the marginals there is a light that never goes out

the return of the SKALAWAGS

an article from excreta ...

drive

cover from incubus

3 am

cover from matchbox twenty

Collide

cover version from Howie Day

TAKE ME OUT - Asherdash

This is a good music video to open the year with... Asherdash's carrier single "Take Me Out"...



produced, directed and edited by Casie Villarosa

freddie lim / guitars and vocals
Jess Mansibang / keyboard
Jayson Huevos / lead guitar
Micky Lara / bass
Mike Occiano / drums

featuring Nixie Salonga

Camera Work by Casie Villarosa, Ian Patrick Cuenco, Jerry Santos

Ligting desing by Ian Patrick Cuenco

Set Designer Gil Montano

Lighting Team

Andy Dionisio
Bibot Arnaldo
Electricians

Fergion Barola
Cris Arnaldo

Production Assistants

Joey dela Vega
Michael Arcangel
Lester Trinidad
Donnie Cervantes

Copyright 2012
Sunset Records

still got the blues for you... guitar jam

a gary moore guitar jam cover

Radio Plug for Amazing Philippine beauties 2011

More Freeway Jams @ Sunset Records

looking for a score (jam session)

I hate it when you make a video, use a score, render it and upload it... then facebook turns it down saying that somebody owns the score. *&^@%%#^ isn't that what music is for? anyway, so we're actually lookig for musical scoring for all the vids we want to put up in FB and now we're forced to simply do the score ourselves. this is a draft version of a jam we started yesterday with my admin director Eugene Baroña and graphic artist Gabriel Nazarene Cibucao...

DRIVE

castles in the air

the circle called life

More than ten years ago, I had a boss with whom we referred to as the Lord King who was the worst of the lot of bosses I've ever worked for. His arrogance I suppose stems from his superiority complex, that no work can be done without him.

I worked my butt off for him and so did many others only to be dismayed by his meanness and lack of people skill... or maybe that was only applicable to us subordinates. I well remember my resignation letter that had "effective immediately" on it and it was one of the happiest moment of my life.

I spent the next three months in the studio writing songs for an album I'd later call "Freedom". Music they say is universal and at the time I thought that the album would be the end of it as I cruised further into my life's existence. And since music is universal, things turn around and you're back to the same state of sorry shit you were into.

The good news is... I don't have to write songs anymore for this chapter of my life. I've already written them ten or so years years ago and everything is as applicable then as it is now.

Everything Mica!

After having gone through hell over the last few months and being a selfish ass nursing my wounds, I've not posted much and spent enough time with my daughter. So I'm posting everything Mica today in celebration of her upcoming graduation tomorrow.

Yesterday she celebrated her batch's Baccalaureate Mass and it is a wonderful feeling for a parent seeing his daughter almost all grown up. She passed the De La Salle entrance exam, the only exam she took which we celebrated early this year. I feel guilty having to put her through a certain stage of uncertainty after I was betrayed by the company I loved and I sulked in my own state of uncertainty as she offered "other" options.

She was obviously trying to help me out and ease my apprehensions... that was my mistake. I'm sorry Mica, Daddy can be selfish sometimes. You do know how much I love you and that I'll try my best to be there for you... all the time.

The Awesome Sunset…

the awesome sunset view from my office/studio window...
the label was meant to be
photography by Casie Villarosa

More than ten years ago, I started calling “my label”, SUNSET RECORDS LTD., an imaginary record label I conjured up in my mind just to put something on the record sleeves I was producing. The first (and last) time I released an album, it had Aquarius Records and Tapes as my distributor but it still carried the CASCON label since the album was independently produced by myself and my wife.

After co-producing two more albums with friend and band mate Tony Robles of the Jammer Studios, I started my independent road to self production when I purchased my first recording gear, a Fostex X-18. Since then, I have produced more than five more albums with more than 80 songs unreleased. I was in my 30’s at the time and I wanted to make the "sunset of my life" (knowing that I would probably have a very short but hopefully eventful life) as fulfilling as possible, thus the name SUNSET RECORDS LTD.

After failing miserably at an attempt to make a decent recording studio from my house aptly called the BASEMENT RECORDING STUDIO, because we carved that space from under my house, I had little recourse but to find a regular job where I can earn a steady income yet still have the time and the facility to make records and produce music. So over the last 17 years or so, I made music and kept jobs that I may or may not have been happy with… but that elusive dream of becoming a music producer has never left my mind nor did I ever stop accumulating gear and experience to make that dream come true one day.

The concept of SUNSET RECORDS from the very beginning was to give opportunities to bands and individuals whose break never materialized, an opportunity to record their music in a studio that would allow them to listen to their music in a semi-professional environment. The music recording is for free, there will be no entailed expenses for the musician and most important of all, you walk away with your own CD. Something that might earn you bragging rights in your next drinking session --- that is, if you’re actually good enough to do it.

During those times, I have managed to produce several artists who actually went home with their own CDs, although I never knew what actually happened to most of them. I was able to work with some talented guys from Lipa City, Batangas whose band name was PRAXIS through a friend of mine and the basement recording studio's first producer Marcel Magsino. I was able to digitally remaster Bert Bilas' two independently released albums. And I was also able to officially act as producer for a United Nations Volunteer souvenir album containing volunteer songs.

After I left a United Nations and International Maritime Organization Proramme, (the best decision of my life) I had the opportunity to produce more of myself and my music and I rededicated my studio to SUNSET RECORDS LTD., and the endeavor gave me my biggest break in music yet, to become Musical Director of the Amazing Show… four years later and until this moment (but perhaps not for long), I am Vice President of the Company.

At this point there is nowhere else to go but to expand horizons, thus SUNSET RECORDS is reborn. It will be one of several new businesses I envision to carry on the torch of the Amazing Show legacy. But I suppose much like its predecessor, it will be quite a long and bumpy ride.

With the way I am, I never registered the SUNSET trademark. So imagine my surprise when my admin director and myself finally went to the Department of Trade and Industry and attempted to register the name… no one owns it yet! And so legally, the name is officially mine.

Last year, I started working with two talented bands, ALAMAT and BLACK PIPE and now that the technical and production work is done and options are made as to what to do with the product and which road to take, I have finally concluded that an independently released album is the better choice to make. The task ahead is daunting and the odds are stacked against us, but who cares? Odds are always stacked against me… But so far, this ride has been exhilarating. And since I started calling my life as sunset in my 30’s, then the last several years has been an AWESOME SUNSET!

2nd picture; photography by Johnny Jun

Mica's Music Workstation

A day after taking her entrance exam at De La Salle University, I finally got into setting up my daughter's music workstation at the house. What was formally the Basement Recording Studio, the space has been transformed into a work area my wife and I shared since I have taken all of my music related equipment to work.

Over the years, with Mica developing a fondness for music and her acquisition of several instruments as well as composing two original songs, I think that it is time she properly learns to do things by herself. So I found it befitting that she inherits the original gear her father started with in 1996 - Except that she won't have to go through the analogue realm anymore.

Since she has her own notebook, we decided to patch the old trusty Fostex X-18 into her Neo, patch a Yamaha keyboard synth into the fostex, and you have a simple personal home recording studio where she could lay down tracks for the music she wants to write... Damn, these kids are lucky!





unlike when I started, Mica will enjoy a full digital recording set up with dual monitors to boot. She will however need to save up for the other missing things such as decent cables for her guitars and a somewhat nice starter's microphone.


P.S. I started cleaning the room Sunday evening and ended up in the basement with Mica so that the small space could accommodate her new gear. It's not exactly easy living with two girls, they have a lot of blings which they wouldn't want to throw out... considering my wife is a hoarder just like her mom. In the process I found out that she still kept the pregnancy test kits of my kids as a souvenir. (Damn, can you imagine a 17 and a 7 - year old urine sample lying around the house all these years?) We threw out a lot of stuff including old pc monitors, a television set - which my maid asked for, old books, a bunch of old documents and half a compartment load of blings... and we're still not done.

which road to take?

After much consideration, I am currently considering one of two options on the direction to be taken with regards to sunset studios' endeavor of producing two albums from two bands...

What road might that be? I'll have to discuss it with my boss before I can blog about it.

One hell of a finish...

These days were spent sporadically between regular work and post producing Alamat's Concert DVD. Also, all these were in between some @)*#$&%@) issues and stuff we have here at the office from external elements.

My boss is already paranoid with all the media stuff he hears about the Philippine Senate wanting to take this building from us. ABC5 interviewed Senator Zubiri about the issue and he goes on about his desire to occupy the Manila Film Center and as I watched I simply shrugged about the fact that here goes a lawmaker without any regard about the "rights" of others... tsk, tsk, tsk... but of course, that's an entirely different story altogether.

Like I tell a lot of people, my father has always taught me only to meddle in things I can fix and never on things that I can't. So for now, I'll only worry when the problem is here... now that's reactive for you!

Anyway, my main concern over the last couple of weeks or so was producing the final output of Alamat as a band. After having finished the all original album, we went a step further by producing their concert DVD. And I am finally done with it. Of course not without any hitches, I went through hell in post production considering that I am the only one working on it.

Yesterday, as I laid the final tweaks onto the DVD video, I expected that the culmination of the day would be a finished master copy but my secretary pulled the plug of my workstation wasting the entire day's labor. Not to mention a waste of a light scribe blank dvd...

That's water under the bridge, and now as I write this blog, I am burning the master copy and tonight I watch the concert with Alamat as we drink a few brews and enjoy Aris' home cooked pulutan!

I'm happy!

ALAMAT concert dvd teaser ft. Juan

the post production is an absolute nightmare!

Here are a few of the boo boos that happened... First, I only had the theatre until 4pm because somebody bungled up the schedule. The window of opportunity for the shoot was very small that I had to content myself with certain fuck ups in favor of finishing the shoot earlier. Second, I wasted time dealing with a very minor problem from one of the staff. Third, we did the gig live and I knew the nightmare that would follow... It's called Murphy's Law!

But nevertheless, I got good shots. It's basically a four-cam shoot and the angles were all decent for a rock concert.

I've not been happy lately over several matters and this dvd concert was something that gave me a break from the stresses of my regular life.

Amazing Theme Song sky shoot version