Naiisip Mo Ba & Radio

I'm sitting at a coffee shop nearby where I'm staying at the moment in Makati. I've asked the cashier to tune the radio to WoW FM 103.5 Manila because today I've been told by the program director of WoW FM that today my song "Naiisip Mo Ba" will premier on their station in heavy rotation (approx 6 times daily). This will be my first time to have regular play on a radio station in a major city. I'm almost a little stressed out sitting here waiting for it to come on.

I went all the way around the globe to the Philippines and back only to write my "Taglish" single in the same place as I'd already spent the last 5 years …Nashville, TN.

It just so happens that one of the Philippines greatest songwriters, Jimmy Borja, now lives in Nashville, TN. He moved there a few years back to further pursue his craft of in the songwriting capital of the world. Jimmy and I had never met while I was living in Nashville, but we were introduced through mutual friends in the Philippines.

I told Jimmy that I wanted us to write a "Taglish" song together. Half English/Half Tagalog. I've always liked the idea of combining different languages in the same song and with Jimmy's knack for writing great Tagalog lyrics I thought we would make a great team. Jimmy started strumming a few chords and the lyrics for the verse started flowing out of me …I really wanted our song to be a "missing you song". I'd heard a band in a club a few weeks before hand playing the song "Anytime" by Brian McKnight and I remembered how much that song had meant to me growing up …wondering if the person that you love and have feelings for still remembers you in the same light …or ever even thinks of you and the good times you had together has been a very strong theme and feeling in my life.

I wrote the lyrics and Jimmy and I worked together on the melody. Within the first few lines I knew we were onto something good…

Staring up through the trees at a blackened sky
Wondering if God placed the stars just to watch me cry
Or maybe that’s why he lets them shine 

The chorus I wanted to be in straight Tagalog but have an "American" style melody so I told Jimmy what I wanted it to say in English and then crafted the melody using the Tagalog lyrics he threw back at me.

We parted ways that day feeling that we both created something unique and heartfelt, but only missing a bridge. I don't speak fluent Tagalog by any means but I know enough basic phrases to have some input into the Tagalog lyrics and I wrote the one simple line of "Naaalala kita lagi" with the bridge key change going from the 6 major to the 4 minor chord about a week later while jamming the song in my apartment. Using 6 major and 4 minor chords (for you music theory geeks, lol) has been a signature part of my songwriting recently …especially using a 4 minor chord in my bridges.

What an insane 5 months this year has been so far. I think I'm going to need a vacation for all of 2012 once 2011 is over, lol. Still going strong at the moment though.

I called my manager in the US (Rick) yesterday and told him about a couple "enemies" I've made in the Philippines. Rick knows how out of my way I go to be nice, thoughtful, and accommodating to others, especially fellow musicians, and his response after I told him about the situations was "You don't find success at anything without making a few enemies along the way …look at how many people hate Justin Beiber". I really liked that. Thanks Rick!