One Click Straight and graphic novel artist and animator Mervin Malonzo on building worlds together and overcoming creative hurdles

There's nothing like the combined power of artists working together.

With the help of graphic novelist and animator Mervin Malonzo, Filipino rock act One Click Straight carried out their most ambitious music video yet. Putting 'Siya' together might've taken six months, but it was time well spent in collaboration and expanding their creative abilities.

Bandwagon caught up with One Click Straight and Mervin Malonzo to talk about how the animated 'Siya' music came together, the challenges they faced to bring it to life, and their plans for the road ahead.

Tell us about ‘Siya’.

Tim: We always knew we wanted to go in this direction – futuristic, dark, and kind of eerie and gothic. In contrast to how poppy the track is. It adds depth to the song. Then Sam came up with this story.

Sam: Start pa lang, when we were making the song, we already wanted this dystopian, gothic music video for this song. It’s very straightforward and pop. It talks about finding that person who will take away your loneliness and bring out the best version of yourself. We wanted to make this video that would complement it… like world-building. Matagal na yun. Even nasa production pa lang yung song.

Tim: We wanted to do a real-life person for this video. Pero Christopher Nolan budget na yung kailangan dun. Naalala namin yung Batman Beyond, that’s our childhood kasi. I made this edit of Trese, Batman Beyond, that type of dark cartoon. And then I put the track on top of it so na-realise namin na maganda pala pag animated. That’s when Mr. Mervin Malonzo came in and blew our minds.

A friend of mine, Rob Cham, recommended Mervin. I checked out his work and I was amazed.

Is this your first music video?

Mervin: Hindi naman. Pero eto yung first fully-animated MV. Meron isa na partial, tapos yung isa commercial. Gustong gusto ko din talaga gumawa ng ganito. Buti nakita ko nga message nila sa Instagram kasi ang tagal bago ko nakita. Weeks na bago ko nareplyan. Nagmesage siya through other ways so nagkausap na din kami. Pinakinggan ko music nila sabi ko swak. Di ko pa alam yung song pero swak kami. Sabi ko sige yes gawa tayo ng something cool. Medyo nag-jive naman.

What was that like to create the music video? It took you guys 6 months.

Sam: To be honest, 'eto yang pinaka na enjoy kong music video. Walang acting, walang make up, so we could focus more on writing the story. The majority of it, I wrote. The idea came from me. The best nung nag meet na kami ni Mervin kasi he was also helping us enhance the story. Since expertise niya din yung framing, he had ideas on how to make the ending even better than the original idea we added. So, it was really a collaboration in terms of writing the whole thing.

Alam ko pag normal shoot na video, madami energy napupunta są PD. Yung approach, can we build a world na mas futuristic with resources na realistic. Kung magiging totoong music video siya baka hindi lang six months, baka three years or something. Super saya working with him.

When we were giving ideas sa kanya, super exciting talaga. He would just send us drawings of the characters or yung vision niya for us. Tapos hindi siya isang day bagsakan, tingi-tingi siya so mas nakakaexcite. During the duration of the six months.

On our end, we really gave it headroom and space for Mervin to express and make his art. Kasi ganun din naman kami sa music. If people are gonna give us time to maximise creativity, that's what we wanted for this video. To not push it na hindi madaliin. To give space for this world to be built. Sometimes may long weeks tapos biglang magssend ng kahit intro pa lang or just a few seconds of it. Sorbing nakakahype siya. It was very nice.

How about you Mervin?

Mervin: Usual work ko kasi commercials and ads, may mga dialogue, conversations. 'Eto kasi, music video siva so gusto natin maintindihan siya agad yung mga tao without anything. Visual lang and yung music. The difference is kailangan ko gawan ng paraan na I convey yung story nila Sam and Tim na maiintidihan ng mga tao na walang dialogue

Emotions lang, actions lang, and yung pagkasunod sunod ng events. Parang isang buong story 'to eh sa loob ng four minutes. Medyo challenging siya parang paaano natin masisiksik tong kwento sa ganitong koning time.

So yun yun naging iba. Gusto ko din na bago siya. Naffigure out mo talaga paano best way to tell the story. Nakakatuwa din sila na client kasi siyempre mabusisi din sila sa mga details kasi mas alam nila yun pero yung pagrevise na maliliit na bagay. Nag agree naman sila. Smooth yung process namin. Mahaba lang talaga siya kasi siyemore bukod sa actual drawing and paggawa ng 3D models, nasa mind ko pa din kung paano ifigure out Yung story. Yun yung mas nagttake ng time. Pagiisip kung paano ko gagawin. Pero once na simula na, dere-derecho na.

Kinakabahan nga ako pag nagssend ko sa kanila kasi iniisip ko hindi approved parang yung Batman Beyond na peg nila di ko masyado tinignan para may sarili siyang look talaga para di ko masyado maapektuhan ng style. Gusto ko parang meron siyang sarili yang look.

Is there anyone else you guys worked with for the video?

Mervin: Yung anak ko lang pinapakita ko sa kanya. Tinitignan ko if maiintiihan niya without dialogue.

Sam: That was the challenge talaga. Communicating the story in a short time. Other than that, it was just us. Super personal work. We’re really proud of what happened in the six months. It is Mervin’s masterpiece.

For OCS, what was it like to see the animated versions of yourselves?

Tim: To be honest, mas proud pa ako seeing the animated versions than watching myself sa music videos kasi yung vision, mas pogi (laughs) mas na achieve talaga yung things na 'di kaya ma-achieve if normal shoot. Futuristic yung peg. We also showed it to the actors. May reference kasi siya sa older music videos namin sa MRT, kasi we based off the characters of that video na sila couple. This happened in the future and sila yung peg.

We didn’t even tell them na sila and when they saw it, "Kami ba yan?"

I got to see the characters first mga spaceship dulo na yung mga sarili namin. Para Siyang cherry on top parang damn mej solid. Ang angas.

Sam: Fave scene ko yung cameos of our friends. Ena Mori is there. Zild is there. Gabba, Clara [Benin]. Toneejay. Lorenz, yung manager namin, tour photographer. Nakaka-proud din talaga.

How do you make sure you don't get stuck in a creative rut?

Sam: I think for us, in terms of, let's say musically first, as long as we don't push things that are being forced, I think we've been doing this for some time now, but I'm happy that if you look at our, let's say, discography or whatever's under our belt, there's not much of a thing that repeats. It's because I think that's the magic of kind of giving time to our, you know, time, time to our art, and we respect the, what do you call that, the growth time. and the space to absorb life, of course, is where the inspiration comes from. So our steps with creating things are no longer easy. In everything, in production, in writing, and basically what people are saying is, you know, we're giving room for the Holy Spirit in every project we do. So that's the same with music. And I think it also reflects in the way we write concepts because the majority of our videos, all the way up from... Actually, in all of our music videos, the concept starts from Tim and I, or us as a band, we talk about it. I feel like this is the end of the story, It's also nice for us on our end when it comes to writing stories for music videos. We're not super aware of the music videos that happened around us that much. So we didn't get a lot of pegs there.

I think we just like to write stories or to make up things that... What feels right to us.

Like even the video of 'Lilo,' it's not like we really need a peg. We didn't really look for other pegs. We just wanted to make something. Because I'm sure the four of us... We all come from backgrounds where we like movies like Cartoon, Batman Beyond, action movies, John Wick, certain stuff like that. We just get inspiration from it. And I think that's how we keep our sanity or how we end up with art forms that we're proud of, that we don't feel like we repeated ourselves here. So it's always fresh. For us, because that's what we want. In the end of the day, as much as we're doing it for, let's say, people that listen to us, there's also the part where, in the end of the day, we're also trying to entertain ourselves. So, we're just happy, we're lucky as a band that we never ever had contentment. Okay, this is what's popular with our followers, let's kind of do a version of it. We need to always be fresh, because that's what keeps us moving forward.

When you write your songs, do you already know what the music video would be? Is it something that's part of your process now? When you write a song, it's like, oh I associate it with this visual and it has to be that.

Tim: Yeah, a big part of it is that all aspects of the art are cohesive. Whenever I write something sonically, lyrically, and visually, I hope it connects. It's something that's very cohesive. I imagine I get sceneries, or I imagine a script. It just starts on very tiny, then you build is you go along.

What's next for everyone? Like for OCS and for Mervin, what should we watch out for from you guys?

Sam: I think for a One Click Straight, more shows. Since we released the album, we're more focused on the execution part. Meaning, we're at this phase where we're sharing what we've created, because we've done the album for three years. So right now, our focus is touring, to do as many shows as we could, because for me, even creating shows, it's an art form in itself. The writing is all done so now we're just focused on holding the most creative shows. 

So like when people go to an OCS show, they don't just go to a gig, they go have an experience.

Sam: That's what we really want to push. Because there are a lot of shows and everything is all fun. But it always goes back to that point of view. They can also experience what's going on. Why is there a mosh pit there? Why is there a rave here? Why is there a smoke machine in a very small area? But it's fun. There are DJs, and whatever. We're trying to build core memories with the people that follow us. Because it's unfair for us to be the only ones who are happy. We need the level of joy that they're getting in the same room with us, so it's just a joint experience with everybody that goes to the shows.

Mervin, what's next for you? What should we watch out for?

Mervin: There's another animation I'm working on. A full animated film where LR is the hero. It's a song by Pangell and Coco. It's a comic by Julius Millian or whoever. It's about a child who falls into slums and helps his neighbors when they have a problem.

This interview has been condensed for length and clarity.