Juris and Chin
The Philippines' top acoutic duo , make your momma proud , take a break from touring and promoting their new album to chat with Ferdz Ancheta
New Horizon, the fourth album by Make Your Momma Proud, is destined for multi-platinum status, but the band’s rise to pop stardom was far from expected. Guitarist Chin Alcantara and singer Julie Iris “Juris” Fernandez talk about surviving the acoustic craze at the start of the millennium and the flip side of paying homage to the classics.
HOW DO YOU COPE WITH YOUR FAME?
CHIN: Frankly, when we released our debut album, Soulful Acoustic, back in 2003, we were just happy to finally have an album out – as tangible proof that we are true and professional musicians. We never really had a picture, gauge or an exact definition of what success was, other than having an album out on the market.
JURIS: Everything was unexpected. We were just a small, fledgling act working hard to land a decent number of gigs and hopefully have a record to show off. When Soulful Acoustic came out, things just started getting hectic. It’s nice to think that we made it this far, but I still regard this group as a close, small unit.
WHY THE PERMANENT BACKING BAND?
CHIN: Having other members or musicians make our overall sound much more dynamic. This enables us to explore, experiment and incorporate other kinds of music into our repertoire that we couldn’t otherwise.
JURIS: We don’t regard them as a backing band. That’s the reason why we have a stable core instead of settling with session musicians to accompany us every performance. We want people to recognize MYMP as a full band and not just a Juris and Chin project.
HOW DID YOU SURVIVE THE CRASH OF THE ACOUSTIC PHASE?
CHIN: That’s a reason why we added other musicians to help us out. It made us go beyond just acoustic numbers. Not that we shifted to rock or anything close to that. But having a band tightened our sound and widened our horizon in terms of our musical capabilities.
JURIS: I guess it’s also because of our kind of music, which is very close to us Filipinos. We love romantic songs and people easily identify with them. I think that’s one big factor why we’re still here.
WHAT DO YOU SAY TO CRITICS WHO CLAIM YOU ARE JUST A COVERS BAND
CHIN: We never deny the fact that writing original songs is not our strongest point. We’re very honest in saying that we do covers because we love those songs and it’s our way of paying tribute. We are introducing or re-introducing these songs, especially to young listeners.
JURIS: It doesn’t matter if we’re remaking a song as long as the audience appreciates it and feels a connection with the music
Bookmark This Post
