An Indie-velopment Proposal

So Bai, Paul, Mark and I we were in a tagay session. We were talking about other ways to expose and promote original music aside from media support.

How about covering songs of other local bands?

The Ambassadors covering a Sheila and the Insects track for example. Rescue A Hero doing a 40 The Band ditty. And it would be interesting to hear The Line Divides do a Frank! tune, wouldn't it?

And to make it legit, permissions should be made - whether there is money to be made or not is internal and shouldn't be a major concern. Troy Degamo had at one time agreed on this proposition (bai I hope you're still up for this).

Let songs from other bands be covered by other bands. Let this be a trend among local bands. Let other local bands record these songs (legally of course).

Why not? It's another way of expressing support to our thriving local music scene.

Sheila and the Insects did this before with their past albums. In Tangible Rhymes, there was "Desolate". In Plastic Eyes, Static Minds there was "Falling" and "Lonely Solitude" penned by John Taladua (The Klass). "Sheik" was a Robotballoons masterpiece that was included in the Manipulator album.

At the time I was producing these albums, I thought that by recording them again, SATI was in a way paying homage to our local talents.

Imitation is the best form of flattery... a great deal of admiration.

Action speaks louder than words.

I thought that if there was a way to tell these bands how much I am grateful for their works and that they have one way or another changed and inspired Cebu's soundscape, covering their songs would be one of the ways to do that. As long as the covering band can also give justice to the song (wink).

And so the tagay went on. Bai was flashing this big smile on his face - an obvious display of approval.

photo courtesy of Mark Cortes (Rescue A Hero)