It's a bittersweet feeling looking back at your past and reminiscing times with the people you love. You think about how you met, where you are now, and how much you've grown into better people. With their latest offering 'This Love', Faspitch do exactly that all while taking a refreshingly different direction.
'This Love' celebrates "all forms of love," Faspitch guitarist Russell Manaloto shares with Bandwagon about the band's first single of the year. It pivots from the chugging riffs they're known for, leaning toward a lighter feel sonically and lyrically, and offers an intimate look into the heart of vocalist Henry Allen, who sang the song to his wife on their wedding day.
Bandwagon caught up with Henry Allen and Russell Manaloto to talk about the story behind 'This Love', what it was like working with director Paolo Bagaman on its music video, and their plans for 2024.
‘This Love’ sounds so different from Faspitch’s previous work. It's quite lighter. What made you decide to go in this direction and what inspired it sonically?
Russell: Faspitch's sound had always been experimental, so going into the more mellow sound spectrum isn't really something new for us. Our older songs like 'Damage Done', 'Candles', 'Chances', 'Planting Forests', and 'Follow' are somewhat earlier attempts at the softer and more mellow side of our sound.
As for the inspiration, I can't speak for the rest of the band but to me, personally, when I started working on This Love's demo, the initial idea was to go for that mid-late '90s Alternative and nostalgic vibe and present the demo to the rest of the band. Everyone in the band liked it, and so we decided to work on it until everyone was happy with the outcome.
Thematically, what’s the message you want to tell with ‘This Love’?
Russell: 'This Love' was inspired by love, the kind of love you feel, and receive and give towards your passions, towards your significant other, your children, your pets, your parents, and anything you love. It's a song that celebrates all forms of love, most especially the love that our fans and listeners give us, and that's what really fuels us to keep on going and keep at it.
Henry penned the lyrics (as usual), and eventually, it became Henry's song for his wife, Chawie. He sang it to her on their wedding day, during his speech at their reception. It was a very sweet moment.
How do you think fans would react to the new sound?
Russell: We hope they like it as much as we do. We've always been an experimental band, and we're always going to try and do different things within our lane, and even going a bit outside of it. One thing for sure, the heavy stuff will always be somewhat a constant and I guess, that's one thing that'll never really disappear from our creative pallettes.
Tell us about the story behind the music video.
Henry: For the music video, Martin, our bassist, introduced us to Direk Paolo Bagaman, really talented guy! A lot of what goes on in the video is his take on the song. I guess for a lot of people, us included, the songs invoke a bit of traveling back in time. And with that in mind the MV reminds us of how our relationship and the people in them change over time.
In the opening scene of the MV our guy walks into what was once his old living room, with a lot of his old belongings just strewn around the room, real messy-like. He sees his old discman with a CD still inside, he decides to check it out. Pops his earphones in and as soon as the song starts playing he's transported back in time to some wonderful memories he made with a special someone in that room together. A story he wished had a happier ending. Does he get a second chance? I hope so! I love that opening sequence.
We also made sure to sprinkle a few easter eggs around the set. For instance you'll see an old World Battle of the Bands CD sampler on the coffee table. I met my wife on that WBOB tour, hence the line "... taking me back to BOB days...".
What are your plans for 2024?
Henry: Fiends and Family is gonna keep rolling into 2024 with some more Luzon dates. More new music definitely! And more videos too, a few of them being the continuation of the Tower of Doom acoustic series we started back in 2022. We have a couple of fun collabs in there as well so stay tuned for that!
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