MANILA, PHILIPPINES—PH city pop band ALYSON brings back sentimental romance and windchime melodies but with a fresh take with new single KUNG SAKALING TANAWIN, out March 27 with accompanying music video set to premiere on YouTube on the same day.
ALYSON has been in the local scene for many years now, earning their spot as the indie space’s go-to City Pop band in gigs as they provide a wide range of sound that is uniquely theirs. Hailing from Quezon City, the jazz-pop sharp-suited sensations had cemented their spot on the charts with their debut hit, DEFINITELY LOVE!, which garnered praise from major music media publications such as Billboard Philippines and Billboard Georgia’s NEXT GEN campaign.
The band is composed of Pio Ligot on vocals and rhythm guitar, Luis Uy on lead guitar, Marcus Mababangloob on drums, Miguel Erfe on bass and Easel Manes on keyboard.
KUNG SAKALING TANAWIN marks as ALYSON’s sophomore release right after “IKAW LAGI”, a poppy summertime mix which closed off the era of the first album. The sound of the new track contains a stark difference from the band’s signature “Japanese City Pop” motif. “KUNG SAKALING TANAWIN naturally leaned more into Manila Sound territory compared to our usual tendencies,” says Ligot. He also expressed how they were met with the challenge of bringing out more emotions rather than just focusing on musicality, which they believe City Pop is most known for. In the essence of heavily infusing the track with a Manila Sound vibe, their intention was to create a song that stirs the heart the same way Korean OSTs and Filipino movies/telenovelas do. They went so far as to mimic iconic Pinoy love team lines to accurately envision the vibe they were going for.
To firmly establish this concept, the band brought out trumpet player friend David Jorvina to step in and create the orchestra arrangements you hear in the song. “We knew that MIDI or sampled instruments would not give us the expressive human feel of real players, so we opted for a large team of session musicians for our orchestra,” notes Mababangloob, who was also the producer of this single. This makes KUNG SAKALING TANAWIN their largest recording project as of press time. Moreover, keyboardist Easel Manes also chimed in to share his inspiration in creating the riff listeners hear at the intro was him channeling the feathery style of Ryan Cayabyab–lightweight yet vulnerable. In careful steps, the song finally snowballed to its identity today.
With the band’s constant pursuit for changing up their game, this release also highlights ALYSON ditching the red suit with a more swingingly suave blue suit to follow the theme of longing and timelessness which we will hear more of in their upcoming major release right after this single.
ALYSON officially kicks off this true blue era with releasing an accompanying music video which stars the members with the band alongside comedian, artist and filmmaker Jun Sabayton. Including Sabayton in any of ALYSON’s work is a dream come true for the band as they genuinely consider themselves as fans of the iconic figure. “I personally grew up watching Jun Sabayton, Lourd de Veyra and Ramon Bautista. I would go so far as to consider them some of the most important variety entertainers of our time,” shares Mababangloob. He also notes that the inspiration behind Sabayton’s role in the music video was a light nod towards his character at Pedicab’s “Insekto” MV in which he played another late night host.
With a grand release such as this single, Ligot expresses how intentional everything was, from the lyricism, planning and overall massive instrumentation plans, as the band holds steady with their talents as real musicians in the world currently being infiltrated with artificial intelligence (AI) music. “The whole orchestra was composed of very talented and experienced players that gave their all in producing the sounds you hear,” he shares matter-of-factly. “Sana matandaan natin na AI can only copy the form but never the expression of soul and emotion, of which humans do best,” expressed the vocalist.”
“KUNG SAKALING TANAWIN” by ALYSON is out on March 27 on all digital streaming platforms. The music video will premiere at 8PM on the same date.
Catch them live this Saturday at 123Block!