Sala
While it’s important to keep a finger on the music scene’s pulse, you don’t always have to follow them, up-and-coming acts Plume and Sala said. At the end of the day, it’s the authenticity of their work that will help create a connection with the listeners.
“There are platforms like YouTube and Spotify to check out what’s new and what people are listening to. But for us it’s about doing music that we love as a group,” Sala’s drummer Fourth Dayag said in a Zoom conference arranged by AltG Records, a sublabel under GMA Music.
“You don’t necessarily have to go with the trends. It’s about the message. It’s what gets into people. But should we need to follow suit, then no problem, because all of us have different genres and influences,” vocalist Neth Macam said of the band, which is also composed of bassist Ronald Villader and guitarist Rigil Borromeo.
Meaningful conversations
The group’s debut single, “Hi, Tita,” for instance, talks about people who prioritize career over love and the pressure relatives put on them. True to their name, Sala—the Tagalog word for living room—the group hopes to create a space where people can share a laugh and have meaningful conversations about different topics.
“We try to tackle things that aren’t talked about often,” Neth pointed out. “The song is about a cousin and the situation he’s in during family gatherings … It’s about people being pressured by the people around them to get married or have a baby. But we’re here to tell the listeners that there’s nothing wrong with prioritizing career over a relationship.”
“It’s a message about outdated mindsets,” Fourth added.
By signing with AltG, they hope that their message ends up “reaching a wider audience.” “We’re grateful for the opportunity to have our voices heard,” Fourth said.
While Plume’s debut single, “Beautiful,” is a good ol’ acoustic ballad about young love, the singer-songwriter tries to go against the grain by incorporating jazz elements into his music.
“I understand that the jazz genre can be hard to get into, so I try to incorporate jazz chords and make them accessible,” he said in the same Zoom conference. “Since not a lot of people do that, that’s what I thought I could do to stand out.”
Plume —PHOTOS COURTESY OF ALTG RECORDS
Respite for listeners
And since it’s his very first release, Plume, a computer science student at the University of Baguio, is “still testing the waters.”
“I’m figuring out what kind of songs to sing, what melodies and chords to use and how I would perform them,” he said. “So, I thought, ‘What if I made a love letter in the form of a song? The lyrics are very descriptive and pampakilig.”
Moving forward, Plume hopes to continue writing music that can serve as a respite of sorts for listeners. “I want them to feel relaxed when they listen to my songs that’s the main thing … the sound I want my discography to have,” he said.