In this week’s edition of Fresh from the Post, we sample a bit of Manila electropop with Techy Romantics. We caught up with the Techy Romantic’s Dondi Virrey and asked him a few things about his group’s brand of music…
Just to give us a background about the band – how and when did the Techy Romantics start?
Techy Romantics…the name came from an invite I saw in the Internet. It captured the concept of the kind of music I would like to make. I registered the name at myspace April 2008. Right after the name was founded, the electronic group was formed composed of Ryan Villena and Camyl Besinga around June 2008. We jammed one Sunday afternoon, and on that day we wrote Out Of My Mind, which is the current single of the album.
Our plan then was to have it heard over the Internet and see what will happen. By around August we were invited to play in a local production, and from then on we haven’t stopped gigging and writing songs. Last December 09, we released our first album called Touch, which is now also available in iTunes
If you could describe your sound in a few words – how would you describe it?
We have had trouble with that question actually, but a fan described it properly "dreamy… edgy… trippy".
I love music from the Philippines – mostly because I grew up with it. I haven’t been back in a while but from the few artists that I’ve heard (which include you guys), there’s a lot more diversity, and a lot more music that sounds absolutely wonderful. Do you have any local acts that you think are ones to watch out for – or local bands in the past that have inspired you?
Bands that I would recommend are Us-2, Evil-0, Pedicab, Drip and Sleepwalk Circus.
We usually ask artists that we feature to share one or two songs to our readers. Which songs would you like to share and could you give us a little background on them?
The first song we ever wrote was Out of My Mind. It was the first song we ever jammed. Ryan started this guitar rift and I just went minor instead of major and moved backwards. Camyl wrote the lyrics. She was so bored one day, and the words for the song just popped out of her. That’s where the inspiration for the song came about.
Photos Fade began as a song that was totally different from what it is now. The music was written before Techy Romantics was formed. I kept the music and scrapped the melody lines. The music was so nice that I kept it. Camyl rendered the words to the music that I wrote for photos Fade. That’s how the song came to be.
I always ask this question to every artist that we feature – how do you define indie music?
I believe Indie music fills the need for something fresh without sounding new, also its a reaction, a rebellious in your face reaction, of aspiring musicians to write whatever they feel like and produce them independently. Technology has made it possible for everyone to enjoy the process of writing, producing and releasing music. It has also allowed everyone willing and brave enough to share ourselves through the medium.
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I’ve got to hand it to the Techy Romantics for being able to snag up such an apt-sounding band name. To a lot of electronica acts out there, you might think ‘Techy Romantics’ might be an obvious choice. Somehow, grabbing that name seemed to be off their radar – and just rightly so, as this is a band that truly knows what they are and what the ‘techy romantic’ sound should be – heartfelt love songs in the form of smooth electronic club beats.
The Techy Romantics debut album Touch is out now and available on iTunes.
