Sindikato Management Starts Breaking Barriers

Seen most of them, heard them on the radio, but it was awesome to spend my evening with great artists and musicians at 12 Monkeys in El Pueblo Ortigas district. I guess this news is big, especially for those who are already familiar with their names, the individual artists and their music. One thing binds them all, they're called SINDIKATO and I wouldn't be surprised if people would be afraid with the mere mention of that. We're not talking about mafia here, but a company that does video production, short films, online content for music and ad projects, but now Artist Management. 

With the aim of managing the careers of some of the best bands and artists in the country - and making them a byword in an international stage, this crew just had the right amount of passion, gusto and drive to help them grow their craft. They promise to do bigger things now that they're under their wings - rather than just being a production house, they've already started to become movers and shakers in the industry.

Enzo Valdez of Sindikato says "I dreamed to be a director, an artist, and I shared this dream with him. With our team, we shared it too. We became friends with the musicians we worked with, we realized we missed collaborating with fellow artists. When we started someone investes on us, now we are a hub of artists and have that community to help you. We hope you have a lot of fun with the Sindikato artists."

In the short period of time we had in the press conference, I tried to see how these guys and gals differ. Artist FERN does electronic pop targeted to milennials, Unit 406 does opm cover songs, epic tunes and ballads (they did the track for Bagani, a top rating show in ABSCBN), Finding River Blindness delves on mellow melodic tunes, SUD does chill heartfelt opm, Hulyo sings heartbreaking ones, Ben&Ben does really great movie soundtracks and ride worthy music - and Callalily is Callalily (but with fresh tunes to boot with their new, fresh and young guitarist which kean says he helps them make the music youthful!). 

Talent management, bookings will now be handled exclusively with Sindikato and they will be helping with the marketing, financial aspects of their career. It's what they have been planning for, and in the coming months they hope to get international attention with their efforts, it's all they ask and expect from the stellar bands and individuals that they have in their roster. 

Big dreams, belief in their artists, will make them all become regulars in the world stage. 

If not today, it's going to be very very soon.

KUMAGCOW

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Giordano World Without Strangers Music Festival

Ira Cruz was also seen at Giordano's World Without Strangers event at Glorietta. Photo by Mikz Marcelo.

It's the 25th year anniversary of Giordano Philippines and what better way to celebrate that but by staging a huge festival right smack in the middle of Glorietta mall. They also deem this the best occasion to introduce their newest endorser Mr. Rico Blanco!

Rico Blanco sang World Without Strangers, the perfect homage to Giordano's brand (Photography by Mikz Marcelo)

It was something for the history books as they turned the 4th of July to be our own celebration of Philippine music. It's something that they see to be part of who we are and that's why they never hesitated to get the best of the best bands in the country. They also got the ultra conservative guys to host the show... of course it's the BOYSNIGHTOUT crew!  Other than that, they have made history by inviting these 15 local bands namely Callalily, Sponge Cola, Urbandub, rockstars Franco, Up Dharma Down, Gracenote, Techy Romantics, Taken By Cars, Kala, Autotelic, Join The Club, Cygnet, Maude, Hidden Nikki, Yolanda Moon plus Rico Blanco who performed the World Without Strangers song during the festivities. They also have given recognition to 12 people from different walks of life who gave value to the "World Without Strangers" declaration that Giordano stands firm with all these years.

World Without Strangers is also composed by Rico Blanco. It was something that he had fun making because the concept was easy since it relates to Giordano's vision of a borderless world. It's something that a person like Rico Blanco would believe in. They also have announced the winners of the Giordano Statement Tee Design contest. The winners shirts will be released somewhere in the last week of July. The track will also be available on iTunes so everyone can download it there.

One of my favorite bands URBANDUB was there. Gabby was awesome! (Photography by Mikz Marcelo)

Yael Yuzon brought down the house with his brand of music. (Photography by Mikz Marcelo)

Armi Millare, of world class Up Dharma Down was just heavenly! (Photography by Mikz Marcelo)

Pretty rock chic Eunice of Gracenote. The photographer had a crush on her haha! (Photography by Mikz Marcelo)

He gets points for bringing the crowd up on their feet, here's Kean Cipriano of Callalily. This dude is tops, he even recognized me during the Deezer launch. (Photography by Mikz Marcelo)

Aaron Ricafrente does what he's absolutely good at. (Photography by Mikz Marcelo)

Forgot the name of this band, sorry but of course they were really good too! (Photography by Mikz Marcelo)

Sick! Rock personified with Franco Reyes on vocals. This is FRANCO. (Photography by Mikz Marcelo)

Tattoos + darn good vocalist = Freakin rockstar from Cebu. (Photography by Mikz Marcelo)

Yael Yuzon going borderless and staying free during the World Without Strangers Festivities. See how crazy he is? He almost crowdsurfed! (Photography by Mikz Marcelo)

The mission is clear and they have absolutely given the Philippines something that the world is in need of. A World Without Strangers. This event just put a stamp on that!

Fun moment when Kean Cipriano wiped Eunice's face while performing. Epic! (Photography by Mikz Marcelo)

I'd like to thank Giordano for inviting us and to Concert Photographer par excellance Mikz Marcelo for covering for me. Muchas gracias mi hombre! You are awesome!

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HERO Foundation: It's time to be HEROES for our HEROES' CHILDREN!

I went to Trinoma a few days ago to attend the launch of the new donation boxes that the HERO Foundation was putting up in strategic locations nationwide. These new boxes actually contain something evidently touching because on the half part of it are dog tags. It symbolizes the soldiers who have donated their lives for the country. Now it's your turn to help them out!

You see, we have men and women working in the Armed Forces to keep our country safe from those who want to wreak havoc or occupy it. Some also are insurgents in the South or communists rebels too. In the battle field, there are heavily armed men and these soldiers can either get hurt or slain while serving their country. What happens is that they leave their families and relatives behind. Who's going to take care of them? Who's going to pay for their education? That's where the HERO Foundation comes in to help.

HERO Foundation has helped hundreds of kids to go to school and they continually are getting huge corporations as sponsors so these kids who had their parents killed in action or disabled still have a chance to finish their studies and help their own families too.

Take for example this gallant solider who nearly lost his life to an ambush by rebels in Mindanao. He couldn't work anymore and he has kids who are still studying. He wanted to have himself killed even so the enemies won't get information from him. God and some of his fellow soldiers helped him and after he has survived, HERO foundation helped him to get his daughter be sent to school.

Celebrities and bands like SixCycleMind and Callalily also attended the event so they could show their support for HERO Foundation. This is Kean Cipriano's birthday so it was really special for him to finally get to help a foundation such as HERO. These bands know how important education is for these kids and they didn't hesitate to help when they were asked. They even performed for the crowd and made it even more special by dedicating songs to the cause. Here's an excerpt of their performances that afternoon!