By Johmar Dasigan
Layout by Neil Dominic De Lu
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Getting tired of mainstream hip-hop, jazz,
pop, punk or those types of music? Well, it’s time for you
to witness originality from ordinary, but extraordinarily
talented individuals.
To appreciate this kind of music, you have to be “in” on
local indie(solo) artists. Being solo (without a major record
label), is not like living those dreams of famous singers
nowadays. At stake is passion and great potentialilty.
James Gonzalez, an indie artist is also known as “Finest
Summer”. But why Finest when it could be any other
name?
Formerly residing in Toronto, Canada, where he
described the cool weather as excruciating cold, Finest
What made Finest develop
passion about music?
His parents were great dancers. His older siblings
have the habit of blasting radios off. He composed his own
music at age 13. The thoroughness of his music was culled
from his growing up years in Sta. Ana, Manila. Then there
is pop artist Michael Jackson and his “radio-friendly music“
style that he decided to create a similar one — catchy,
bumpy and pop. He studied musical instruments on his
own, put the pieces together and created a different one.
“There was a time when I was really hooked in music that
I prodded my parents to take me into lessons. This was
temporary because my older siblings less-appreciated this
forte. So, I never really got formal lessons.“
Asked what can Finest Summer play, and you get
a load of replies. It was necessary to point out his loyalty to
his bass guitar, which he compares to his favourite sport,
long-boarding. Rhythm section is the most important part of
music. Its sources mainly come from bass guitar and drums;
“that is where the rhythm comes from when we play music.”
Going solo gives one a lot of freedom
to work on. One may get lesser shows and incurred
expenses for the music. But with a desire to market music
through different social mediums like Soundcloud and other
Internet based radio stations, Finest’s feels blessings are now
filling-up his plans. Other artist’s selling strategy, he recalled,
were to distribute and burn as much CDs as possible and
pass it on to different people. Not in his case, because there
is still a need cause to collaborate with local artists, naming
Rico Blanco as a potential.
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Summer came
back to the Philippines two years ago
to rekindle ties with
his brand of music. “Summer is the
best season there is,“
he confessed in between takes.
Summer is not only a typical season, but the kind of music
Finest adheres to.
In terms of weather description, Finest said
summer reminds people of yellow color, water waves,
the azure beaches and all that relate to mainly outdoors.
“This is where I get inspiration for my music,” leaving him
performing most of the time in an outdoors setting than in
closed stages.
Finest’s music is not limited to understanding
genre music. He has this thing for several instruments, playing
not one but three or more instruments: piano, ukulele,
trumpet, and kazoo. (Kazoo is a musical instrument that adds
a “buzzing“ timbral quality to a player’s voice when the
player vocalizes into it. The kazoo is a type of mirliton, which
is a membranophone, one of a class of instruments which
modifies its player’s voice by way of a vibrating membrane).
The band history in Finest’s strain is the root of it all. He has
been part of one before becoming a solo artist.
In the Philippines, he was part of a three-piece band called
Sharksfin Siomai. When he migrated to the US, he tried joining
different bands like Charmin, One Size Fits All, and Golda
Supernova.
Finest stressed that being part of a band is highly
different from being a solo performer. He used to decide
on his own. In practice sessions, he spares time using his
headphones and singing over a musical piece to check
if the harmony part has been achieved. Whenever Finest
hears catchy phrases, lines, or a partcular melody, he would
grab his phone or mp3 player to record and hear it back at
home. “If there was a line that came to my mind, I would
grab any piece of paper and write and sing along with it.“
Being a solo artist also entails some “sacrifices.”
There were times that he had to shoulder the expenses to
come up with recording and post production.
“I believe in the DIY(Do It Yourself)-like selling, which
my younger brother, King, dabbles in. We combined our