ANTHRO 10

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION

———————————————————————————————————————

1. How would you describe your childhood in terms of music and your music influences?

- I grew up in a very conservative Christian family so you would expect that growing up,

I was only allowed to listen to church music. These music include gospel, Sunday School songs,

hymns, and other church songs that are common in traditional community churches. One great

factor was how I was also sent to a Christian school for basic ed. I wouldn’t say that my parents

were super strict when it comes to music but listening to “worldy” or secular songs was

definitely discouraged. Having these restrictions growing up, I would say that my formative

years in church greatly influenced my music taste.

One of my earliest memories of church song was singing “Amazing Grace” and “How

Great Thou Art”. Those songs basically sparked my love for church music and it stuck with me.

2. How about during your teenage years? (High school)

- High school was different for me, but not in any way drastic. Syempre high school ka na

so mas may options ka na to explore… a bit haha. High school was also the time when we

started getting heavily exposed with the media - TV, computers, iPods, and such. Again, it was

different but not so much. Ito yung time ng High School Musical so my love for Disney became

more apparent with my music. I was listening to Disney nonstop because it’s Disney. You can

easily justify listening to Disney to your Christian parents and that’s how it was for most of my

HS life. Of course my music is still heavy on church music considering that I go to church on a
weekly basis and sing in church choir too. But yeah, Disney and musicals were breath of fresh

air for me during those times.

I love Disney songs. Anywhere from the fairytales to the real-life action movies, all songs

just speak to me. But nothing made an impact as Mulan’s “Reflection”. I don’t know. I guess it

was the Asian representation that spoke to me? Either way, I sang and play reflection non-stop

during HS and even performed it in one of my classes. Bilang bida bida ako hahaha.

3. How about in University? Or during your stay in UP?

- I guess this is where the most change happened. UP has a special way of letting you

experience things that would’ve never thought you’d experience growing up from a very

conservative background. Let’s first talk about my exposure to more pop music. Being involved

in different performances opened possibilities for me. I also had a renewed appreciation for

OPM. Not gonna lie, I had little to no appreciation for Filipino music before I entered UP but all

of that changed when I realised how beautiful the music scene in our country is. Of course

western pop music still dominated my playlists but I would say that there’s a soft spot for some

OPM.

It’s a different story altogether when we talk about my training as a music student though.

Since our training at the college of music was western classical music, I spent most of my time

listening to the required songs and pieces. In terms of playlists, I didn’t make one out of my love

for it. Most of my classical music playlist was out of necessity, which doesn’t necessarily make it

bad. I guess it’s just not my go to music when I have the free time and luxury of listening for

pleasure.
 Song choice? Anything mainstream western pop then I probably know it - Taylor Swift,

Demi Lovato, Lady Gaga, and the likes.