ONLY ON OMG! Q&A with Eraserheads: an album’s worth of unreleased demos and other revelations
It’s Tuesday evening at Raimund Marasigan’s house in Marikina.
To get there, I’m told to twist and turn through a number of roads before I make a right to a street where there’s a lumber store and “may 7-11 sa kanto.” But it’ll take me another two kilometers before I get within spitting distance of the house.
It’s a longish way for an interview but considering this is the “secret” rehearsal studio of Raimund, Ely Buendia, Buddy Zabala and Marcus Adoro as they once again become the Eraserheads and Yahoo! OMG has been been given exclusive access to the boys for the interwebs, we were so there.
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Rehearsing 20 of their 24-song repertoire
For the third time in two years, Eraserheads are reuniting to play their hits on August 10 in a one-night solo stand at the Max Pavilion of the Singapore Expo in Singapore. Last year, the boys played Canada and the U.S. Earlier this year, they were in Dubai to play before crowds composed mostly of Filipino compatriots who, as Ely would decribe them, “weren’t old enough to watch them” during the height of the band’s dominance in the 90s.
We camped inside Raimund’s cramped studio as the band re-played 20 of the 24 songs on their Singapore setlist. One of the band’s close friends and avid fans, himself A Rockstar Who Shall Remain Unnamed, sang “Minsan.” The second part of “Huwag Kang Matakot” turned into a noisy almost pyschedelic jam. A fifth guitarist, Rommel Sanchez, was on hand to boost the music. “Pare Ko” and “Toyang” has been included on the encore.
Hell, that was fun preview!
And so was the little Q&A the boys gave Yahoo! OMG.
IN PHOTOS: Eraserheads live in Dubai, April 2013
Unreleased demos, a new Eheads album
Tell us something about your setlist.
RAIMUND: “We actually prepare around 40 songs for our shows. Minsan pag me naisip kami, we jam sa soundcheck. Kung me request from our barkada, we jam it and see how it would go.”
Any chance of new songs coming out from the concert tours?
RAIMUND: “I have an album’s worth of unreleased demos.”
Ely feigns ignorance.
RAIMUND (happily): “I officially keep the demos so I should know.”
And a new album?
ELY: “We can’t afford a new album.We’re just a garage band. We still have to build a studio, and our previous label had a meltdown.”
READ: Eraserheads beat Guns N’ Roses and other attendance records in Dubai
Marcus smells ‘doobie’ onstage
With five shows abroad, the band says it’s difficult to pinpoint memorable experiences since every show was a first time introduction to the place. But, there were exceptions onstage and off.
MARCUS: “San Francisco. Unang chord pa lang, nang-amoy doobie na onstage. Bigla, me nagbato sa harap ko. Aba, naisip ko, tunay na concert ito, ah!”
RAIMUND: “San Fancisco din. Di ko alam kung bakit pero parang magical yung show. Siguro dahil dun sa nangyari kay Marcus.”
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Lost in East L.A.
ELY: “We almost got lost in East L A. We were going to a place called Man Chinese Theater but our driver who happened to come from Hawaii, thought we were headed to Chinese Man’s Theater. So yun nag-adjust pa siya ng GPS. Buti na lang di kami nakaabot sa China. Pero L.A. gusto ko rin dahil maganda ang concert set-up at tsaka pinakamadami ang relatives ng kabanda sa L.A.”
BUDDY: “Ontario, Canada. Muntik na di matuloy ang show. We were supposed to be there 3 days. Na-late dating ng visa kaya pumila pa kami sa embassy. We were in Toronto for 22 hours. Actually, we arrived, slept, played the show and left thereafter. Sumunod na gig sa New Jersey was better una, dahil sobra ganda ng sound system.”
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What their kids think
And what do their kids make of all of this touring with their old band?
ELY (father of 2): “Kasama namin sila sa tour so malamang sawang-sawa na sila sa mga kanta namin.”
RAIMUND: “Aware sila sa nangyayari pero di nila eksena ito. Sa tingin, parang okay lang sa kanila, gig ni erpat. Si Daddy, nagtatrabaho."
CHECK OUT: Ely in ‘Hot dudes who are dads’
Day-to-day jobs
On a fuller-time basis, Ely rocks with Pupil and Oktaves, which recently put out their debut album.
Raimund is busy with Sandwich, Pedicab and production projects.
Buddy is with The Dawn and there are talks that the band may start recording a new album by December this year.
Marcus, who published a book of illustrated verses called “Greems,” has an album’s worth of uncrecorded materials. He is also constructing a new nipa hut in La Union, where he spends most of time surfing (the waves, not the net).
And then, increasingly, a side project called Eraserheads has taken up their time.
RELATED: Marcus Adoro: from Eraserhead to paperback writer
‘Here na me!’
So, after so many years, getting back together must bring flashes of their previous lives as the hottest Pinoy rock band of their time.
ELY: “It’s a little different now. We’re more relaxed. We have kids. We’re more professional. We do a couple of rehearsals. We do sound check. We hang out sa airport, sa hotels.”
RAIMUND: “We belong to in the same music scene anyway and we’re all music fans. We usually see each when we watch other bands or when we check out each other’s performances.”
BUDDY: “We always see each other online. We chat regularly. You know, ‘Where are u man? Here na me!’”
Eraserheads Live in Singapore happens on August 10, 2013 at the Max Pavilion Singapore Expo and is presented by Beyond Photography Productions in cooperation with DVent Productions. For more concert details, visit Eraserheads 2013 on Facebook.
