Sure, we don't have
formal music training, and we don't have hi-tech equipment, but we
love what we do, we're great at it, and we're determined to keep
getting better," he says. He recites a litany of sorrows against the
music industry and how it's being run. He echoes the sentiment of
genuine musicians who fail to secure the support of the
establishment, the same establishment which puts money in the
production of, say, novelty songs with suggestive to overtly lewd
lyrics.

JM and Ace have no other ambition than to be the best musicians that
they can be. Ace admits to locking himself in his room, practicing a
minimum of four hours on his drumkit. "I'd practice longer, pero
nabubugbog nang mga braso ko. I wouldn't be able to play during
gigs," he laughs. The brothers are conscious of how much it costs to
be a musician in training. "The cheapest guitar strings cost P1,500 a
set; drumsticks are P250 a pair, and the best thing that can be said
about these sticks are that you can actually play with them without
splintering them," he adds.

Sour and Sweet

While ONL is only recently getting recognition, it has been actually
been around for quite a bit.

Clem and Mcoy formed the original ONL in July 1999, together with Ato
Santiago and Mike Salvador. With the help of friends such as Maly
Andres, who played bass for the band Violent Playground, they were
able to produce and record two singles, "She's Leaving Home"
and "Isang Gabi" which were released in December 2002, in an indie
compilation album No Seat Affair! Vol. 2.

The first single enjoyed airplay in a local rock station supporting
the so-called independent bands. ONL began to generate a modest
following, but was crippled when Ato and Mike decided to leave the
band.

Undiscouraged, Clem and Mcoy took in Ace who originally played rhythm
guitar in an alternative band named Colossal Youth.
"Truth were told, Ace was the one who all gung-ho about keeping ONL
intact. He would come over to the house and say "Sige pare, okay lang
yan, tuloy natin ang ONL!" Mukulit. Clem and I were just about ready
to give up," Mcoy remembers.

Ace was so determined to get ONL back on its feet that he shifted
from guitar to drums. It took him four months and eight hours of
practice daily, but he did it. "For the love of ONL," he says.
It was certainly an uphill struggle for the boys. They all had
college degrees tucked under their respective belts, but what was
crucial was they get jobs that would deliver them the most cash at
the shortest possible time.

Mcoy admits to having sold hamburgers; he declines to say for which
fastfood restaurant. Ace was the only one who had a more or
less `normal' job. "It was boring, but it was a living," he says of
his former work as a draftsman. For the most part, Clem, Mcoy and JM
did networking.

Networking?

"You know, selling products to a network of people, and expanding the
scope of your contacts you could sell more products," Mcoy explains
matter of factly. As the interviewer still looks blank, Ace steps
in.

"We sold Forever Living products."

Oh.

They all begin to sound so defensive it's hard not to laugh.

"We didn't go door-to-door or anything."

"We did earn a lot."

"It was so we could get money to buy instruments and peddle our demo
tapes around."

Okay, okay.

They got a new manager, booked a few gigs, and after a few weeks,
word was spreading about an up and coming new wave band whose own
compositions rivaled the covers they did.

When Jeremy Kelly of the Lotus Eaters came to the country and chanced
to hear ONL's first single, he all raved about it, saying that the
song "is a well-executed journey into the major / minor chord
sequencing so redolent of English pop music at its best. The bitter-
sweet music of Orange and Lemons makes an ideal accompaniment to the
English Autumn, a season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and it is
only a matter of time before their music is known here."

Fans of the group maintain egroup, predictably called
orange_and_lemons@yahoogroups.com and there their the members rant
and rave about the boys and their performances. No, it's not just
girls and women who post, but men as well: business executives, music
reviewers, and many other professionals who profess to be addicted to
ONL because the group's music `takes them back to their youth. One
even posts his own reviews, calling ONL's music as " Positive,
inspired and absolutely, brilliant."

The boys are far from getting jaded.

"We haven't really gotten anywhere yet; and we're very, very grateful
to the people who show their faith in us and encourage us," Clem says
fervently.

The laconic JM agrees. "Nakakatuwa naman ang suporta." Make no
mistake, even when he has his head down when he plays on stage, JM is
still aware of the happy energy their playing generates.

Fans of the group already have plans to help their favorite quartet
get to the top. They rub their thumbs raw texting radio stations to
include ONL's songs in their daily and weekly countdowns. They fax
and email and spread the word about where to get ONL's album; but
most importantly they troop like devotees to all of the boy's gigs.

These four boys just might be the next big thing. As Clem jokes,
something people will remember Bulacan for aside from the pasalubong
staples chicaron, inipit and boxed sweet tamarinds.#

This entry was posted on Friday, January 20th, 2006 at 1:35 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.