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THE MESSAGE. BRINGING INTO FOCUS FILIPINO PRESENCE IN AUSTRALIA
www.kalatas.com.au | Volume 4 Number 10 | July 2014
ENTERTAINMENT
Charity, music and passion
TALENTED Filipino-Australian artist and music producer
Charity Pinatacan Balila has recently orchestrated a music
project with other artists aimed at helping survivors of
Typhoon Haiyan.
By Violi calvert
IN October 2013, Melbournebased Charity wrote ‘Weight of
the World’, a song about human
spirit, inner strength and faith. It
is a song inspired at that time by
the calamities that had occurred
in the Philippines – floods, typhoons and earthquakes.
“When super typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines and I saw
how many Filipinos were affected by this calamity, it was only
fitting that I look at progressing
with my love for music project
and use this talent to give back
to our community,” Charity said.
The song is supported by a
number of Filipino singers in
Melbourne - the KIKO Choir
of St Francis, Jerson Trinidad,
Reana Cruz, Reginald Tan, and
Filipino students from JAYKA
Music Academy of Caroline
Springs; as well as by composer-singer and artist Miguel Castro, one of the members of former “The Filipino Tenors”.
It is being recorded at The
Base Studios in Melbourne by
an industry-recognised sound
engineer Phil Threlfall and accompanied by professional session Melbourne musicians.
“Weight of the World” will be
released on iTunes accompanied
by a video clip (filmed by Chris
Hazlett) with all the sales of t he
song and proceeds of a concert
to be donated to the Water Agroforestry and Nutirition Development [WAND] Foundation in
Leyte to benefit the Haiyan survivors.
Charity expressed confidence
that the project will be a success
“due its originality, meaning and
the goal behind it.”
Charity is the second of four
children of Annie Sarabillo and
Ruben Pinatacan from Jimenez,
Misamis Occidental. She inherited her love of music from her
mother Annie Sarabillo -Pinatacan who won the Hagdanan
sa Kabitoonan amateur singing contest in 1957. This contest served as the semi-finals for
Tawag ng Tanghalan back then.
The family moved to Australia in 1990 when Charity was 13.
She graduated from Willoughby Girls and went to Sydney Uni
to do BA in Music and Performance. She sang at school con-
certs; won a music scholarship
and got vocal training from the
Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She also joined the NSW
vocal competition (Eisteddfod) and came second. She auditioned and went to Miss Saigon school for two years. She
was also a member of the NSW
Performing Arts School. She
joined a band called Sultree as
a lead singer and performed in
numerous bars in Sydney.
With regard to where she
sees herself in the future, Charity said: “I hope to be a well
known songwriter and producer and have my own production
company working with new and
well- established artists”.
Monserrat releases new album
RENOWNED Filipino Original Pinoy
Music [OPM] songwriter-producer Butch
Monserrat who has composed more than
40 songs over his 36 years in the music
industry, has finally put together a brand new
album titled From Where I’ve Come.
By Violi calvert
THE album is all instrumental
music with symphonically orchestrated arrangements aimed
to appeal to Filipinos and the
wider international audience.
Butch comments: “No matter what nationality you are,
if you love this type of music
then this is the perfect album for
sharing a romantic evening; or
when one is going thru emotional times, the perfect companion if
you are going out for a long drive
or for simply just chillin’!. It is a
labour of love and will hopefully
be my music legacy.”
The album’s title reflects
Butch’s journey in the music
world from the Philippines, other places and settling in the Gold
Coast in Queensland, Australia
in 2001.
The album consists of 14
songs, all of them ballads, with 10
songs being some of his biggest
hits written from 1978 to 1985,
including 4 brand new compositions written here in Australia
which are Who I Am, Aint What
We Used To Be, Go Your Way,
and From Where I’ve Come.
The lyrics for Who I Am are
by Susan Aldecoa; Go Your
Way and Aint What We Used
To Be lyrics are by Teresa Curatolo;. From Where Ive Come lyrics by Geri Duryea; music for all
by Butch. He has written other
songs aside from these but they
are not included in the album.
This brand new album, as
he puts it, was conceptualised
three years ago, but the actual
music production only began a
year and a half later. “Firstly, I
needed to find the right arranger, someone who shared my vision and concept for the album”,
Butch said.
All music were composed
by Butch Monserrat, arranged
and mixed by Michael Arpilleda; produced and mastered
by Butch himself, at his studio
Monserrat Musikworx in Gold
Coast.
For more information about
the album, contact Butch Monserrat through Facebook or via
email at [email protected].