“That’s good. That way, he can establish his own identity,” says Pops the fan who just watched quietly at the sidelines while Robin performed tracks from his all-original debut album,”Overwait,” under PolyEast Records.
Pops has no reason to fear. Robin’s edgy vocals not only shows that he marches to the beat of his own drummer. It also shows that he has what it takes to be known as himself, not the son of the Concert King and Queen.
At the launch of his album in Rockville, Timog Avenue, Quezon City, Robin (a lookalike of his late paternal grandfather Eddie Fernandez) strummed his guitar and sang the way neither Martin or Pops does.
The music is far from Martin and Pops’s mellow sound and vocals. Depends on which side of the musical fence you’re in. But the sound is generally loud and in-your-face. Robin is far from coy about his dream girl in “Beautiful” (“I will start to watch and stare and you will/Smile candidly at me”) and his love for his then unborn niece in
“Delight” (“I could burn down/With my face to the ground/But I will delight in your song”).
Robin thinks his parents’ musical tastes--Kenny Loggins, Chicago, Toto, Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra (especially in Martin’s case)--are cool.
Product of his time
But Robin just can’t help being a product of his time.
“It’s just that I listen to a lot of different kinds of music,” he admits. “That’s why my music came out like this. It’s more rock-oriented and loud. That’s what I grew up with and that’s how I learned to write (songs).”
Writing songs is as natural to Robin as strumming his guitar. He didn’t learn it from a music school, simply because Robin thinks the best learning takes place “from watching and just asking.”
So he just starts a song, lets it be for 24 hours. Then he asks himself, “Do I remember the melody and the words?”
If he does, Robin thinks “the song is written.”
The guy has enough self-confidence in his work. But it’s not the know-it-all kind of confidence. True, PolyEast allowed Robin to include all 10 songs he himself wrote in “Overwait.” But he knows “I’m not the most talented person here, I’m not the best singer and I’m not the best-looking musician.”
He thinks he’s just one lucky guy who got this far with his record company and friends who helped him along the way (e.g. his band and fellow songwriters).
The credit, Robin says, goes not only to him, but to these friends of his. “I want to show people outside the country who buy this album that we have great singers, great musicians, great songs.”
With Robin Nievera and his kind around, OPM will not die. It will flourish, and inspire PInoys to create the kind of songs that mirror what lies deep in their heart and soul.
By Maridol Rañoa-Bismark | Yahoo! Southeast Asia Newsroom
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