They say that Playlists are very personal. You get to get a glimpse of a person’s character of feelings through his/her/their playlist. Every week, we’ll have some of our friends and idols share their playlist and a little bit of their character and journey through the music they listen to.
Our first-ever sharer is a friend and co-melomaniac.
1. Please introduce yourself.🙂
Hello, everyone! I’m your dude for this week, Baian Valdez.
2. What do you do?
I’m a social researcher who works at DMSF. I also play bass for the local band called Lucas. I’m also currently experimenting on a musical bitpop side project that may or may not release materials. Once in a while, I help out my friends from the YouTube channel Shmekm in some capacity.
3. How did you come to love music? How would you consider yourself, a melophile or a melomaniac?
I grew in a household of music lovers. My Tatay is into jazz, pop, rock, and ballads. My Nanay is into folk music. My cousin introduced me to NU107 as a kid. All of us either sang for fun or are able to play an instrument. Because of that, I’m both a melophile and a melomaniac; I love music and a lot of songs make me play air drums or air guitar at times. I also move around a lot when our band performs.
4. What’s your most favorite genre and why? Sorry, but you can only choose one.
I love all types of music to the point that there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure for me. But if there is one type of music that’s my niche, it would be punk. A lot of my favorite bands and songs would be under the umbrella of punk, particularly pop-punk and skate punk. Punk music, for me, is frequently energetic and straightforward and blends well to other genres and subgenres of music; and the subculture it has spawned is one of the most colorful communities I’ve observed. A lot of my musical heroes are either in punk bands or significantly influenced by punk rock.
5. Who’s your most favorite artist in the world and why? You may choose two.
Too many to mention. But two of the most influential to me would have to be Motion City Soundtrack and Anamanaguchi. Motion City Soundtrack has darkly poetic yet dorky and fun lyrics with music whose sound reminds me of both the alternative 90s and 2000s emo rock. Anamanaguchi just blends rock and chiptune/bitpop well. This band blends well two of my numerous interests — video games and punk rock.
6. What’s your most favorite song in the world and why? You may choose three.
I have too many favorite songs! But three songs that have significantly stayed with throughout the years would have to be:
Hopes and Dreams/Save The World by Toby Fox – This combination of songs is from one of my favorite video games called Undertale. It plays during one of the final boss battles, and the tune “fills [me] with determination” during the boss fight and in real life. My favorite wrestler Kenny Omega also used a version of this song once as his entrance theme as well.
My Favorite Accident by Motion City Soundtrack – This is one of MCS’ saddest songs for me. It has melancholic lyrics sugar-coated with fast-paced music. It’s pretty melodic yet heartbreaking at the same time.
* Don’t Look Back In Anger by Oasis – The song that started it all for me. This was my gateway to all the bands and artists that I love today. This song inspired me to give focus on music-making and songwriting. If I didn’t hear this song, I would probably treat music as just background noise.
7. Please tell us something about your playlist.
I chose the playlist I call Flyin Baian. I created this playlist months ago as my default energetic playlist for every day whenever I’m on the go. These are songs I really like that can act as my video game soundtrack in real life when I’m doing my daily routine. It mostly consists of a variety of tunes rooted from Punk like:
- Superman by Goldfinger
- Four to Six by Math The Band
- Another Winter by Anamanaguchi
- Memory by Sugarcult
- Bless The Cracks by Less Than Jake
There are also a few songs from video games like Undertale and wrestling entrance themes like songs for Edge and Darby Allin.
Check out Baian’s band, Lucas here: Lucas Music
Art by Jim Morada
About the Writer
