mica villarosa - that's just the way we roll (cover)

my daughter bugged me yesterday to go to the office since she had no plans for the weekend so after much pleading I gave in. after doing the usual hoola-baloos routine, we recorded this song late in the evening and inserted a few animation experiments in the music video.

in all honesty, a father should cherish days when their children wants to hang around with them because that might not be the case a couple of years down the road.

video OBB experiment

whew! really took me a while to finish with this experiment ...

this OBB started out as a video experiment that my old friend Justin Nunez directed last week. He shot scenes for the transformations that took me a lot of time to edit. He has the raw files in his mac and I'm expecting that he'd be coming out with his own version soon. thanks justin.

the insets were footages from an earlier video i made with my staff shot mostly by santos "shanquiao" soriano.

ako, ikaw, musika... ay iisa

My friend, Marcel Magsino is a real good writer. Kudos to you my friend...

Himig ng Kabataan
words by Marcel Magsino
music by Casie Villarosa
performed by Casie Villarosa
recorded at the Basement Studio
Sunset Records Limited



I lost my internet connection yesterday so i fiddled around premiere and made a mini animation of my family... I dug around for a score and found this song i co-wrote with my friend Marcel Magsino in 1995. I recorded this one at the basement studios (home studio in my house).

I enjoyed the animation bit since i've never tried it before. maybe i'll make something more complicated next time.

Lost and Found?

My pet snake Benson disappeared last week... we searched for him frantically until we gave up. Two days later he reappears. Welcome back Benson.

BLACK PIPE from my perspective

so we are half way into laying down the vocal tracks for the cuts in BLACK PIPE's debut demo album. This video is just to present the band from my perspective as to my involvement with them as producer, mentor and recording engineer. good luck guys!

coming soon...

BLACK PIPE's debut album is coming soon...



recorded at AMAZING RECORDING STUDIOS
produced & engineered by Casie Villarosa

experimental action video

experimental action video screen shots

So this one time I went trippin' with Santi about making a new video that's gonna be just a tad more difficult than the usual music videos we make, we involved the batten people and invited my choreographer to do some acting stuff as well as choreograph a simple fight scene.

It didn't turn out that bad given the time constraints and the fact that we used only natural light to capture the scenes. Here are the screen shots of the video and I'll publish it in Youtube as soon as I finish the editing.

Music Videos

Why Don't You & I (Chad Kroeger / Santana cover)

I've been crazy 'bout this song for the longest time, in fact, more than three years ago, I posted a youtube video featuring an acoustic version I did with a video experiment in my office of the chad kroeger song why don't you and i with santana. I recorded this acoustic version with eugene baroña and joseph celso.



This is the one I did with ALAMAT the other day.



Bright Lights (Matchbox 20 cover)

This one song by matchbox 20 really moves me

Yesterday's pics

I really like Santi's flare for taking pictures and videos... it gives me a lot of material to work with in photoshop and premiere





photography by santos "shanquiao" soriano

Jack Daniel's Guitar

My long time affair with Jack Daniel's prompted me to personalize my Fender Telecaster as a tribute to the drink. Last year, I played golf with my Boss on the first day of the year and he said that if I quit drinking (Jack Daniel's)then I would save roughly Php26,000 per month. I replied, then who was going to save me?

There was a time when I filled an entire wall of my office with empty JD bottles and boxes. I had to have them thrown away and I felt rather bad about it. It was however a good thing that I thought of personalizing my black Telecaster as a tribute to JD... because it looks better and I had fun doing the project.







Special thanks to my secretary for heating up the bottle to get the label in one piece, my driver for the errands for the strap, the costume department guys who stitched up the strap, Pipeg who re-laminated the entire guitar to a soft shiny finish, my wife who got me the CAS stickers (apparently, she didn't complete the letters to my name because that was an extra Php60), BJ of JB music store in MOA for re-attaching the wiring and Santi for the pictorial.

a night @ the MFC Bar

My best friend Jack (Daniels) keeps me company no matter what the occasion is. And I really like sharing him with friends. George Thorogood sang songs of his pals Jim, Johnny and Jack, and their cousins black and red.

Of course, as usual, my best pet Benson was there to share the moment.


standing on amps


with MFC resident all around man Santi "Shanquiao" Soriano


with long time friend Maj. Resty Nicandro

photography by Shanquiao

Almost Done... ???

Black Pipe



My ending endeavor last year was starting Black Pipe's and Alamat's demo albums. The busy holidays has carried over the work for the albums to this year but we are finally nearing completion. After how many Sundays with Black Pipe in the studio, we've already cut about 12 songs in demo quality, and now the real work begins.

Difficulties...

When Black Pipe initiated acceptance of an old offer to record an album using my facilities and my technical know-how, I was a bit worried knowing that they would be doing this gig without a front man. They've already decided that they would stick it out as a 3-piece band with August Gamo who plays bass slated in doing the vocals. Now that's completely fine if they could pull it off, but my apprehensions remain as of this writing.

Don't get me wrong, August is a gifted singer. However, playing bass and singing isn't exactly an easy task. That's not to mention the amount of effort one has to put in it on live sets. I am also unsure, or to be more precise, apprehensive of the charismatic aura that August will have to develop on and off stage even before we press our first demo cd.

So I suggested last week that the options will have to be thought of, namely; take a step back and concentrate on bass, or drop the bass guitar and front full time. These were options that were discussed but never finalized.

And now comes phase two of the project... The bed tracks are laid out, temporary vocal lines are there for guides, now we have to rethink the value of each of the songs. The fundamentals are not yet that "clean", but the potential (or non potential) is already recognizable. The cleaning process must start and it starts with the vocals. Before that, there should be ample time to debate over the messages and the lines of the songs... the fluidity sort to speak.

And all these we start next weekend.

And I am looking forward to it...

1st day of the year videos

The year that was…

2008, and I was way too excited for the new year to come. The year that was 2008 marked a very bad year for my career and my personal life in this company. I did not know that 2009 would have been worse.

Over the years, I’ve resorted to making diversions to avert my loneliness. The loss of friends (don’t worry, they didn’t die, they just moved on), death in the family, financial crisis, bad business etc, etc, etc…

The biggest of course is being left in one place with a bunch of people without any institutional memory of any sorts who will never… NEVER understand what it was like to have started this business from dust. And as the Catholics would say, “dust unto dust”. That’s where we came from, and that’s where we would return.

Losing friends has always been a major issue for me. All those who has started with us are now gone. My really good friend who was a staff left for greener pasture overseas, I don’t blame him, and after all he offered all that he has already. The Korean co-founders who were with us are now doing their own things mainly with the main man Chris who was my first real friend in this company. I honestly miss the fights and the arguments… but most of all, I miss the friendship. Nowadays, nobody fights me, nobody dares… but I am friendless. So what’s better?

Working in a Korean-owned company is both easy and difficult. If I was only aspiring for this, then it would be easy. If I wanted things to be fair, then it’s not… Simple as that!

So this year, I plan to bury all the issues I have and start fresh, much like the Ampatuans if they have gotten away with it (kidding). That means I shall have to go on with life, at least for this year without consideration of the following words; FAIR, JUST, EVEN, EQUAL, and all other terms synonymous. Not for myself anyway…