Young Fil-Ams on the road to rock stardom
By Nickee V. de Leon/Asianjournal.com
(Last of two parts)
MORE THAN a month ago, The Asian Journal (AJ) had the opportunity to have a phone chat with Agustin Sanchez and Andrew Ampaya, two twenty-something Fil Ams who are playing for promising quintet Test Your Reflex (TYR).
Test Your Reflex is an up and coming band who headlined for the Smashing Pumpkins during their July 22nd performance at the Fillmore in San Francisco.
TYR is Ryan Levine (lead vocals, guitar and keyboards), Clark (lead guitar), Andrew Ampaya (piano, keyboards and vocals), Agustin Sanchez (bass and backing vocals) and Sal Cortez (drums and backing vocals). The band was formed almost four years ago in Thousand Oaks, California and has been making waves in the music scene with the release of their first album, The Burning Hour.
The young and the restless
With the influx of so many young, aspiring rock bands, AJ asked Andrew and Agustin how TYR has managed to rise above the clutter and emerge as one of the popular new alternative rock bands.
“For the most part, I think we got very lucky,” Andrew mused. “But on the other hand, our style of music and our sound is unique. I think Ryan’s voice especially stands out amongst other bands…but first we were working really hard. We were getting songs together and practicing almost everyday… For the most part, our hardwork just paid off. With the right people around us we managed to make it in the industry,” he added.
“I just think, like Andrew said, we are lucky and then it comes down to us knowing people. But what it really comes down to is just having the heart to write songs. To go there and practice in a room for six hours and to hone the songs and make them all they can be and just really put your heart and soul into it and I think people see that and hopefully more people will keep on seeing that and then we’ll be able to play for more and more people who will enjoy and love the songs,” Agustin quipped.
A new album in the works?
With the commercial success of their debut album,The Burning Hour, AJ asked Andrew and Agustin about a follow-up release.
“We actually have a lot of songs and we had to choose from a bunch of them in order to compile to select songs that we did put on The Burning Hour,” Andrew said. “We have a lot of ideas on songs ready for another album and I think it’s kinda [too] soon to be thinking about what people would be expecting next but I hope they are. We have a lot of songs ready for another CD,” he further assured.
A Fil-Am upbringing
Born to Filipino families and raised in Filipino households, Andrew and Agustin related how their families took their musical inclination and how they coped and are still coping with the boys’ well-earned success.
“I grew up in a very Filipino family and my parents spoke Tagalog to me. We were very close and they supported me, no matter what I did. They actually pushed me to take the piano lessons when I was a young boy. When I started being in this band, I didn’t realize it would become what it is. Now that it has grown to be such a big part of my life, my family’s been very supportive…,” Andrew narrated.
Agustin admitted that his mom is very strikto. “Even though I hadn’t played music for this long, she’d be like ‘Oh so you’re in a band, why don’t you be a doctor or take up bio-engineering or whatever.’ It’s kinda like she needed to warm up to it because you know the Filipino mom always wants the best for you. They always push you a certain way, but it’s kinda like when is it good enough? I was in school, I was working at the same time, and then I would have band practice.
When I come home my mom would be like ‘So how are your grades? Are you gonna be on the radio? Are you a doctor yet?’ It took her a little time to warm up because being a musician is the kind of profession where it’s either you make it or you don’t. To her it’s kinda like I needed something to fall back on or something that was a hundred percent that I would be able to make a life out of. I told her that this is what I wanna do. This is what I wanna be. I’ll go back to school maybe in like ten years or five years.
When she saw our CD out, when she heard us on the radio and when she saw us on TV, it was like ‘Okay, you guys are doing a good job and we’re really proud of you.’”
“When I went to a family reunion, my relatives were very proud of me,” he added. His relatives even encouraged him to go back to the Philippines to play in Makati or Cebu or Boracay. Agustin went to the Philippines once and he wants to go back to visit sometime soon.
On a lighter note, AJ asked the boys what their favorite Filipino dish is, a question that they answered with much delectation.
Agustin confessed that a day before the interview, he asked his mom to whip up some sinigang. AJ asked if it was pork sinigang, but Agustin said that he was more partial with beef sinigang and that his mom was an advocate for healthy eating. Besides that fact, Agustin is also not very fond of patis (fish sauce), considered as an indispensable Filipino condiment when eating the sour soup dish.
He related that his mom prepares sinigang the low-carbs way. “It’s taro with spinach and lean beef and stuff. It used to be that I would eat it with the pork and everything. But now it’s like a comfort food you know.”
AJ asked Agustin if he has ever tried the authentic version of the sinigang in the Philippines. “I was at a cousin’s house and his grandma came out with a bowl of it [sinigang]. I was like ‘This is really good what is it?’ and then she looked at me and told me that it was dog [meat]. But it wasn’t really a dog. She was just kidding. It was really pork,” he laughed. He joked that even if it was dog meat, it was the best cocker spaniel he ever had.
“Ice cream is always good and pan de sal in the morning and almost anything, but I can’t eat shrimp or crab,” Agustin added.
Andrew likes a variety of Filipino food including adobo. “My dad would make that from time to time and I love the desserts…puto, the white rice cake and lumpia.” Andrew also likes eating chicharon.
It was rather difficult for them to find a Filipino restaurant while they were on tour. Agustin narrated that they visited his aunt in Virginia and she cooked for them. That and a trip to one of her friends’ restaurants pacified their craving for Filipino food.
Aspiring and inspiring
Andrew and Agustin punctuated the interview with some encouraging words for aspiring young bands and musicians like themselves.
“One thing I would tell them is to take the criticism and use it constructively,” Andrew advised. “Just look ahead and stay humble and just keep on working hard.”
“The only way you’re going to make it is if you put your whole heart into it. If you don’t, if you can’t do that then you’re not going to,” Agustin said. “If you really love it and you know it’s something you wanna do then you should go for it and don’t look at what anyone else has to say other than the good things and constructive criticisms. There’s going to be people who would talk down on you…There’s always going to be haters but just forget them and just do what you love. Sooner or later you’ll never know you might be doing a phone interview with a Filipino newspaper…,” he added, laughing heartily. (AJ)
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For more info on the band’s gig schedules, visit www.testyourreflex.net.
