Culture Through Music

Even though I spent half my life in this country and there's a lot that's familiar to me, there's a lot that has changed. One thing is modern Filipino music. I think it's gotten better. And at the moment, I'm soaking up the culture through music...and I'm lovin' it.


"Hale" won Best New Artist at the MTV Pilipinas Video Music Awards.

I just got a few cds from some of the top local acts over here and many of them sing in both the national language AND English. One of them is a Reggae band called "Brownman Revival." The others, like Hale and Cueshe (pronouced "cue-shay")---whose name comes from a fried banana on a stick---are more radio-friendly rock. You can actually hear Hale's stuff on their Web site. Check out "Kung Wala Ka," and "The Day You Said Goodnight" which should be accessible once you get past the flash intro. Just skip around the album tracks. If you listen for it, you'll hear some influences from Coldplay, Oasis and some other Brit bands in their stuff.

Filipinos love to sing. In the malls, you can go to the arcade and play video games OR put your tokens into a Video Karaoke machine and display your vocal chops for the crowd that gathers (and there is always a crowd, even if you're bad!).

Filipinos love to sing at church, too. I was a guest worship leader at this one youth event and now they've basically asked me to play every Friday night. They have a lot of vocalists, but no lead guitarist. So that's where I've stepped in. And my amp's never been turned up this loud at a Baptist church in the States! But more importantly, the kids are honest and passionate in their worship. God's really been blessing. Filipinos do love to rock. And Filipino brothers and sisters love to rock for Christ. So the worship is very much "up" over here. There's a huge Hillsong influence in the fellowships doing modern worship stuff. So, yeah. Lots of Class-A type overdrive and Vox chime coming from my section of the stage.

Things are getting little more stable for us. I feel like I'm adjusting better. Part of that has to do with having a stable church and getting involved with a youth ministry again. I'm developing a worship devo series for the band and I'll be giving the first in the series tonight.