Signing Off

If I never knew you
I'd have lived my whole life through
Empty as the sky
Never knowing why
Lost forever
If I never knew you

I just had my last performance with the Reigndition Band, and I bring with me a year full of great memories. One year of singing just flew by so quickly, it's as if I just had my audition with them 2 weeks ago. Not that singing matters not--- of course it does, and it will always have a warm spot in my heart--- but I need to focus more on my other priorities. Right now I'm single-handedly running Mamai's, and another small-time business, and my job with an IT company. For now, these are my training grounds and I have to leave singing behind as I embrace other aspects of myself.

To my band--- Vien, Kisha, Mia, Val, and Emmar (also Deo, Adela, and Chuckie)--- it was an honor working with you all. You guys are so great and so talented, and your talents will take you places, thats for sure. I will miss the stage. I will miss the beats. I will miss the lights. But what Im gonna miss most are the fun times that I get to spend with you. You guys are like family to me already.

But then again, music will always be a part of me and as you know, I am just temporarily clipping my wings.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for giving me the chance to hold the microphone. Not everybody who has this talent is given the opportunity you have bestowed on me. I am sincerely grateful.

And for my diva tantrums, I wouldnt apologize. You know from the very start what you're getting yourself into, hahaha. Kidding. :)

I will miss you all.

Keith Pareja, the musician, now signing off. For now.

Reigndition

We had our first picture taken as a band since Adela (female vocals) and Deo (bassist) left 3 months ago. This is currently the new cast of the Reigndition Band, and so far I'm having such a great time with Chuckie, the new bassist, and Mia, the new female vocals.

In 2 months, we'll be celebrating our first anniversary. :) I never thought I'd come this far, I mean life with a band is just CRAZY. When I started about almost a year ago, I gave myself around 3 months just to test the waters. I have a pretty demanding regular job, and I'm running a small business at the same time. I thought I'd never have the energy to just do what I love doing and that is to sing. But then again, God is just so amazing that when I prayed for BALANCE and SANITY, He gave me this beautiful blessing--- He gave me this band.

Me Goes Acoustic at the Crimson

The pool area is done and we're set again to perform at the Crimson Resort in Mactan... That's the 10th and newest 5-star resort hotel here in Cebu. It hasn't officially opened yet, but it's now up for limited occupancy. It's the prettiest hotel I've ever been to and the fact that we have been chosen as one of it's performers is a huge honor by itself. Imagine--- 250 suite rooms, 41 villas and 39 plunge pools. It's paradise.

We'll be doing an all-acoustic line-up later at Azure, the beach part of the hotel. We have dedicated a few days of practice to come up with an all-acoustic line-up, coz we never really predicted we would be invited to do a show of this nature. I'm not an acoustic singer myself so I had to do a lot of fine tuning. Tonight, we will be showcasing the music of Cristopher Cross, Maxwell, Sade, Selena, some classic Pinoy hits from the Hotdogs and a lot more.

And since I'm a huge, as in huge fan of the Beatles, the show would definitely not happen without my personal tribute to the greatest band of all time. I spent countless nights to come up with my own medley, and you know it's hard coz it's almost impossible to pick at most 3 great songs from their awesome repertoire. I could no sooner pick a favorite star from the heavens.

I got to narrow down my choices to 3 favorites--- Strawberry Fields Forever, Yesterday and Hey Jude. The medley I made is one kick-ass job and I can't wait to perform it tonight. I'm so excited.

Angels Brought Me Here

How Can I Fall?

Loving You

One boring Sunday, decided to just stay home and not do anything. I had Maxwell and Robin Thicke songs on auto-repeat mode in my iPod. I personally think these two guys have the most amazing falsettos. I got up in bed and decided to try out a few vocal exercises to find out if I still have my falsettos and whistle register. I thought Minnie Riperton's Loving You is a good place to start.

Just Another Face in the Crowd

Got these pics from my photographer friend, Celso Arsua Jr. You guys could check his online portfolio, it's just awesome.

SakSak Festival

Last week I was given the privilege to record the official festival song of the Sak-sak Festival of Samboan. The song was written and composed by Mr. Sam Costannila and was given life by the musical genius of Mr. Gani Villaroho, and of course interpreted by yours truly :)

It was truly an honor to have worked with such talents, I had about a week to study the demo, I dreaded for the day I'm finally putting my own touch to the music but these guys have been truly friendly and accommodating.

I would like to congratulate the officials of Samboan, spearheaded by Mayor Raymund Calderon for this wonderful festival song. It was formally launched last Sept 30 with Gov. Gwen Garcia as guest of Honor and speaker.

There are 10 Contingents of different local tribes who will be competing the Street Dancing and Grand showdown with the Festival song in place. Each tribe will show their best of dances and how Sak-Sak is popular in Samboan through dance steps and movements.

My apologies for being unable to come to your mardi gras, my work schedule's just been uber-crazy. :)

Whatta Weekend...

*photos taken by Celso Arsua Jr.

Thank you also to Ma. Vistoria Montilla-Nepomuceno and Kirk Pondar

Single

I recorded a song over the weekend...

Click on the link-----

Take A Look Inside My Heart.mp3

I wanna promise you honestly I'll always care
That's what my Love has come here for
And every time I smiLe you know there's something more
I'm waiting to share, wanting to share...

A few commercial jingles and a festival jingle on the works... It's gonna be a busy month. :)

Slouch

I only get to work 4 days this week instead of 5 since it will be the Independence Day Celebration in the US this July 3. One day vacation for me these days would mean a lot--- it could save my life as a matter of fact. I still have the biggest hang-over from the sick-leave I had last week coz I'd like to think I'm totally well but I had recurring headaches for the past couple of days reason for me to concede to the validation that I still need a lot of bed rest.

Missing Home. I miss home and the kids. I keep on looking at my nieces' and nephews' pics when it gets really lonely.

On Being Cared For. The other day, my Mom and Dad came to visit me here in the city and for the first time in the longest time I felt like their baby again. I have somehow forgotten feeling of being the one who was cared for by my parents.

Dumb. I have been out of the office for a week, and now Im back to work. I so want to be on top of my game this week, but I'm having quite a challenge at switching gears. I feel dumb actually. I'd like to think that this is just a phase, and I'd wake up next week to find myself back in perfect corporate shape.

Manager's Appreciation Award. This week aint all that bad. In fact I had the greatest come back last Monday when my bosses and colleagues surprised me with an awesome token of appreciation (and some cash, hehehe). I am pretty convinced now, and beaming with delight, at the amount of good karma that I'm able to burn-off on this seemingly thankless job. I thank you all for giving me this award, it means a lot to me really.

Bun's Home. Bunster's home from a long business trip in Bangkok and Singapore, and then a wedding in Davao. Crazy couple weeks that was for him, poor Bunster. But he's now back and (thankfully) AH1N1-free. We have scheduled a trip to Bantayan Island this weekend by the way, and I'm excited about the fact that this is going to be our first out of town trip together. *asus*

Sketches

I was cleaning my room this morning and I came across one of my really really REALLY old sketch pads. This is actually one of the tons of sketch pads I used to have back when I used to fancy drawing and sketching as a hobby (and yes as a good source of income in college). A lot of them are now lost, I don’t know who has them now, but I'm pretty sure theyre with some of my friends and relatives who love my creation. They usually take it out of my pad without my consent, and the next thing I know almost always, the sketch is already framed and hung and lit and displayed like some piece of important artwork. I didn’t complain, I mean to me then, sketches were just sketches and they can do whatever.

But now that I've only got one really old sketchpad left, I'm starting to miss my old artworks. I photographed them earlier so I wont lose them forever, and Ive decided to put it in this blog and my facebook account for posterity's sake. I mean whatever. I just don’t wanna lose them.

And then I think Im gonna be able to come up with more as I go to an old friend's house in Danao. She has a wallful of my drawings (and even paintings). It's gonna be really cool I bet.

There you go..

Fucked up Without You

Songwriting's always been one of my favorite past-times. I do it everytime there's this emotion that I wanna vent out. I was searching through old notes earlier today and I came accross one song that I wrote last year.

I still think of you everyday
And every night I still cry myself to sleep
I want to move on but I just can’t take one step further
Mornin’ il awake up with the same sadness I keep
There’re nights when I look up to heaven and pray
But not a single intention comes out in sight
All I know is that there’s this empty space inside
That only you and you alone can fill

It is my god-forsaken right to win you back
Coz lord knows I’m just so fucked up without you
The more I avoid the thought that you’re gone
The more I find myself believing you’ll return
It is my god-forsaken right to win you back
Coz lord knows I’m just so fucked up without you
I’ve planned a million diff’rent ways to forget
But I still keep on believing you’ll return.

And I wanna dwell in this emptiness the whole night
It would be like kissing you all night
It’d be touching and feeling your body all night
And I’d feel kinda okay the morning after
But reality tells me that everything’s over
And that there’s no hope of having you back
I’m just so despondently down and blue.
Coz there’s no us. Just me. No you.

And I still keep all the letters you sent
And I kept all our photographs together
I still even drive down our favorite coffee shop
With hopes of seeing your face filled with laughter
Everything about me still says that you’re there
Everything about me still says you care
I wanna believe everything’s just a bad dream
That I’d wake up one day and see you back beside me

It is my god-forsaken right to win you back
Coz lord knows I’m just so fucked up without you
The more I avoid the thought that you’re gone
The more I find myself believing you’ll return
It is my god-forsaken right to win you back
Coz lord knows I’m just so fucked up without you
I’ve planned a million diff’rent ways to forget
But I still keep on believing you’ll return.