More mature approach as Ebe revisits Sugarfree’s most important songs

Ebe Dancel

When it comes to his creative process, Ebe Dancel follows a simple philosophy: Do it the right way.

“There’s only one way to go about it. You have to do it right. Hindi pwedeng pwede na,” he told the Inquirer in an interview shortly after finalizing his return to PolyEast Records—the home of his former band, Sugarfree—at a recent contract signing.

The singer-songwriter is marking his renewed ties with the record label with “Baliktanaw,” a 10-track compilation album that features reworked versions of Sugarfree’s most important songs—plus, a new single, “Hanggang Kailan Kita Mahihintay.”

It goes without saying that Ebe, who’s quite the perfectionist, handled this comeback project with utmost care and attention to detail. “It’s not enough that you make the songs sound different—you have to make them better. It’s not just about shifting the pitch or changing the tempo, making it slower or faster,” he pointed out. “That was the main challenge for me.”

It was a tall order, considering the fact that Sugarfree’s body of work is already bulletproof to begin with. Some of the band’s material, including “Burnout,” “Kwarto,” “Mariposa,” “Hangover,” “Telepono,” “Tulog Na” and “‘Wag Ka Nang Umiyak” went on to become definitive pop-rock anthems of the 2000s, and, to this day, continue to resonate with listeners.

“But I would like to believe that we were able to achieve what we were aiming for,” he said of “Baliktanaw,” which is also Ebe’s way of commemorating what would have been Sugarfree’s 20th anniversary. The band, which was also composed of Jal Taguibao, Mitch Singson and Kaka Quisumbing, bid farewell in 2011.

Another crucial aspect of rerecording an old song is getting into the right frame of emotions. After all, the Ebe of 2003 isn’t exactly the same as the Ebe of today. “You have to feel it. It’s a bit like acting, in a way. If you’re doing a song about being heartbroken, you have to sound like it, even if you’re not. Sometimes, what I do is I make up a scenario in my head where I’m heartbroken,” he said. Ebe gave a select group of writers a preview of “Baliktanaw”—specifically, the postbreakup song “Kwarto.” The original, part of the 2004 album “Dramachine,” is an achingly pleading ballad that surges into a dramatic climax. The new version, flourished with a sweeping string instrumentation, is wistfully soothing and almost reassuring.

“I’m happy with how we did the originals. If some of them were more rambunctious, that’s because that’s how we felt then. It’s just that this time, I rerecorded them based on how I hear or picture them right now—with strings, horns, more elements,” related Ebe, who considers his compositions as his “children.”

“Of all the songs I redid, ‘Unang Araw’ was the most difficult, because there were no accompanying instruments—just layers upon layers of my voice,” he added. “The easiest, meanwhile, was ‘Telepono,’ because it was a laid-back version. I did it under 30 minutes, which has never happened. I typically take at least two hours per song.”

The new artistic direction could also be a reflection of how he “approaches his craft and life in general,” now that he’s older and more mature.

“I was more impatient back then. But as we get older, we aspire to become wiser and more compassionate, which hopefully leads to patience,” he surmised. “I also feel like I’m a more well-rounded person now than how I was at the peak of Sugarfree’s popularity. We were confused young men back then. So many things were happening and we didn’t have time to reflect.”

“We got to take things easier as we aged,” said Ebe, who’s set to launch “Baliktanaw” through a solo concert titled “Ebe Dancel with The Manila String Machine” at the Metrotent Convention Center—his first show with a 20-piece orchestra.

It has been nine years since Sugarfree disbanded. And while he has been busy pursuing various solo endeavors ever since, the band’s music will always be an important part of him. “It’s nice that people still listen to the songs; that the music is reaching a new generation,” he said. “There’s no better feeling.”