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Feature: A Rising Star's Journey
BEDTIME STORIES. An artwork made by Aya Bundang for her friend’s album cover. Retrieved from Aldrich Agad’s Facebook profile.
UPIS, more than being an academic institution, is also an arena where students can freely enrich their interests and talents. A perfect example is Aldrich S. Agad, currently a Grade 11 student under the Applied Sciences and Engineering Track (ASE), who has recently produced his own album.
Let’s take a look at his journey through becoming one of the school’s rising stars.
Igniting the fire.
With friends as his bandmates, Aldrich first joined the Battle of the Bands when he was in Grade 9. This experience made him love performing and playing instruments which led to more exposure and interaction with schoolmates who also love music.
These schoolmates who have their own original compositions, are the reason why he tried to write a song of his own as well. Since then, he kept on writing more and more songs.
The rocky road.
He started planning to create his album last June. Using his personal experiences, he started to write and record songs.
He mentioned that some of the songs in his album are very personal to the point that sometimes he doesn't even know if he should share it with people or just keep it to himself. He also said that he wanted to express his feelings through composing.
Like any other artist who is just starting their career, he encountered different problems along the way. One of them is having limited equipment. Using just his laptop’s microphone, white noises like the sound of an electric fan or even the cry of a neighbor’s chicken would be caught in the recording.
Another is his dilemma in finishing his songs. He said that sometimes when it’s time to produce a song, it is only then that he realizes that he wants to add more ideas and concepts. But due to the problem with equipment, he’s constrained from further improving the lyrics and melody.
He also mentioned that there were a lot of times where he had thoughts of giving up because of burnout. There are also times when he doesn’t feel confident with his singing voice and feels that his ideas are not good enough. It even reached a point where he felt that he was wasting all the time and effort he is putting into making his album.
“Sobrang saya,” he said pertaining to what he felt on the journey he went through, because of the number of lessons he learned in songwriting and producing.
The people who helped him pave the way.
At first, Aldrich did not want a lot of people to know about his plan of making his own album because he did not want them to expect a lot from him. That’s why only his closest friends know about it. Despite all the difficulties, his friends never failed to help and be by his side along the way.
One of them is Gabby “Gabs” Arevalo, the one who first listened to some of his songs whenever he finishes them. Aya Brea Bundang, another close friend, offered to do his album art for free. RL Calayan assisted him order the CDs and CD cases he needed. Lastly, Carlo Atela, helped in recording one of the songs by lending his electric guitar amplifier.
“Maraming maraming maraming salamat sa inyong lahat lalo na kay Aya at kay Gabs, sobrang laking tulong ng suporta niyo [kung] ‘di niyo lang talaga alam,” Aldrich said.
The product of hard work.
The album should be entitled “Summer” since he expected to finish it by the summer of 2019 but he chose “Bedtime Stories” instead. The reason behind this is because he writes and produces his songs every night in his bed, like what we see in his album cover.
His different life experiences resulted to 9 different songs entitled: (1) Love Feels So Nice, (2) Sunken Garden, (3) Catching Fire, (4) Stars, (5) Broken, (6) Good Old Days, (7) Time Machine, (8) Never Goodbye, and (9) Another Day.
Aldrich on his fans.
He didn’t expect that people would like his album, that's why he's thankful and will never get tired of thanking the ones who bought and showed interest in his album. According to him, he gets kilig every time someone asks for his autograph. He also mentioned that posts and messages regarding his album or songs make his heart melt.
“Dahil sa lahat ng ‘to [suporta], mas ginanahan pa akong magsulat ng kanta at mag-perform,” he added.
The future awaits for Aldrich.
Looks like we will be expecting more from our rising star! He said that this is just the start for him. Although he is still unsure about being serious in pursuing this career, Aldrich said that he will create more songs occasionally. //by Reneil Grimaldo and Noemi Hechanova
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