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Radioactive Sago Project: 'Hindi kami hip'

Sagoing for it. (Photo by Francis Brew)

“Salamat sa mga fans ng UpDharmaDown na pumunta ngayong gabi,” TV5 personality/award-winning poet/vocalist Lourd De Veyra says to the 19 East audience on July 5.

It is almost midnight, and it is the launch of Radioactive Sago Project’s “Ang Itlog at ang Demonyo,” RASP’s new album on Terno Records; label mates Yolanda Moon and UpDharmaDown opened for the band.

While De Veyra is known for his wit and sarcasm, he also has a self-deprecating sense of humor.


Packed

The place is packed, but De Veyra seems convinced it’s a “Capacities” crowd and continues, “Kung wala sila at ang Yolanda Moon, siguro di kayo pupunta.”

He says this at least twice during the band’s set.

He spends most of his expletive-riddled spiels, delivered with that famous droll professorial sonority, poking fun at his bandmates and trading asides with the audience—all good-natured of course.

 

Everybody listens to the word of the Lourd. (Photo by Francis Brew)
Everybody listens to the word of the Lourd. (Photo by Francis Brew)


Spiel’s the thing

De Veyra probably spieled more than he sang, but that’s exactly what you expect from the band: irreverent words pregnant with humor or sharp commentary on a bed of seriously burning jazz-rock.

And nobody in the band is too precious about it.

They spot Glenn Jacinto and Pedz Narvaja of Teeth amongst the audience, and spontaneously launch into a “Shooting Star” verse.


Riffing with Sabayton

Nevertheless, De Veyra is beaming from the stage as the 19 East audience enthusiastically laps up the band’s every riff and syllable (which has been happening even before the venue’s video screens were lifted and the band was jamming on jazz/funk motifs).

Later in the set, friend/associate Jun Sabayton takes the mic momentarily to drunkenly tell people he is “Pinoy from the waist up, and black from the waist down.”

De Veyra shakes his head as Sabayton makes his way back to the table. He sets his forefinger and thumb an inch apart and elaborates, “Di tutoo yon. Nakita ko na eh… malayo.”


Saxophonist Roxy Modesto (Photo by Francis Brew)
Saxophonist Roxy Modesto (Photo by Francis Brew)

Props

He was also gracious enough to congratulate Kjwan and the Purplechickens who were launching their own albums elsewhere on the same night.

De Veyra genuinely appreciates the people in attendance, expressing they could have been elsewhere. But for the 19 East crowd, it was obvious where they wanted to be.

In a little questionnaire answered before the gig, De Veyra sort of explains the title “Ang Itlog at Ang Demonyo.”


Eggs from eggs

“It's from a cryptic poem by Dr. Cirilo Bautista (newly named National Artist for Literature). Something about Satan dropping eggs and from the eggs emerged the first man and woman. What it has to do with the music we're not really sure,” he said,

RASP’s previous album “Tangina Mo Ang Daming Nagugutom sa Mundo Fashionista Ka pa Rin” was released in 2007 but the band was already playing around with ideas as early as 2008.

De Veyra cheekily admits, “But since our major virtues are sloth and excessive consumption, things moved at a glacial pace. Some songs were only completed because there were external deadlines.”


The loudest they’ve ever been

“That’s not the entire picture of course; De Veyra’s schedule in network TV5 also factored in and he says he now goes to bed “before 10 pm—a very un-Sago trait.”

He says there are some enhancements to the band’s signature sound on the new album. “Whereas before the emphasis was on structure and arrangement, this time we were attempted texture and atmosphere—via Biboy Garcia, our turntablist,” he said.

"Also, I think this is the loudest we've ever done. We tried keeping the songs short. As much as possible the lyrics and the mood evokes that sense of absurdity, that spiritual claustrophobia you feel when taking the train, the paranoia of sicknesses, etc.”


‘With our age and looks…’

In one of De Veyra’s spiels, he called out the label that released their 2000 self-titled debut which contained their signature “Gusto Ko Ng Baboy;” the next year saw the label demanding songs that sounded like Salbakuta.

“We realized we had to do things ourselves—and thank heavens there's Terno Recordings,” he said.

“At our age and looks, we know that we're never gonna be chart toppers, we're never gonna make the Summer Slam crowd jump up and down (or just be invited to the Summer Slam for that matter),” he admitted.

 

Saxophonist Rastem Eugenio and Lourd. (Photo by Francis Brew)
Saxophonist Rastem Eugenio and Lourd. (Photo by Francis Brew)


Don’t know what’s hip

“We're not even that aware of what's out there. We're hardly attuned to the ‘zeitgeist.’ We don't know who's hip, what's hip, the hippest places and shit like that,” De Veyra said.

“At the end of the day, we're still listening to Miles, Coltrane, James Brown, Black Sabbath, The Clash, etc.”

The mentioned influences are still all evident in RASP’s music: tight grooves, free jazz sax solos, and sudden stylistic shifts from jazz to metal and back in a nanosecond stitched together with tons of humor.


From left: Wowie Ansano, Junji Lerma, Pards Tupas, Roxy Modesto, Jay Gapasin, Lourd De Veyra, Francis De Veyra, Arwin Nava, B-boy Garcia (Photo by Francis Brew)
From left: Wowie Ansano, Junji Lerma, Pards Tupas, Roxy Modesto, Jay Gapasin, Lourd De Veyra, Francis De Veyra, Arwin Nava, B-boy Garcia (Photo by Francis Brew)


Still a punk

De Veyra was a punk guitarist early his career; in his sharp commentaries serious or otherwise, in-song and off, he still is a punk. “Low (industry) support” is something that the band has been familiar with since the first album.

“We've also learned to live with the arrogant notion that we ourselves are first and last audience,” he said.

Of course, the 19 East audience will disagree.


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