The seven members of Sansette pose at a seaside on the Philippine island of Cebu. Courtesy of Sansette
By Jon Dunbar
As temperatures proceed to drop in Seoul, a heat breeze is blasting up from the south. Sansette, a seven-piece Filipino band, is bringing a little bit of that everlasting summer season heat they get pleasure from on their house island of Cebu this weekend.
“It will likely be our first time enjoying in another country — and in a distinct local weather as properly,” Gabriel Villacarlos, the band’s primary singer and songwriter, advised The Korea Occasions. “If we do our job properly the heat of our music will nonetheless be felt whatever the climate circumstances.”
The band made a splash in 2019 with their debut single “Sunburn,” a suitably heat, breezy monitor mentioned to explain a summer season fling.
“There may be simply an ease to the town that’s Cebu. It’s a slow-coastal-tropical-insulated sort of dwelling. It’s easy and it’s all we all know, as a result of most of us have been born and raised right here,” Gabriel, who launched himself as Gab, mentioned.
The Authentic Pilipino Music (OPM) band’s house base on the tropical island holds a powerful, unifying affect over their sound.
“As a band with quite a lot of members — and a ton of various musical influences — having an anchor level to attract from was essential for us to say one thing unified and cohesive as a band,” Gab mentioned. “I really feel like we’re very Cebuano — even when most of our songs are in English — and really tropical sounding which makes us totally different from most OPM acts.”
Even the title Sansette, pronounced “Sundown,” evokes that feeling. The band title is a conjoined phrase, shaped from “sans” or with out, and “sette,” which means the quantity seven within the native Bisaya dialect, therefore “not seven.”
“The thought was that it wasn’t simply the seven of us that have been making the music — we had our producer and all of the folks in our lives instantly and not directly contributing to the music,” Gab mentioned.
The members of Sansette stand within the water. Courtesy of Sansette
He described the Cebu music scene as “wealthy in tales and taste,” with an excessive amount of selection comprised of various cliques and pockets of various genres, in addition to age teams.
“Now we have native historical past, we now have legends of our personal, and we now have our legendary third locations,” he mentioned. “Domestically and internationally, we wish our metropolis to be identified. We would like the remainder of the world to know that the Cebuano ‘situation’ exists and we’re right here dwelling it — and the vibes are nice right here.”
Sansette secured an invite to play two exhibits in Seoul from SUPERSONIC STUDIO, a content material creator firm that produces numerous content material about indie music and indie tradition, after assembly members of the Seoul-based group visiting Cebu.
“I feel just a few of us have visited Korea earlier than,” Gab mentioned. “For the remainder of us, we’re going to this nation blindly. Though our nation has been such a client of Okay-culture all through the years, we’re excited to see how Korea actually is on the market.”
Their first present might be at Tradition Station Seoul 284 RTO in central Seoul on Saturday. It is a part of a tradition trade program, titled “indie’s second dwell: Wherever, In Your Personal Manner,” that can even invite two different acts, Busan indie pop band Hathaw9y and Thai singer-songwriter wadfah. As properly, Karl Lucente, the producer of Sansette and a member of fellow Cebuano synth-pop duo Mandaue Nights, will give a presentation about Cebu’s music scene at a pre-event of this system beginning at 1 p.m.
“We aren’t conversant in the opposite acts which might be collaborating,” Peter Cambonga, the band’s saxophonist, admitted. “We’re excited to fulfill them and take heed to their music dwell, in addition to be taught extra about their musicianship and totally different cultures.”
Sansette and Mandaue Nights can even play an after-party present on Sunday at Gongsangondo.
Go to @sansettemusic on YouTube to listen to extra of Sansette’s music, or comply with @supersonicstudiokr and @culturestationseoul284 on Instagramfor extra info.
