An intense whirlwind of emotions always comes to visit us during the Christmas season. You can't deny its presence. Whether you're spending it surrounded by salt air or with Jack Frost nipping at your nose, you can be certain that it will be there.
This year, Offshore Music released An Offshore Christmas, a compilation album comprised of nine tracks that cover the emotions you'd feel during the hustle and bustle of the holidays. Offshore Music CEO Ely Buendia describes it succinctly, "The album is a kaleidoscope of emotions, from melancholy to euphoria, as well as a feast for anyone who enjoys all kinds of music."
After all, we're told to feel joy and excitment with all the merriment twinkling among street lights, crazy sales at the mall, and toffee nut flavoured coffee tickling your tastebuds, but that's all surface level stuff. With An Offshore Christmas, listeners will now get to make Christmas their own with music to soundtrack every moment and emotion that comes with the busy holiday.
Bandwagon caught up with Offshore Music's roster to run through their offerings on their holiday compilation album. Check out the stories behind each track below.
'Happy Birthday Baby Jesus' - Pinkmen
Did you ever feel like the year isn't any better than the last? This song is exactly about what keeps us going through tough lives in the holidays, the systemic issues of our lovely country, and finding comfort in being with our loved ones.
'Just Another Christmas' - Suspiria Pink
'Just Another Christmas' is the first song we recorded separately. We usually record everything in one go but due to scheduling conflicts we were challenged with recording and making our own parts independently of each other while maintaining the vision we have for the song.
Since the song is very clearly anti-christmas lyrically, we felt compelled to at least inject some Christmas spirit into the music itself. A core tenet of Suspiria songwriting is a second verse that is different from the first. Here we saw an opportunity to add the Christmas feel we were looking for by adding a constant stream of 8th note tambourine hits from then till the end of the song, and a guitar riff straight out of 'Deck The Halls' right before we enter the second chorus. Subtle details yes, but we’ve always felt like these make up for more than the sum of their parts, especially in such a straightforward song.
'Bahaghari' - Elton Clark
'Bahaghari' was created a few months ago, and it originated from the idea na Christmas should be about love in general, so I decided to make it more specific. The song itself is made to empower self-love, acceptance, and diversity, and also to tell my listeners to be proud of who they are whatever their identity is, how they look, and who they want to love.
Since music is my medium of expression, I always want to make my listeners feel accepted and loved, for that is what everyone deserves.
'Lawod' - Sansette
In a nutshell, the song 'Lawod' is about the loneliness that OFW families get to deal with during the Christmas.
The song was made first by Pete (Sax) and Adrian (Guitar) with the initial progression, followed by words and melody by Gab (Vocals). Everybody in the band then tried to fit to the direction of the song and the track is made.
Writing this song, although with a lot of firsts, went smoother than expected. This was our first Christmas song and Bisaya/ Cebuano song. I expected it to be challenging, but I think what made it easy was writing about something really personal and close to home.
I think the biggest challenge with this song was trying to fit everybody’s part in such a minimalist/strip-down song. Other than that, I think it went smoother than expected. Micheal and Karl Lucente added last minute elements for the song to be completed. It was super last minute! That day we wanted to visit our friend’s grandfather’s wake. We did the rest of the production at St. Peter with a pair of headphones and a laptop. It kinda gave us a different environment and mood to add those parts, which I think was a good practice too. Also, our friend was super okay with it, of course.
'Christmas Song (ver II)' - ena mori
As much as I love Christmas, holiday in general makes me a bit nervous especially when it is a family gathering of some sort. As an artist, I do get questions that are hard for me to explain and at times it really does make me feel negative about myself.
This motivated me to write a Christmas song that will reflect my emotions of which that I wish I can enjoy my holiday with my own space, without any judgement or comparison.
Recording this song was very intimate, Tim (Producer) and I worked on it in my room, with snacks lying around and having a laugh with ideas, being silly really.
'Frostbite and Alpines' - Eliza Marie
My childhood in America solidified the cold, snowy Christmas memories for me, but this track is also a metaphor for the mental states we usually feel in every season and the drastic changes in how I spent Christmas every year.
As an adult, my Christmases weren’t as lively as they were when I was a kid, so this song is me talking to my younger self, who wanted to stay in my memories rather than face the reality of change and getting older. It’s bittersweet, knowing it’s hard to go through a winter season, but also beautiful knowing Spring is next.
'Trip To Jerusalem' - Mt. Lewis
We were surprised and honored to be offered the chance to cover an Eraserheads song for a Christmas single, and the responsibility of recreating the masterpiece 'Trip to Jerusalem' sure gave us a lot of pressure.
Getting into the studio, our goal was to pay tribute to the song and the Heads, making sure we wouldn't overshadow the original brilliance of the song. Always mindful of preserving the song's identity, our approach aimed to seamlessly incorporate our sound while maintaining the essence of this iconic track. I think listening to Soviet VIA bands and mostly daydreaming is how we came up with our rendition of 'Trip to Jerusalem'. We really like weird stuff; I tend to explore every aspect of that track.
We really loved how this track came to be after doing some sound design and flipping the chord progressions to make it sound like us. This marks our first time recording a cover song as a band, and surprisingly, it's an Eheads song, so there is an obvious pressure on Ely. The funny part is that we came up with this version for a short period of time due to hectic gig schedules. It eased our pressure when we got the chance to meet Ely again, and he proactively told us that he and the Heads loved our version. It conjures up the fine line of being respective and creative, he confirmed. With those words, a collective sigh of relief fills the air.
'Tunay na Diwa ng Pasko' - JR Oca Experience
Bali na sulat ko yung song while I was in the shower kaya fun process talaga sya. Ang pinaka theme nya is ang Pasko ay 'di na susukat sa lahat ng material na bagay kungdi sa pag-ibig. Ang tunay na diwa ng Pasko ay pag-ibig.
Sa recording naman, after three days of writing the song, we recorded it one day lang tinapos namin lahat...masaya naman recording as always the difrence lang is I recorded with session musicians dahil busy lahat ng ka-banda ko. All in all 'Tunay na Diwa ng Pasko' was created with one main ingredient—LOVE.
'Ilaw' - Sulo
The whole song is like a conversation between a mother and son.
The son expresses his love and appreciation towards his mom in the first verse and in the second verse, the mom comforts her son, giving him important lessons in life. The song is mostly dedicated to all the mothers/mother figures in general.
The message we are trying to share is that time is running or life is too short to waste time. With this, we should always remember the light of our mother and/or family. The feeling of nostalgia, remembering the people who are family to the listener. We hope to touch the soul and affectionate of our listeners. The songwriting process was effortless, as if it was already made. There was no argument in the band on what the song should or shouldn’t be. After we finished the song, we went outside laughing having a good time knowing that we did a good job. This is the most favorite song we ever wrote.
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