MUSIKERA

I’ve been playing in a band since 14. at 17, we’ve thought of auditioning in bars but then the members enrolled in different universities and it was impossible for us to push through, considering the adjustment we all have to undergo through entering college. Since then, using my hands I can count the times I have performed with a band in public. I played the guitar for a couple of class outings. I played drums for a friend’s debut party. And again played the guitar for the College of Science week when I was a senior.

It stopped there. I pushed my dream of being a rockstar aside. Upon graduation, I already belonged to the corporate world.

Or so I thought.

A year and a half later I got this text from a friend who needed a female lead guitarist for CHIMERA, an all-female alternative rock band. And from then on, my musical side was revived with unusual fervor. I would stay up until the wee hours of the morning just practicing scaling and finger speed. At some point though, we had to end chimera. Weeks after, I got a call from CACTUS KLANK, this time an all-female funk band. But I chose to play for CITRUS MARBLE, a reggae-punk-rock band, instead because I already knew the band members. (although I wish I could have checked out cactus klank first...) On the side I have played session for VALKYRIE, an all-female gothic metal band. And just a couple of weeks back, a friend asked me if I can play session for another all-female alternative band. Of course I said yes (session lang naman eh.hehe.) kahit na I’m committed right now to 3AM ONWARDS, another all-female band. This time we play acoustic mainstream. (see how versatile of a musikera I am? Hehe.)

When 3am onwards got this regular gig at a bar in tomas morato, my friends were like, “wow! Ang yaman mo na!”

People think I get to earn a lot from doing gigs. I do not. I repeat – I do not. There are bars with big budgets. There are bars with tight budgets. There are even bars with no budget at all. So on the average, what I earn from doing gigs is just right. Just right for grabbing coffee on the way home, or playing billiards or drinking with my guests right after a gig or buying a 24/7 call card. Sometimes I set some of it aside so that I can buy a new shirt, sneakers or guitar strings. And you thought it was easy making money out of music? That’s what you all think. Pero kung tutuusin, talo pa kami sa pagod. So why the hell do you think I’m still doing it?

Simply for the love if it baby.

For the freakin’ love of it.

Ang musikera, walang pera. But passion, not money, gets a musikera going. An album is not a requirement for a musikera to be labeled as a true blue musician. A musikera is not synonymous to fame and fortune. (but a successful one is! Hehe!)

As for me, I just want to play while I still can, with no pressure that I have to be this and that a number of years from now. After all, in this scene, you also have to be at the right place at the right time to get a break. Oh, I would love to sing and play my own songs and hear them over the radio! But if I don’t get to be in that position, it’ll still be all good.

Regardless...
I am proud to be a musikera.

PS: yesterday, I got to have a chat with Rada! I even shook her hand! Kakilala niya kase yun kabanda ko. Rada is sooo cool and makulet! Burn-babeh-burn!! stig!!!