Award-winning Filipino rock star Bamboo is back in Dubai for the eighth time for Bamboo: The Oven World Tour 2016 Live in Dubai at the Dubai World Trade Centre on October 27.
““The show is called The Oven” the 41-year-old rock artist tells tabloid! in a phone interview. “The idea is people sort have a picture of what it is, what it means. So when I say Dubai, The Oven - it’s a desert heat, that thing under boiling and all, the gigil [excitement]. I’m looking forward to that — performing in Dubai. The energy is always great.”
He adds: “And it’s always a special gig when I go there. Eight times? I don’t count. I just want to be in the moment and I enjoy myself. My favourite part I think is when I walk around, when I go out in the malls, stores or whatever and I see our kababayans (compatriots), Filipinos of course. It’s always a special thing to say hello and hi, that’s nice.”
Bamboo, whose Dubai gig is part of a world tour, was recently named rock artist of the year for his album Bless This Mess at the 8th PMPC Star Awards for Music.
“I’ll be playing songs from that album,” says Bamboo. “Now I’m just looking forward playing it all over the world. It’s the UK first stop, then October 27 Dubai World Trade Centre. I’m very excited to be back.”
The singer-songwriter talks about his new album, two decades of music and Japanese tea...
Tell us about Bless This Mess.
For these particular songs it’s important that when you hear the kick, when you hear the instruments, it has the boom, so I thought I have to go to New York. I went to Brooklyn then I recorded the album there. The genesis of this album is very interesting, because we came from the middle of a tour, so I had recorded the demos in Australia and then from Australia when I went to New York and then finished the album there in a month. It’s fun. Half of the musicians are from the Philippines and half from New York.
As a singer-songwriter, what’s your inspiration and motivation with this album?
You always go back to what’s happening in your moment — on a personal sense. So you do that, you write from that — build a story. That was the whole thing. I just want to do and create a complete album that tells a story. Again it’s a great challenge to do, to continue doing albums. Not a lot of folks believe in albums these days, people will push singles now — so it’s a different thing.
Do you write the songs?
Yes, I did, except for one song by a guitar player who plays with me. The song was supposedly for an album some time ago, but I think it was not ready yet. So we said this is the perfect album for that song. It came out beautifully, one of my favourites of the album.
You’ve written so many songs. Which one is your favourite and why?
I’ve written songs myself and with the band. I’m a kind of person who always pushes forward, I never try to look back. I appreciate what I did, but my belief is once you record a song, once you do a song, it doesn’t belong to me anymore, it takes a life of its own. So just like [his song] Noypi, it’s not my song anymore, it belongs to you guys, especially to Filipinos all over the world — that’s sort of our anthem, our song.
Since you’re doing a world tour, do you adjust according to your audience? Or do you stick to the same repertoire in all your concerts?
It’s a little of both I think. You do adjust, especially when you have a new album, you want to show off your new baby so there’s going to be some of that. Well, in fact, a lot of that. But again you have to adjust in the sense that you should know your audience. The idea here is you match the old material to the new material. The tone has to be the same. So that’s always the challenge and it’s fun.
You’ve been in the industry for more than two decades. How do you remain relevant?
I guess it’s about love. It’s about loving what you do, enjoying what you do and always pushing yourself and being hungry. Not settling. It’s always how do I get better. How do I improve what we have today. To be creative, I think you need that because if you get stuck on one spot, [a creative person will] go nuts. So keep on attacking, pushing forward. It’s about people as well. It’s about people you meet. It’s not all about myself. It’s the connection you made, The Voice, ASAP and stuff like that. It’s all about that as well.
What’s next for you?
I don’t know yet. The tour will go to the UK, Dubai, Qatar then Hong Kong and Japan as well. I think it ends in Japan. Then it carries over next year to the US. During the holiday season this December, of course you want to be with family, do Christmas shows and be home.
Can you share something fans in Dubai may not know about you?
I read a lot of books. I have like almost a library at home. Right now I’m reading the book Far From The Tree. I just bought the book in Canada when I was there. I think people probably know this: I stay in tune into politics locally and globally — what’s happening in the US, what’s happening in Manila right now. I think that comes out in some of the songs that I had. But I always try to put that in a positive spin — towards hope, change and people getting better. It’s better that way, positive affirmation; we can do this together. It’s about our people, that’s our thing. What makes us special in this country is not about the beaches, the land, it’s the people, just how friendly we are, accommodating people.
I drink a lot of tea as well. I like green tea. I enjoy going to Japan getting tea. I have a favourite store in Japan, a very tiny store and it was opened in 1867.
* Tickets for Bamboo at Dubai World Trade Centre on October 27 are Dh125 for general admission and Dh175 for grandstand seating, on sale at spicylemon.rocks and from platinumlist.net. Doors open 7pm, show starts 8pm.
