Salamin

‘Hello Anxiety’ by Salamin (Independent release)

Brash, loud and young, Salamin assaults our auditory senses with their brand new CD, which kicks off with the chanting atmospherics of “Carousel.” Indeed, from the get go, Salamin is going for broke with their brand of progressive metal.

Headed by the spastic, hard rocking offspring of Gary Valenciano, Paolo—the showbiz son out to prove himself in a field opposite of what his famous parent is known for—he leads the initial assault with his Coheed & Cambria approximation in “Sir, You Are Out Of Line.”

Valenciano’s lyrics are conceptual, perhaps influenced by the progressive metal bands that he and the rest of the band listens to; and it is evident in the blistering “Soldiers Of The New Age,” calling to mind Urbandub’s atmospheric noodling. Only, Salamin delivers a heavier metal tempering and punctuates breaks with screaming harmonics and the likes. Case in point: the pummeling tracks “Naked” and “Crusaders.”

Valenciano is not the only highlight in Salamin. As a true band effort, it highlights the other three instrumental wonders that drive the Salamin rock machine—guitarist Sho Hikino, bassist Mikael Bersales and drummer Eo Marcos. In full swing, they deliver on the progressive rock jam of “Prodigal,” cook the shreds on “Ace Up My Sleeves,” that comes complete with a kick butt horn.

In between full-fledged songs the band dabbles in Massive Attack-like beats and soundscapes like in “Got MLK” and musical snippets like the band jam,“56.” Perhaps as stab at a concept album, it’s not quite solid but they're getting there. - Manila Bulletin

MANILA, Philippines -- Inspired performances from a motley lineup of singers and ands highlighted the benefit concert “Balika-Bayani” Thursday night at the Araneta Coliseum.

The gig, mounted to raise funds for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) returning from war-torn Libya, successfully attained its objective, said Ogie Alcasid. The singer-songwriter spearheaded the project in his capacity as a member of the Edsa People Power Commission and president of the Organisasyon ng Pilipinong Mangaawit.

Although the crowd didn’t reach the Big Dome’s capacity, Alcasid pointed out that all tickets had actually been paid for by benefactors. More money came in from corporate sponsors. “A committee will audit the money we raised. We will announce it soon,” Alcasid told the Inquirer. “OWWA (Overseas Workers Welfare Administration) took charge of soliciting for sponsorship. The proceeds will go to one of the projects that OWWA put up for the OFWs.”

At the show’s start, hosts Allan K, Donita Rose and Candy Pangilinan happily announced that the frowned-upon exclusivity rule of major TV networks was temporarily set aside so that their talents could participate.

Each act was limited to one song.

Gary Valenciano drew wild cheers with his patented “pure-energy” sing-and-dance routine featuring some of his hits, even as co-performers Duncan Ramos, Kris Lawrence and Young JV apparently lost their voices in the flurry of the dance steps.

Julie Ann San Jose was impressive in her duet cover of Gloc-9’s “Upuan” with Elmo Magalona.

Yeng Constantino likewise elicited loud applause in her rendition of her own song “Hawak Kamay.”

But it was the walloping wall of sound unleashed by three bands that electrified the audience. Salamin, fronted by Gary’s son Paolo Valenciano, could frighten the naive with its thrash-metal music. But a close listen to the band’s lyrics on “Pulso” might have captured the fear and anxiety experienced by homesick OFWs: “Buksan mo ang iyong mata/Gamitin mo ang utak mo...”

A similar sensibility was expressed by 6cyclemind in its spirited performance of “Sandalan,” followed by Spongecola and its heartfelt delivery of “Bitiw.”

Noel Cabangon got everyone on their feet—which the folksinger has always requested, the better to appreciate the lyrics of his song “Ako’y Isang Mabuting Pilipino.” Nobody complained, in fact they all sang along, with hands raised, including lawmakers and former government officials in the front rows.

Sustaining the show’s momentum were two members of the defunct APO Hiking Society, Jim Paredes and Buboy Garrovillo, with Alcasid filling in for Danny Javier. Alcasid relished his vocal parts as the trio treated the crowd with a medley of classic APO “barkada” songs.

Visibly having fun was The CompanY, its members smiling widely while singing its own hits. In a few instances, Moy Ortiz kept thanking the audience for appreciating the group’s romantic ballads.

Christian Bautista enjoyed an enthusiastic response the minute he went onstage to serenade four of the recent winners of Binibining Pilipinas. Funny, but he almost flubbed some lines in his cover of “Beautiful Girl,” his voice sliding into a falsetto to avoid cracking. The crowd, of course, couldn’t care less—his good looks alone made them scream. - Philippine Daily Inquirer

Paolo Valenciano, son of pop icon Gary V, fronts the four-piece band named Salamin. If the child is father of the man, you won't be able to quickly connect the musical dots between father Gary and son Paolo from the sound of Salamin's new album.
Entitled "Hello Anxiety," Salamin's second and latest album pulses with the feral energy of neo-metal, boldly referencing the likes of Tool, Taking Back Sunday, Urban Dub and the melodic sides of My Dying Bride from track to track.

Throughout the album of all-original compositions, the ensemble playing is crisp yet inventive. Opening cut "Carousel" flirts with drone and ambient textures while "Soldiers of the New Age" is primed for air-guitar gymnastics by bedroom fetishists. "Nothing Without You" is plain awesome in its cross-breeding of emo slickness and heavy metal crunch.

Launched in 2004, Salamin went through several personnel changes, with Paolo V remaining as the constant core of the band. The present line-up has been together for the past three years, featuring Paolo, 26, on vocals; Sho Hikino, 23, on guitars; Miks Bersales, 25, on bass and Eo Marcos, 22, on drums.

The current edition of the band took one-and-half years to produce the new album, which also drained 90% of the members' personal finances during the period. Present challenges, however, are a far cry from the original incentive to form the band.

Paolo remembers, "In high school, we saw girls going ga-ga over our school friends who were in bands. One day, a bunch of us decided to be in a band so all the girls will like us too. That's how we got started. It was all about getting noticed by girls!

"As we grew older," he continues, "some of us got more serious about music. The other members had different priorities, or wanted to do something else. So there was a constant change in band members for the first four years, until I hooked up with the present line-up three years ago. These guys are committed to be in Salamin for the long haul."

That commitment is fueled less by the promise of future windfall, and more of an abiding faith in the forward-looking music and attitude associated with the band. In the first place, Salamin has no regular gig from which to draw financial remuneration and their periodic cash flow comes from occasional spots in big-ticket concerts and product marketing events. As bassist Miks claims, "Salamin is basically our day job!"

Camaraderie partly accounts for such dedication. Eo explains, "We get along with each other really well. Our chemistry as a group and our sense of humor have a lot to do with us being together for quite some time now. These things keep the present line-up really solid."

Eo argues from the standpoint that Salamin is, for all intents and purposes, an indie band, with all the struggles indie-ness connotes. He'd rather disabuse preconceptions stemming from Paolo's filial relationship with a famous parent.

Sho adds, "People are likely to think that since our vocalist is Gary V's son, it was easy for us to break into the music business. But it was really very hard for us. We worked our butts off and we paid the recording with our own money."

Miks adds, "It took us a long time to produce the album especially with the absence of support from a major label. But as much as it was stressful and difficult to produce, the new album was a joy to make. We controlled everything as much as we could down to how we recorded it, how we wanted it mixed, how we would sound. It was basically down to us doing what had to be done, and it was really a labor of love."

The eventual promotion and distribution are also hands-on engagements, with the album is being marketed online and in gigs. Tapping the potentials of new media, Salamin is actively organizing a solid following on the Internet to be able to regularly get involved with and interact with fans.

The independent spirit behind Salamin and their music is fully realized in the CD's front cover showing a pint-sized caricature aiming a slingshot to a tsunami of towering waves. It paints both the band's career and the local music industry to be a constant tug of war between a David and a swarm of Goliaths.

Like anyone with a firm vision, the band is pushing on having overcome what the members initially thought was a hopeless situation. Paolo reveals, "We've just released our second album recently, and we're already working on new materials for our next one. A lot of indie rock bands will say they don't want to become famous; but I'd be honest, we want to break into the mainstream market. It will widen the range of people who will get to listen to our music. We also hope to contribute in giving the local music industry a little boost." - Yahoo! PH

The King of Pop, Michael Jackson, might have said it best, “If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make that change.”

The members of the band called Salamin couldn’t agree more. For them, change should be something constant, something that everyone has to work hard for. Since they were formed in 2004, Salamin itself has undergone changes in terms of their sound, lyrics, music arrangement – and membership.

Composed of Paolo Valenciano on vocals, EO Marcos on drums, Miks Bersales on bass, and Sho Hikino on guitars, Salamin has been dealing with a lot of changes in their music and in the music industry since they started four years ago. They are set to launch their all-original second album this October.

“The passion only developed when we already became a band. That’s why there had been a lot of line-up changes since we started because some wanted to do this just for fun,” says vocalist Paolo Valenciano, who studied AB Mass Media at De La Salle University.

Miks, a music major at UP Diliman, describes the band as primarily rock, brought about by the merging of the different types of music each member prefers to listen to. “It’s a little bit of everything that we listen to,” he says.

Drummer EO, a graduate of BS Hotel, Restaurant and Institution Management from the College of St. Benilde, and Sho, a guitar major at UP Diliman, reveal that Salamin draws inspiration from local and foreign bands such as Incubus, Rush, Deftones, Mars Volta, Muse, DT, and Greyhoundz.

LEARNING PROCESS

This band may be churning out rock music, traditionally touted to be the music of the devil, but believe it or not, Salamin has God at the center of things.

“When the former vocalist left, the rest of the band felt like hypocrites doing the same thing. It’s not like we don’t want the change, it’s not our focus,” Paolo says. He personally feels that it’s only God’s will that the band was able to survive this long. “He gave us that chance to be together and make music so I feel like it was the right thing to give back to God by writing about Him.”

Life in a band is not always fun. Paolo says the first album was both a painful and learning experience. “It’s one thing that I don’t want to go through again,” he admits. “That time kasi, the music was like made by kids being happy in a band.’’

Not that they are not proud of it, says EO, it’s just that the songs were a hodgepodge of everything. “Now, it’s just one. Whereas each would do his own thing before, today, the songs are more well-thought of.”

What is important now is that all band members share the same passion, the same dream. “Even now that the music industry is going through tough times, we still know that this is what we were born to do and we can grow old doing. Like at the age of 40, I would probably still be in a band and I know that these guys feel the same way,” Paolo says.

CHANGE STARTS WITH THE YOUTH

With lyrics that mirror a person’s everyday experiences and struggles, combined with raw sound and powerful arrangements, Salamin uses music to touch and inspire other people’s lives — especially the youth.

“We target the youth that’s why we make our music sound young. Some people say that our music sounds a little young for our age but I tell them that it’s because our target market is the youth,” Paolo says.

People talk endlessly of changing the country in a larger perspective but the band feels that if people really want change, they have to start with the youth.

Salamin creates music that aims to change other people’s lives and not just to make them happy. “We want things to last like four years from now, people would still be using our songs that are an inspiration for doing better things for the country,” says Paolo.

DEALING WITH COMPARISON

Aside from fighting their own demons, so to speak, one thing that the band continues to struggle with is comparison with other bands, and in Paolo’s case, with his dad, the famous Gary Valenciano.

“The more important thing is to make music that you like, music that is good without copying anybody else’s music. If we sound like others and get compared, it’s fine basta ‘yung konsensiya ko malinis. Even Michael Jackson has multiple songs that you can sing on the same chords, “ Miks quips.

Paolo shrugs his shoulders and says that’s the story of his life. He is not in a rock band though to escape the inevitable comparison. “Are you kidding? I sing pop songs all the time! My first dream was to be in a boy band!’’ Paolo laughs.

Yet the band believes that with their new identity coupled with hard work, they will carve their own niche. “We’re pretty excited now because the sound is really, really far from before and we’re hoping that we get out of anybody’s shadow,” Paolo says.

ROCK BANDS ARE NOT EVIL

“Good rock musicians’’ is not an oxymoron.

Salamin’s members actually epitomize that - living straight-edged lives without smoking, drinking, or doing drugs. Sho even admits that Salamin is probably the most boring band, because they are a bunch of shy guys.

The problem with rock music, Pao laments, is that its proponents are unjustly stereotyped. “But it’s a matter of choice, a matter of professionalism. I know a lot of rock musicians who are nice people even if you compare them with others from other music genres.’’

Salamin believes that young people who want to start their bands may start early even if they are still in school.

“If you really want it, it’s a matter of finding a way to do it,” advises EO who was able to finish school despite his hectic schedule. “It’s just a matter of sleeping less.”

Miks says that students who want to form a band should do it for the right reasons. “They should find the thing they want to do in life and go ahead and do it, whatever it takes, do it.” - Manila Bulletin

Young, fast-rising modern rock act SALAMIN finally launched their second full-length album Hello Anxiety last November 27, 2010, four years after the band’s self-titled debut album was released. As expected of an album launch held at the posh Teatrino at the Greenhills Shopping Center, the event was a momentous affair, replete with enhanced sound (the band employed not just one, but two session guitarist) and guest appearances. Most importantly, fans and close friends and associates of the band were present to wish them well and cheer them on.
After a brief but poignant three-song set by JULIANNE, Salamin – vocalist Paolo Valenciano, bassist Miks Besales, drummer Eo Marcos, and guitarist Sho Hikino – took the stage amidst backing musicians (including Paolo’s brother Gab on keyboards) and singers, and let loose with the dense, atmospheric “Carousel,” which also opens Hello Anxiety. The band demonstrated their time-tested intensity, skill, and tightness as a live unit, which was most evident in their performances of such heavy tracks as “Soldiers Of The New Age…” - Pulp Magazine

A “MUZIKLABAN” event is never boring. It’s not just the bands that excite the senses; the audience, as well, unleashes kinetic energy that explodes in wild abandon.

The recent “Red Horse Beer Muziklaban Rock Challenge,” which featured guest performers in between the amateur band contest finals—was an open invitation for restless youth to have fun in a safe manner.

The organizers knew the crowd won’t be composed of straight, sober types, but rather neighborhood gangs whose idea of dancing is to slam against each other. So the event was held in an isolated open field on Macapagal Avenue, Pasay, where nobody would bother them.

Many in the crowd of 24,000 came as tribes representing their respective turf. Banners proudly proclaimed their affiliations: “Mamaw ng Cainta”; “Delubyo ng Cavite”; “Apoy ng Bagong Silang”; “Proudly Flip-ino, Floridablanca, Pampanga”; among others.

On one banner, fashioned like a tarpaulin following the design and color of the Red Horse Beer logo: “Manyakista ng Antipolo.” Yikes!

But watching these kids collide with their sweaty bodies, and then flash the peace sign when things get too rough, is like seeing all the troubles and frustrations of the city’s teeming masses come to a head and vanish—even for a few hours.

Some of the guest bands which delivered exceptional performances: Greyhoundz, with vocalist Reg Rubio raging at society’s evils; Salamin, with vastly improved front man Paolo Valenciano howling without cracking; Kjwan sounding real tight; and Mayonnaise spreading a melodic counterpoint to the thrash-metal noise.

Light of Luna from Nueva Ecija, whom we thought had fine guitar power but weak vocals, won a P1 million package as Rock Challenge grand prize. Exposure in future Muziklaban events should iron out its kinks. - Inquirer.net

HEAVY, ENERGIZED AND SWINGING
Second chances aren’t often especially when you play in a rock band, so Salamin’s well-received “re-entrt” of sorts into the local live circuit is no easy feat, to their credit… Previously known as their modern rock-inspired tunes and charged live performances, it seems this new generation of Salamin still aims for a positive musical touch, yet channels their message through a darker, angier approach.
It’s actually pretty easy to tell, especially when the opening strains of their latest full-length, Hello Anxiety, immediately introduces a tension-filled, Middle Eastern-sounding sitar pattern that builds and climaxes into a full-on, riff-heavy sludgefest with Paolo Valenciano and company (guitarist Sho Hikino, bassist Mikael Bersales, and drummer Eo Marcos) droning both vocals and instrumental harmonies effectively. It actually makes sense, as the snarling “Sir, You are Out of Line” immediately segues intensely, as the modern rock riffage of Hikino takes over behind a steady, throbbing rhythm while Valenciano trades-off growls and dreamy, melodic vocals. Though it’s almost refreshing to hear such heaviness in an age of marketable pop-rock, listeners will have a good chance remembering where they heard this and the riff, progression and formula; think the accessibility of bands like Linkin Park, Incubus, Deftones and even early Greyhounds. Though the band scores in unashamedly wearing their influences on their sleeves (even pulling a Nine Inch Nails with the industrial-inspired filler “Got MLK?”), it might be a little distracting for listeners since these musical inspirations are fairly new. Not a bad thing at all, but of course it begs the question of what makes this particular outfit different… - Pulp Magazine