Sugarfree (sugarfreeband.multiply.com)

Editor's Note: Published on page F2 of the February 26, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


GIVING romanticism and earnestness new currency in the Philippine rock scene has its rewards after all. Those who came up with the unspoken rule that post-Eraserheads bands should be wrapped up in angst or irony to be successful apparently never said anything to Sugarfree. As the trio discovered in their five years of existence, there apparently exists a huge number of alienated romantics in the country, all aching for affirmation.

"The greatest compliment that you can get is when someone tells you: 'Your album really helped me get through very hard times, thank you.' Hindi mo naman kilala yung tao, tapos nakatulong ka nang ganon...grabe (You don't even know the person but you were able to help him that much. That's swell)," shares Sugarfree frontman and chief songwriter Ebe Dancel.

Hit album
Dancel, along with bassist Jal Taguibao and drummer Mitch Singson, went through some hard times of their own. After years of line-up changes, bankruptcy, a disappointing stint with a record label, and personal heartaches, Sugarfree finally released their debut album "Sa Wakas" in 2003, becoming one of the most critically acclaimed albums that year and instantly producing a cult following in the Philippine band scene.

Dancel still remembers the first time they inspired a huge concert crowd to sing along to "Mariposa," one of their hits from "Sa Wakas" (In the End) that tackles loneliness and unrequited love. "There were literally thousands of people singing 'Mariposa' with me. Mangiyak-ngiyak ako backstage [I was crying backstage]. It was such an overwhelming experience," he says.

"We get compliments everyday, from our mailing list and our tours," says Taguibao, who relates how the band's sheer power of empathy has often become a source of frustration for some fans who feel the band's songs had deprived them of feeling or experiencing their own thoughts and emotions.

"Na ba-bad trip sila kay Ebe," Taguibao laughs. "Talagang asar [They get really ticked off]. I have encountered at least two or three of them in the mailing list. One member even said that he won't listen to Sugarfree for the meantime."

Tall order
For the last two years, that sort of thing has become a tall order. The band reached gold record-status with "Sa Wakas," stringing hits and romantic classics such as "Telepono," "Mariposa," and "Burnout." With people still enamored with their debut album, Sugarfree released a follow-up late last year called "Dramachine." The album's second single, "Hari ng Sablay," (King of Mistakes) has been getting heavy airplay from major pop FM stations, while its music video currently lingers at the top ten of music channel Myx.

For a band that only wanted to put out an album, things are definitely looking up. "Sa Wakas," which was mostly about heartbreak and loss, sounded like a relief somewhat. With "Dramachine," the sense of relief is now palpable.

From its opening tracks, especially the goosebump-inducing exhilaration of "Prom," to the very last lines of the album: "natagpuan ko na ang tunay na ligaya [I've found true happiness]," "Dramachine" signals the band's emotional transformation.

Dancel, whose semi-tragic relationship resumé became the inspiration for most of the songs in "Sa Wakas," relates that "Dramachine" takes its mood from the band's experiences for the last two years.

"I wrote those songs (in "Dramachine") when I was in a happy state. After we released our first album, good things started happening to us and happening to me, so it was a reflection of how I was feeling at that time. Last year and this year, those were very good years for us. We got the gigs, we'd hear our songs on the radio, and we got a loyal following," he says.

As legendary as "Sa Wakas" is to many devoted circles, the group still saw a huge room for improvement to work with on the next album.

Doing better
"Looking back at 'Sa Wakas,' there were many things we realized we should have done, production-wise," Taguibao says. "With the help of our producers, Raymund Marasigan and Buddy Zabala (of Eraserheads and Cambio fame), we tried to put all the guitar and drum sounds that we wanted in the first album to this one."

Dancel admits that there was a conscious effort to outdo their debut album. "I think that should be the goal of every musician--not to outdo other musicians--but to outdo yourself, make yourself a better person, a better musician. Because you can only go forward. And that's why people just retire because they reach a point where they have nothing left to prove. I hope to retire someday," he says.

It may seem overly forward-looking on his part but Dancel has always been stubborn about his future. Being a successful musician was the only thing he wanted, even if his parents and siblings, who are mostly professionals (a doctor, lawyer, dentist, architect, and "an MBA graduate with a big-ass job"), often lectured him for supposedly lacking ambition.

Nonetheless, Dancel's family has been behind him from the start. Wagering his entire life savings on Sugarfree's demo tape, his parents supported him through the two years when "Sa Wakas" was on the shelf. "For two years, wala akong trabaho, hindi ako makalabas ng bahay, ni yosi hindi ako makabili [I didn't have a job. I couldn't leave the house--I couldn't even get a cigarette]. But my parents were supportive from day one. They understood that I had to do this, which is something I can't afford to do 10 years from now," he says.

Sugarfree was originally an offshoot of the band Session Road, whose members, Jesse Hoover (keyboard), Chavi Romawac (drums), and Taguibao (drums), in 1999 joined Dancel, who was already armed with original songs. Rivermaya's Rico Blanco later had a brief stint with the band but eventually left to focus on his own band. By the time they got signed by a major label, they were left with three members, with Singson on drums.

They shifted to EMI records in 2003 in the hopes of finally releasing an album. "Our objective when we started out was just to have an album released. Noong naging ka-banda ko si Jal, malakas ang kutob ko na makakapaglabas kami ng album. Hindi sisikat ha, makapaglabas lang ng album [When Jal became my bandmate, I had a hunch we would come out with an album. Not a successful one, mind you, just an album]," Dancel says.

The band's persistence resulted in "Sa Wakas," a 12-track Pinoy rock opus about the pain of separation, regret, and wistful recollections of youth and innocence, all told in beautifully succinct plain language-poetry powered by emotional wallops of dense sounds and yearning vocals.

Most of the band's emotional core comes from Dancel--its main songwriter/vocalist, who has the uncanny skill of mixing terse statements with meaningful cries and croons, producing sharp musical injections to listeners' hearts.

Dancel, who Taguibao jokingly refers to as the band's "Birit King," explains that he is unable to sing in low notes, which is why most of their songs have an inert passionate charge. "When I write a song, I already know which words to accent or give vocal effects," he says.

There have been instances, though, when vocal effects weren't done by design. During the recording of the demo version of "Unang Araw," Taguibao relates that Dancel was suffering from a cold during the vocal take for the song. "Hirap na hirap si Ebe noon, sabi niya: 'tsong, may sipon ako'. Sabi ko: 'yun nga yon, kasi kaiiyak mo lang, eh' [Ebe was having a really tough time. He said, 'guys, I have a cold.' I said: That's it, you've just come from crying]. If you listen to that version of the song, you'll notice that the stuffy-nosed rendition actually adds drama" he says.

In fact, "Unang Araw," (The First Day) which describes in glorious detail the sensation of missing someone you just lost, was written by Dancel while on the throes of a painful breakup. While walking around at home, he suddenly found himself humming what turned out to be the now classic chorus: "Ito ang unang araw na wala ka na [This is the first day when you're not here]." It made him sit down, dumbfounded for 10 minutes. "I don't know why I suddenly hummed that line. I was listening to a lot of Sheryl Crow at that time, although I don't know if that had anything to do with it. When I look back at that incident now, it really seems ridiculous," Dancel says.

There is very little calculation involved in Dancel's songwriting process, where inspiration comes like random attacks of cold. "Fade Away," his paean to childhood and elegy to loss of innocence, came during a sermon from his mother who told him: "You never grow up. What's wrong with you?"

"I told her, 'no, I have grown up,'" he recalls. "Then I remembered how happy I was back in high school. That's how I came up with the song. It's so sad when you wake up and you realize that you have grown up already. You lose so much." The tragedy and comfort that the song exudes have touched even Taguibao himself who declares, "As morbid as it may sound, 'yun ang funeral song ko. Pag ihahatid na ako, gusto ko 'yon [That's my funeral song. When they're bringing me to the grave, that's the song I want played]."

Sugarfree's penchant for unconscious brilliance appears again in "Dramachine," particularly in between "Kandila" (Candle) and "Kuwarto." (Room) "Kandila," a stripped-down acoustic track, is about a man who, because of a sudden power outage, is forced to come to grips with a recent breakup, ushering cries such as: "Sorry 'di kita hinabol... sorry, tayo'y malabo [I'm sorry I didn't run after you...I'm sorry it didn't work out]" and "Magka-ilaw man, madilim pa rin kung wala ka [Even if the lights come back on, it's still dark without you]." The next track, "Kuwarto," depicts the process of letting go, as if trying to provide the closure for the previous song.

"It wasn't conscious, in terms of the arrangement of the tracks," Taguibao says. Dancel, realizing the serendipitous irony, says that "Kandila" was actually meant for the more melancholic "Sa Wakas," but was left out due to budget constraints.

"Kuwarto," on the other hand, came to him one day as he was cleaning up his bedroom upon the orders of his mother. At that time, he was carrying emotional baggage about a girl who had left a lot of mementos in his room. When he placed them all in one drawer, he felt he had finally achieved catharsis.

The time difference between the two songs is symbolic of the thematic distance between Sugarfree's two albums and how Dancel's fortunes changed over the years. While "Kandila" chronicled a breakup in 2001, "Kuwarto" was about moving on around the time when he met the current love of his life. Hence, the redemptive lines, which recurs in the album's closing reprise: "natagpuan ko na ang tunay kong ligaya [I've found real happiness]."

"There comes a time when you have to move on. Kasi kung kakahiwalay niyo lang, masakit talaga [When you've just broken up, it really hurs]. It's going to hurt for weeks and for months. But is that how you want to live your life? Would you rather dwell on a past relationship?" Dancel asks.

The album's title, which was also one of the suggested names for the band Cambio (of which he's a member), was actually his own way of making fun of himself. "It's like saying, ang drama-drama ko talaga, pag magsulat ako ng kanta [I'm such a drama queen when I write songs]," he says.

Taguibao believes that their second effort is a departure from their first. "The idea of love in 'Dramachine' is much wider, in the sense that it doesn't only focus on one-on-one love. Now it has even expanded to tributes and comic depictions of love," he says.

"Dramachine" is definitely cheerier and more optimistic than its predecessor. For those still transfixed with the melancholic beauty of "Sa Wakas," is this a welcome development?

Dancel insists that the happiness in "Dramachine" does not un-write his sad songs in "Sa Wakas." Believe it or not, happiness is good, as Sugarfree attests.

"When I wrote the songs in 'Sa Wakas,' I meant every word. But for the new album, I was happier. You eventually find that someone or something that helps you move on. For all we know, in the next album I may get my heart broken again. Life is a cycle and I don't think there's a way to stay on top. Umiikot lang ng umiikot yan [Things just go round and round]," Dancel said.

For the whole of next year, Dancel plans to take a break from writing songs and just concentrate on doing gigs. The band will be coming up with their third album in 2006. But for the moment, they just want to bask in the happiness they have earned. "It's okay to feel happy. It's okay to celebrate," Dancel says.