In The Mix
Sandwich returns with ‘new old songs’ just begging listeners to give them a second spin
One of local music’s iconic rock bands, Sandwich, has launched a 10-track remix album called “Space/Space,” that covers two decades’ worth of work.
In an interview, lead vocalist Raymund Marasigan revealed their initial intention was merely to “experiment” with their songs, especially for live performances.
“The idea was how can we play... we want to play out live and see what Sandwich will sound with a sampler (an electronic or digital musical instrument which uses sound recordings of real instrument sounds, excerpts from recorded songs or found sounds), keyboards and no guitar,” added guitarist Mong Alcaraz.
The idea began when Raymund, Mong, guitarist Diego Castillo, bassist Myrene Academia-Marasigan, and drummer Mike Dizon play as DJ in this little club they like to go to where there’s no space for full band set-up.
“We’re like ‘Hey can we play here?’ But then we realized na hindi kami pwedeng tumugtog du’n kasi walang drumset, walang guitar. So then we started to think that maybe we can use what the other electronic artists are doing but using it in our songs and reinterpreting it for the venue and the audience,” Raymund said.
So this remix thing... is it their new religion? “No naman. It’s nothing... it’s something fresh for the band wherein we just mix and match what we like as groove and sound, something that’s not a guitar,” he said.
Raymund described doing the project “liberating.”
“Because as a musician you have... you were just using your ears and taste. You don’t care what key it
is, you’re not concerned about tempo,” he related. Diego agreed with Raymund, adding how free they were to go nuts with the knobs. “Pwede kang mag-come up with any crazy idea tapos bibigay mo kay Mong like ‘Ito kayang baseline na’ — basta walang right or wrong,” he said. “Lagay lang kami ng lagay, tapos e-execute ni Mong.
It is sort of weird na parang cut and paste.
It’s strange art.”
At the very least, they hope to surprise the fans.
With eight full-length studio albums under their belt, the task of choosing the tracklist for the album wasn’t easy a process as they thought. Besides, the art of the remix is an interesting musical proposition. Depending on a producer’s or remixer’s approach, the track can be sped up and turned into a dance floor filler; or reimagined as a ’70s funk track with complete with horns and keyboards. Either way, it’s a fascinating process of reinterpreting an existing track by altering the song’s original state and creating something fresh in the process.
It’s no surprise that Sandwich would embrace the remix album concept as Raymund and Mong have remixed tracks for Radioactive Sago Project, The Itchyworms, Taken by Cars and Rivermaya, to name a few. Heavily inspired by the band’s love for record digging, hip-hop breaks, Olongapo funk, house, and various other dance music, “Space/Spase” contains some of the band’s well-loved tracks including “2 Trick Pony,” “Betamax,” and “Procrastinator.” Asked about the album artwork, they revealed it was Mong’s six-year-old daughter’s sketch. “One time sinend ko sa kanila drawing ng anak ko. That’s her artwork, that’s her handwriting. That’s her interpretation of our studio where we remix that. Siya lang nag-isip na this is the space ta’s wrong spelling ini-scratch niya,” Mong shared.
“Which is exactly what the album was made. Parang it’s a lot of trial and error. Ang ganda. It’s a mistake that you like. The thing that works and doesn’t work. It was funny. Weird and funny like our brand,” Raymund ended.
‘Lagay lang kami ng lagay. It is sort of weird na parang cut and paste. It’s strange art.’