Showing posts with label songwriter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label songwriter. Show all posts

TAIWAN EXCELLENCE "Your Song of Excellence: Duo Legacy" Bares Winners

Saturday, September 07, 2024


Taiwan certainly has a lot of things that Filipinos could connect to. One of it is the love for music. TAITRA aka Taiwan External Trade Development Council recently held the Taiwan Excellence "Your Song of Excellence: Duo Legacy" at the Market!Market! mall in Taguig City. 

Out of thousands who sent their entries, they got the judges choose 3 finalists to battle it out on this one day at the mall's activity center. This isn't a walk in the park as we talked to the judges Kean Cipriano, Ice Seguerra, Yeng Constantino and Paulo Zarate. They also had to choose a winner based off a themed composition about Taiwan Excellence and an original song. Taiwan is known for their various quality products and seeing the Taiwan Excellence seal on them just assures you of their high standards. Aside from the economic standpoint, it's the connections we share in culture that makes it a worthwhile event.

We also got to talk to the executives of TAITRA and asked about what they were looking for as far as winners go. It's a combination of talent, x factor and the ability to showcase the Filipino talent. Because just like Taiwan, we find excellence in these things. Makes sense?

 Various Taiwanese brands also joined the event in support of the Taiwan Excellence program and this songwriting and singing competition:

 

In the end, they announced The Unexpected Duo's Vench Larenas and Renz Salazar as Second Runner Up, Haranajeeb Duo's Khen Aldovino and Nephtali Fajardo as the First Runner Up. The grand winner is Mandarhyme Duo's Rusty and Janine Loayon, they won Php 300,000 for it. The event was witnessed by TAITRA's Brian Lee, Alex Lai, and people from Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office. Also in the event was Ambassador Wallace Chow and Ms. Josephine Shun of TECO Philippines.




COW

10CM Set to Perform "CLOSER TO YOU" Concert in Manila This August

Tuesday, May 07, 2024




This afternoon, we've had the chance to interview one of the hottest idol singers from South Korea. They're called 10CM, and he's set to perform in Manila this coming August 31st at the New Frontier Theater in Araneta City, Cubao QC. The event is produced by Cornerstone Concerts (a subsidiary of Cornerstone Entertainment) and South Korea based Magic Strawberry Sound.

For those who don't know, 10cm is an indie pop project that is being led by Kwon Jung-yeol. They were initially debuted as a duo (with Yoon Cheol-jong), but split in 2017. His songs are now part of various KDrama shows like Queen of Tears, Crash Landing On You, Start Up, Hotel de Luna, Lovely Runner and a whole lot more. He still carries the same name 10cm which they got from the difference in their height. His idea of fun is still staying in the studio and creating music, so if he's tasked to make one for a drama, he just needs to know the plot and put it all in the lyrics (pretty good process). This makes it custom fit the feel and actual story, which makes it easier to connect with... and his fans.

Here's our exclusive interview with him yesterday 




He wants to be able to connect with you especially with his music, so the content of his upcoming concert will be more of your favorites. He teased some of it during TJ Monterde's sold out concert a few days ago where he performed a medley of his KDrama hits, much of which will be done in full versions in August 31st.




While TJ Monterde loves 10cm's music, Yoon also fancies his too. It was mutual admiration and seeing them perform in TJ's concert was like a dream for all.

10CM has also won various awards from Melon Music, for Best Collab and Best Folk and Blues in different years. This tour is also going to be done in SEA countries such as SG, Malaysia and Thailand. In East Asia, there will be Taiwan, hopefully more countries soon.

Tickets are being sold in Ticketnet, so make sure you get them while it's still available. This would be perfect for those who love his music, the KDramas it's in, so you could get all the feels all over again!


COW

Artist PLUME and SALA Band Join GMA's AltG Records

Wednesday, March 06, 2024


Just got off the press conference with new artists Plume and SALA (the band) over zoom this afternoon. They're a pretty fun bunch to talk to and yes, you kinda feel like you're in the presence of very talented people.

Plume says "I usually write music when its nighttime because it's way quiet. I start with chord progression, then lyrics, if it fits I'll make the chorus and complete it. I listen to other artists, I find good things in it and put my own style. I try to make it comforting and relaxing as possible. Since my work is dedicated to music now, I focus on myself and my hobbies while studying. It's still music in the background so there's still input. I love music like that. It's unusual to do jazzy songs available to everyone, I usually follow that genre, it's what I do to stand out. I also utilize social media to make my work known. I think I'll be doing singles from AltG records. I want people to feel relaxed, hear pop, but learn the words and vibes are different. I feel Baguio's busking music scene is still starting. Manila has a lot of bar tours, I think it's more organized here but I hope Baguio will follow suit soon."

Plume adds "I often seen albums released then sometimes they lose track of it the whole year. I think releasing content in different times would fit me. I listen to a lot of genres, but I prefer metal, the beauty of it is when you removed the angst, the noisy lines, you'll see the nice lyrics on it. I also love classical music, they do inspire me!"

Beautiful is my Plume's first single, and still testing what people would go to after they listened to it. His inspiration is from a personal experience. Right now, he's still trying to feel what happened after signing with AltG Records. He didn't believe it til they started recording.



Sala's frontman says "We do it differently, I could write songs wherever I am, but I finish my songs in my Sala hence our name. I throw it to my peers and do the other parts of the songs afterwards. That's how we do it. Our songs are borrowed experiences and I think it stems from the things that are not often talked about."

"If we have new ideas, we put it in a group chat and contribute there. Since we have different work, different jams and gigs, we try to stay healthy by eating, exercising, if we wanted to do this for a long time we try to do that as much as possible. It is art, and we love it! For us, we're glad to have YT, Spotify, platforms that we can listen to. As a band, arrangements are still a group effort. If it evolves, I don't have to follow that because we have our own message, it's not a problem to do that but we already have 4 pov's in the band and I think that's enough. Things are changing, I think people are releasing songs when there's something consistent to give. People want new things, albums kind of put it in one basket but people have different tastes. This would give artists freedom to test what's good. We want to return to not just making love stories, it should be different topics, even taboo ones, songwriting for the sense of telling them not just invoke feeling, something that people could relate to."

SALA felt that signing with AltG was surreal. The opportunity came at a very shocking moment, and feels they can't think about collaborating with other artists yet as they're not established rock stars. Though they want to do that in the near future. Their single will be out mid March. Plume on the other hand already has his single out, plus a lyric video on YouTube. He also has plans to have a music video out soon, and he's so ready!

Good luck and I hope you all continue to record more! We would certainly love to listen to it with great gusto!


COW