Oh man, 2010. I guess 2010 was a good year for us, if not the best year ever f or Your Imaginary Friends. We still can’t believe the year just went by like a stray bullet. And truth be told, there’s so much we already miss.
2010 is still our favorite spin around the sun. How so? Here’s a rundown:
January
The year began with a happy/sad note. Tanya Singh expressed her intentions of permanently leaving the band and joining Mondo Castro’s The Pin-ups, filling the void left by Jeng Tan’s departure for the US.
January 10: We recorded our radio plug at Jam 88.3 for our live guesting on the station’s Jam Sessions with DJ Tracy.
January 17: YIF played live on air for the first time on Jam 88.3’s Jam Sessions. I had a nasty cut on my forehead (details? PM me). Ramon Bautista told us later that he and his girlfriend listened to that broadcast.
Also this month, a label in UK expressed its desire to distribute Your Imaginary Friends exclusively. Clem Castro of Lilystars Records shared the bit of good news through text.
February
The band is already looking for someone to do the four-string duties. It wasn’t an easy task. Ahmad and I scouted for possible recruits and even went out to watch gigs of bands with female bassists. We wrote a mental list of possible ones, until I realized that the new bassist should not come from the list.
February 13, 2010. 9:58 PM: A shy but extremely talented girl from Pasay named Emerald Aquino, replied to my text inquiry:
“okay lang po. Pero wl poko sarili bass. guitars po xe usually gngmt ko but I thnk I can manage to play d bass hehe frm wt area po b kau?”
here comes our Em.
That night, after strolling in Trinoma, I went straight home to check out her FB and Youtube accounts.
On Tanya’s last gig with Your Imaginary Friends, we invited Emerald to watch. It was a Pop Shoppe.
March
Khalid and I rehearsed with Em for the first time in a crappy studio somewhere in Mandaluyong. We made a vow never to go back there.
With Emerald somehow at ease playing the songs, we rehearsed for the first time. It was then and there when we were sure that Em has finally become one of Your Imaginary Friends.
April
Emerald’s birthday. Ahmad and I went to Pasay to partaaay. Khalid couldn’t make it. This was to become his habit.
Club 8 was coming to our shores, and LSR / The Pop Shoppe was to bring them in.
It’s our first and only time to play way way late in a mix genre gig this year. We shared the lined up with Tower of Doom bands, and my other playmates in Slowjob.
April 18: It was a sunny Sunday when the band had its first ever publicity photo shoot. Done in breezy UP Diliman, Charlie Olila snapped our summer side.
Also this month we fronted for my childhood heroes Sugar Hiccup in Ortigas. Their new drummer blew me away. He made me cow behind my cymbal bag.
May
Emerald sang solo for the first time during Pop Shoppe’s Club 8 Tribute Night.
May 14: SMX Convention Center. We fronted Club 8, and frankly we were never this excited. Though not our first time to front a foreign act (first was Ally Kerr in 2009), this was the first time we got this exposed to a wider audience.
Fronting the Club 8 concert at SMX Convention Center
And it was later this month that LSR announced: YIF will be recording their first EP. Immediately, we set our sights on.
June
June 8: Clem texted Ahmad a very surprising news: teenage magazine meg will be having a music issue. Along with former labelmates The Bernadettes, the issue would feature YIF as one of the bands.
June 15: It was a humid day when we rushed to meg’s photo shoot in Balara, Quezon City. We were posing with (gasp) real models right in the basement studio of renowned photographer Doc Marlon Pecjo, though another renowned photographer Roy Macam took the snaps. Renowned stylist Alyanna Martinez clothed us, thinking we’d look good in a black and white motif.
June 19: YIF again posed for the camera. This time it’s for our publicity photos. Photos were taken by Angelo Maniquis at Jorge’s Portrait Studio in P. Tuazon, Quezon City.
It was in June when interviews with both Meg and FHM were done. We were told we would be appearing in FHM come July. I already told everyone and his mother to grab a copy.
Cellist, multi-instrumentalist and all-around great guy Dave Eggar came to town to do rounds in bars and we were invited by good friend Denise Roco to front one of those skeds. Charlie Olila went to watch, donning his polo barong and government swagger, he made sure he had more than enough swigs of Jack Daniel’s that night.
July
Khalid, Katrina and I were in SM Manila to meet-up with Khalid and Ahmad’s sister Areej. And while in the department store, LO and BEHOLD: It’s FHM’s Hot 100 issue! Our first magazine feature.
FHM rounded up 13 top up and coming bands in the scene. In the ish, YIF was listed.
LSR went to a vacay! The Maniquis’ San Miguel, Bulacan resort was something I wanna do every month. Khalid might want to join us next time, though.
August
It was one of those nights that I got to get home early. I checked out National Bookstore for some reason and VOILA! The meg music issue already came out. Our mothers were proud; finally, they’re right in saying we were pretty all along.
We also worked hard this month for the EP recordings. Selecting which songs to record were easy compared to selecting the album title. But it was as much fun as the long nights we spent at Sonic State. Jon Ong and Robert Javier made sure we sounded right.
Jobert Cruz’ excellent illustrations for the cover were highly anticipated, though it was like waiting for an impacted tooth to just fall off one day.
On TGI’s launch at the Ayala Museum, YIF played first in the bill. Here, we met Francis Reyes for the first time.
to be continued…
