Sirens: a band on the rise
By Ysabel Joana Carlos
City lights, cars beeping and the low hum of engines are interrupted by a loud clamour, a siren. Amidst city noise, it is a siren that truly stands out. This is what inspired the Filipino band, Sirens, to name their group.
Josh Alipe, the band’s vocalist, had started out as a solo artist before he met fellow band members, Webs Navasca on bass and Nicolo “Nick” Nimor on drums, Lemuel “Lem” Morata and Bram Asuncion on guitars who all hail from the city of Cebu. When asked how the band started, Josh answers that it was “cheesy.”
It is not uncanny to start relationships online these days but who knew that a band could arise from it.
Josh had gotten tired of playing alone on stage. He chatted up Nick one night when he was online to ask for a guitarist because he found it tough to sing and play the guitar at the same time. Nick agreed to bring in the other guys who were already a church band but he would have to be the drummer, they were a package deal.
In this aspect, it was Nick who brought them together. “Nung highschool, kami yung band eh,” Nick recalls. “Church band sila ‘tas ako yung parang playback. Audience lang.”
Coming from Cebu, the city of Manila was overwhelming for them.
When they landed in Manila, Sirens did not have anyone to guide them. They had not yet met Koi Busalla, now their manager. Josh Alipe recalls how easy it was for them to agree to playing in gigs anywhere. “I was the one who got the calls. It was like, ‘you want to play here?’ Okay!”
They learned eventually some of these places were not so great but the biggest challenge for Sirens is being away from their family. It can’t be helped that coming a long way from Cebu and being family-oriented, they feel a little homesick.
“The more that we’re here, the more flipped we are! So we have to go home from time to time to refresh that.”
Recently Sirens has overcome another challenge and that is, shooting their first music video for the song, “Moments”. Shooting the video professionally was a first for the group. In the video, they had to sync their movements with the playback of the song. Josh says that when the playback first started playing, they had no idea what to do. “It was scary and awkward...more of awkward.”
Nick who had to play drums while wearing formal clothes found it tough and found shooting the video overwhelming. “Overwhelming siya kasi first time ko magshoot ng video na may crew tapos madaming tao involved. Parang sino kakausapin ko. Ang dami nila.”
Shooting became easier for them when the director advised them to play the instruments the way they play live. From there, the group became more comfortable with their movements and then started to have fun with the shoot.
Sirens is also working on their album which they will release soon as well. By working on it, they mean being totally hands on with the project. They are doing all the work with the exception of one of their songs, Grounds which has already been recorded. “Isang vision ng band, na dahil kami gumagawa ng songs namin gusto namin kami na din gumagawa lahat,” Lem explains. Sirens says that fans can look forward to “good, different music”.
While already working on their album and gigs, Sirens’ members like to spend their spare time productively.
Nick has his own business, Nick Automatic, a clothing store with designs he made himself. It has been gaining exposure not only in the Philippines but across Asia with over a 100,000 following on Facebook. Nick’s designs can be seen being worn by other bands such as Urbandub, Forever the Sickest Kids and A Day to Remember. Even celebrities are out to support his works.
Meanwhile, Josh is also a tattoo artist at 55tinta in Maginhawa. He recalls how his mother was not very supportive of tattoos, she cried when his older brother got his first tattoo at 16 and cried when Josh got his own. She came around eventually and asked him to do her first tattoo.
Bram, branded by the group as the “social media guy”, is active on Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr. He aspires to be a photographer and runs a film photography blog on Tumblr.
Being in a band is not all about fun and games. One of the band’s supporters, Charlie shares that, “these guys are great. I saw second hand how they really work hard. I’m telling you guys it’s not that easy. You can see in their pictures, they’re smiling and all but it’s all hard work.”
There was even an issue about OPM being a dead industry which some people agreed with and some did not. Band manager, Koi Busalla, claims that, “OPM will never die. As long as there are people like these bands who want to play original music and are Filipinos the music industry will not die yet.”
Meanwhile, Josh says that the industry is “not as healthy as it was before” but despite that, there are a lot of new bands coming out of nowhere and that it is clearly a sign that OPM is not dead.
Another problem is that a lot of the youth support foreign bands more than the local ones. Josh says that we can’t really blame them, “You can’t really talk to one person who supports foreign acts and tell them, hey, support OPM! It’s useless. You have to act on it. You have to make music better than the foreign acts which [are] hard.”
Despite the challenges and pressures within the industry, the band never falters. They believe in positive thinking.
Koi says that as manager, he does not do much talking. He believes in action and that he does not like telling them what they can do and what they cannot do. “I don’t want them to feel that they’re not important. I want them to feel that this is real work and hard work must be done. I want them to know that I value their music and I value them as a person.”
When asked whether they have ever thought of giving up, Josh confidently answers, “No. I believe that everyone is fated for something great. I believe something great is going to happen for us. I don’t know when but it’ll happen.”
City lights, cars beeping and the low hum of engines are interrupted by a loud clamour, a siren. Amidst city noise, it is a siren that truly stands out. This is what inspired the Filipino band, Sirens, to name their group.
Josh Alipe, the band’s vocalist, had started out as a solo artist before he met fellow band members, Webs Navasca on bass and Nicolo “Nick” Nimor on drums, Lemuel “Lem” Morata and Bram Asuncion on guitars who all hail from the city of Cebu. When asked how the band started, Josh answers that it was “cheesy.”
It is not uncanny to start relationships online these days but who knew that a band could arise from it.
Josh had gotten tired of playing alone on stage. He chatted up Nick one night when he was online to ask for a guitarist because he found it tough to sing and play the guitar at the same time. Nick agreed to bring in the other guys who were already a church band but he would have to be the drummer, they were a package deal.
In this aspect, it was Nick who brought them together. “Nung highschool, kami yung band eh,” Nick recalls. “Church band sila ‘tas ako yung parang playback. Audience lang.”
Coming from Cebu, the city of Manila was overwhelming for them.
When they landed in Manila, Sirens did not have anyone to guide them. They had not yet met Koi Busalla, now their manager. Josh Alipe recalls how easy it was for them to agree to playing in gigs anywhere. “I was the one who got the calls. It was like, ‘you want to play here?’ Okay!”
They learned eventually some of these places were not so great but the biggest challenge for Sirens is being away from their family. It can’t be helped that coming a long way from Cebu and being family-oriented, they feel a little homesick.
“The more that we’re here, the more flipped we are! So we have to go home from time to time to refresh that.”
Recently Sirens has overcome another challenge and that is, shooting their first music video for the song, “Moments”. Shooting the video professionally was a first for the group. In the video, they had to sync their movements with the playback of the song. Josh says that when the playback first started playing, they had no idea what to do. “It was scary and awkward...more of awkward.”
Nick who had to play drums while wearing formal clothes found it tough and found shooting the video overwhelming. “Overwhelming siya kasi first time ko magshoot ng video na may crew tapos madaming tao involved. Parang sino kakausapin ko. Ang dami nila.”
Shooting became easier for them when the director advised them to play the instruments the way they play live. From there, the group became more comfortable with their movements and then started to have fun with the shoot.
Sirens is also working on their album which they will release soon as well. By working on it, they mean being totally hands on with the project. They are doing all the work with the exception of one of their songs, Grounds which has already been recorded. “Isang vision ng band, na dahil kami gumagawa ng songs namin gusto namin kami na din gumagawa lahat,” Lem explains. Sirens says that fans can look forward to “good, different music”.
While already working on their album and gigs, Sirens’ members like to spend their spare time productively.
Nick has his own business, Nick Automatic, a clothing store with designs he made himself. It has been gaining exposure not only in the Philippines but across Asia with over a 100,000 following on Facebook. Nick’s designs can be seen being worn by other bands such as Urbandub, Forever the Sickest Kids and A Day to Remember. Even celebrities are out to support his works.
Meanwhile, Josh is also a tattoo artist at 55tinta in Maginhawa. He recalls how his mother was not very supportive of tattoos, she cried when his older brother got his first tattoo at 16 and cried when Josh got his own. She came around eventually and asked him to do her first tattoo.
Bram, branded by the group as the “social media guy”, is active on Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr. He aspires to be a photographer and runs a film photography blog on Tumblr.
Being in a band is not all about fun and games. One of the band’s supporters, Charlie shares that, “these guys are great. I saw second hand how they really work hard. I’m telling you guys it’s not that easy. You can see in their pictures, they’re smiling and all but it’s all hard work.”
There was even an issue about OPM being a dead industry which some people agreed with and some did not. Band manager, Koi Busalla, claims that, “OPM will never die. As long as there are people like these bands who want to play original music and are Filipinos the music industry will not die yet.”
Meanwhile, Josh says that the industry is “not as healthy as it was before” but despite that, there are a lot of new bands coming out of nowhere and that it is clearly a sign that OPM is not dead.
Another problem is that a lot of the youth support foreign bands more than the local ones. Josh says that we can’t really blame them, “You can’t really talk to one person who supports foreign acts and tell them, hey, support OPM! It’s useless. You have to act on it. You have to make music better than the foreign acts which [are] hard.”
Despite the challenges and pressures within the industry, the band never falters. They believe in positive thinking.
Koi says that as manager, he does not do much talking. He believes in action and that he does not like telling them what they can do and what they cannot do. “I don’t want them to feel that they’re not important. I want them to feel that this is real work and hard work must be done. I want them to know that I value their music and I value them as a person.”
When asked whether they have ever thought of giving up, Josh confidently answers, “No. I believe that everyone is fated for something great. I believe something great is going to happen for us. I don’t know when but it’ll happen.”