Rocking the silents

“L’Inferno” (Italy)

As winged demons and tortured souls squirmed quietly onscreen, Filipino rock band Razorback had a raucous, rocking time providing live music scoring to the 1911 Italian film “L’Inferno” (based on the classic “Dante’s Inferno”) at the 5th International Silent Film Festival held at the Shangri-La Plaza mall recently.

During rehearsals, lead singer Kevin Roy would intermittently jump from his seat and dash to the screen for a better view. “I had to constantly check the moving pictures and check with my band mates, too.”

On the night of the actual performance on August 27, however, Roy had to remain seated throughout the screening. “We couldn’t distract the audience,” he told the Inquirer.

Semblance of structure

In scoring a silent film, the band realized, the movie and the music are the stars—unlike in concerts, where their larger-than-life personalities inevitably hog the spotlight.

Roy related that they got sections of songs from their past six albums and composed a few new tunes, too, “along with transition jam riffs.”

To tell the story of Dante’s journey to the nine circles of hell, they raided the “hellish” tunes in their catalogue, like “Teacher,” “Diwata” and, for the closing credits, “Mana,” according to bassist Louie Talan. “We had to come up with some semblance of a structure,” Talan said.

“At the same time, there was plenty of room to improvise,” said guitarist Manuel Legarda. “It wasn’t exacting.”

They played it by ear, literally. It helped that they tackled some of the film’s karmic motifs in their latest CD, “Three Minutes of Glory,” which will be released later this month.

“We got recurring themes and lyrics that echo the story. We followed the movie’s rhythm,” said Roy, who confessed to the jitters a few hours before show time. “I felt drained,” he said. “Tense.”

Except for Talan (who jammed with Noli Aurillo, Spy and Garlic in past editions of the silent film fest), the band members were newbies in the scoring biz, said drummer Brian Velasco.

“It was a new experience for us,” guitarist Tirso Ripoll agreed. “We learned to be more subtle in our performance and to be more attentive to each other.”

Plus, Velasco said, they had to remain totally alert during the performance, “to make sure that we were in sync with what was happening onscreen.”

“I had to give up alcohol,” Roy joked. “I couldn’t afford to space out.”

Talan confessed that this gig gave him a crash course on the Italian epic poem. “I must’ve cut classes when we tackled ‘Dante’s Inferno’ in high school.”

“We ventured out of our comfort zone,” said Ripoll. “It’s good to try new things. It’ll help us grow.” He found it sweetly ironic that “a 100-year-old film took them to another artistic level.”

Booked solid

Would they do other “scoring” projects in the future? Already, there is talk of an encore, especially since “L’Inferno” was a certified hit and was booked solid days before the fest, according to Emanuela Adesini, cultural attaché of the Italian embassy.

“There are plans to bring it to Cebu or Davao,” said manager Patrick Pulumbarit.

Roy quipped: “It opened doors to other forms of art. I’d gladly do it again.”