The skies are gloomy. It's been pouring, mostly in the afternoon through the night, all across Metro Manila. It's almost like 2020, when unstoppable forces kept us cooped up indoors. But on this day, 20 May 2022, Sandwich bask in the rain—with masks on and still social distancing—as they finally release music that they recorded at the beach, pre-pandemic.
Their latest EP, titled No Goodbyes, is mostly about personal introspection and social commentary. While this may have been the Filipino rock act's earlier intention, the songs' meanings have somewhat shifted in these confusing times.
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Sandwich's recording sessions in Batangas only took three days—day 1 for drums and bass, day 2 for guitars, and day 3 for vocals. Everything else they didn't do there (backup vocals, keys, and percussions) were recorded at home and Kodama Studios with Shinji Tanaka, who recorded, mixed, and mastered No Goodbyes. Buddy Zabala also helped out with frontman Raymund Marasigan's vocals in pre-prod.
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"We hung out, swam, and ate a lot during the three-day sessions," Marasigan recalls.
"The live setting is where [our songs] evolved and mutate," Sandwich reveal to Bandwagon, adding how the tracks off of No Goodbyes were demoed as early as 2017 or 2018 (they're not quite sure anymore).
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"We chose six [songs] that we liked playing live and recorded them in three days in December 2019. The songs were mixed in January 2020, we released 'Buhol Buhol', then the pandemic happened."
Marasigan was even able to shoot a video for 'Buhol Buhol' with a jimmied Go Pro on a selfie stick. He hopped on his bike and pedaled around Marcos Highway with the intention of biking ahead of everyone during rush hour, but for some reason the traffic was light on that particular Friday.
"The goal was a one take, continuous shot biking through traffic, overtaking everyone without stopping and without breaking any laws," Marasigan previously shared. He'd also gone around Marikina and Katipunan that afternoon. "Luckily I caught the go signal through EDSA. It was quite a gnarly experience but I had a lot of fun."
In 2020, Sandwich delivered the title track, 'No Goodbyes', and that was it for new releases until things began to ease up. Concerts were canceled and music venues shut down left and right during the pandemic. It just didn't feel right to drop their new EP then.
"Since we obviously couldn't play out live, we decided to postpone further releases until the restrictions started opening up in 2022," the band share.
Sandwich released 'Curtains' in February this year. It was a long time coming, too. The words to the track were written before today's work-from-home setup became the norm. They were at the D&D office at the time, poking fun at the end of the world.
For 'Negatives', their last drop before unveiling No Goodbyes to the world, the band teamed up with director Cris Escolano for a new music video. They went out, dressed to the nines, shooting at the Sheraton Hotel in Pasay with NAIA Terminal 3 just outside their window. Flying out to see the rest of the world once again was so close.
For now, it's back to the drawing board for Sandwich as they work on new ideas for live shows. They're even looking forward to a U.S. tour soon, which shouldn't be too far from now with the world finally opening up.
Stream No Goodbyes below.
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