[ WM ] Jemm , thanks for hanging out with us today !
[ Jemmuel Magtibay ] Thank you so much for having me ! It ’ s an absolute joy and pleasure ! I ’ m very excited about this !
Foo Fighters , Relient K and Switchfoot . Once I discovered YouTube , I was introduced to my guitar heroes . Eddie Van Halen , Paul Gilbert , Steve Vai , Jimi Hendrix , Joe Satriani , Doug Doppler , and Yngwie Malmsteen to name just a few .
[ WM ] First of all – you play guitar whilst riding a skateboard . Explain .
[ Jemm ] What a hilarious question to begin with ! One day I was watching the music video for “ A Thousand Miles ” by Vanessa Carlton and the moving piano has always fascinated me since I was a kid . We were driving to church on a Sunday morning when I looked at my street and thought “ hmm … what if I try skating downhill while playing guitar and riding a skateboard at the same time .” So I threw an audio interface and my laptop with Helix Native in a backpack , attached a GoPro to a guitar headstock and away I went ! The coolest thing about the skateboard videos is that Penny Skateboards found out about them and decided to partner with me with an endorsement ! Pretty random and amazing at the same time .
[ WM ] Can you tell us a bit about your musical history ? How you got into music , where it ' s taken you . Who you ' ve played with and how those relationships came about ?
[ Jemm ] Music has been a part of my life from the day I was born . My mother is a worship leader , brother is a guitar player , my sister sings and plays piano , and my cousins sing and play an instrument too – it ’ s been a part of my upbringing . I grew up listening to everything ranging from Filipino OPM , Abba , Bee Gees and Celine Dion all through to Yellowcard , Coldplay ,
I didn ’ t start learning guitar properly ‘ til I was 8 or 9 years old . It was such a great time to learn because the music on radio and TV in the early 2000s was packed with organic instruments , and video games like Guitar Hero were the big craze . This just inspired people to go pick up an instrument and jam out - so my childhood was a mixture of practicing for hours in my room and tweaking guitar pedals .
My journey wasn ’ t smooth sailing to start with . My school wasn ’ t musical and when I wanted to join the worship team I was rejected and told I wasn ’ t ready , so I was thrown off music or touching an instrument for about 3 years . It wasn ’ t until I went to my first youth camp when I encountered God for the first time and heard