Q: What are your other interests aside from music?

MED: I want to make movies. I wish I had more time to get into it. I am passionate for movies. I also have undying love for books.

JAKE: Well I have it written already in papers or guide and inspire yourself with beautiful things in mind.

BIMBO: Cars and cold weather.

ALLAN: Other interests? Nowadays, I have basically surrounded myself with music but I would like to get back into some sports (i.e. basketball, tennis, swimming, and running) including riding the BMX again. Likewise, I wish I would have more time to learn and practice graphic designing and photography.

EUGENE: People watching.

BENEDICT: I recently finished bible school and would like to pursue it further in the future.

Q: What music do you enjoy listening to these days, and what are some of your all-time favorites?

MED: I am currently obsessed with this relatively new band out of England called Wild Beasts. Galing nila! I also love Coldplay – I’ve seen them twice na. I also am into Kasabian, Amy Winehouse, Goldfrapp, etc. My all-time favorites are Everything But The Girl, Prefab Sprout, R.E.M., Depeche Mode, Sade, Radiohead, Madonna, etc.

JAKE: I still like acid jazz and contemporary but of course alternative music, new wave music.

BIMBO: These days I listen to Pat Metheny, Imogen Heap, Andre Sobota, Proff, and all sorts of house-club music, mostly guitar driven albums are my all-time favorites, Eric Johnson, Guthrie Govan, and the like.

ALLAN: I pretty much still listen to a lot of past and current artists largely influenced by the soundscape of new wave artists from the 80’s like Vega 4, Elefant, Minus The Bear, Bloc Party, Ash, Popsicle, and Mute Math to name a few. Some of my all-time favorites include The Smiths, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Joy Division/New Order and early U2.

EUGENE: Anything that catches my fancy. Everything But The Girl is my all-time favorite group.

BENEDICT: Now, I enjoy listening to Israel and New Breed.

Q: For Medwin, how does this new album reflects your personality now in terms of singing?

MED: I like how I sing now compared to when we started. I think and feel I am more confident now as a singer. I sometimes listen to our old stuff and I go, “Why did I sing that way?” Some artists may logically perceive that as age marches on, the voice deteriorates, pero sa akin parang mas nagiging OK boses ko ngayon kesa dati. I think kasi mas nagiging mas confident and secure akong tao.

Q: Other things that you guys would want to accomplish musically?

MED: I want to do a side project that is part-electronic, part-folky, part-Lady Gaga with dark themes. My alter-ego perhaps. Gusto ko din gumawa ng musical or do a movie na ako din ang gagawa ng songs – parang yung movie na Juno. I also want Truefaith to crossover abroad.

JAKE: Get inside the international music scene.

BIMBO: Musical scoring for a film would be nice and a dance track that would turn the club scene inside out is definitely what I want to accomplish.

ALLAN: To write more songs for Truefaith and other artists as well. To write songs that could be licensed for international films or TV series. To have an international audience for our songs.

EUGENE: International acclaim.

BENEDICT: Have a sold out concert and be known internationally.

Q: Individually, can you tell us your favorite song from your new album and why?

MED: I already mentioned earlier, Strangeflower. Pero the other one could be Hurray or Tonight kasi they are such fun songs. Cheerful and upbeat. Love Parade really is quite a positive record.

JAKE: All songs in the album, “Mountain Wind.”

BIMBO: I like “Yun Lang” because of its jumpy new wave vibe. “Lihim” and “Run” for its arrangement.

ALLAN: My favorite would be “Pangako”, being the song I wrote for this album. The song is very personal to me and it is the very first self-written song I’ve recorded with Truefaith.

EUGENE: Sorry, I can’t choose just one. All of them are brilliant and I treat them like my children. No favoritism.

Q: For Medwin, when you take a look over Truefaith’s extensive back catalogue of records and all the years of touring, how proud are you of all that you’ve achieved with the band?

MED: We’ve made certainly a lot of failures in the past. But that comes with the whole process. You can never get to where you want to be without the misses. I am proud of those low points because we have survived and learnt from them. I’m much prouder of our achievements. But I’m most proud with both the hits and misses all lumped together. The totality of it all springs us to move forward to the next challenge.

Q: What’s the most important thing “experience” has taught you?

MED: You are not alive when you don’t experience life – both the good and the bad. When we go through hardships, we feel that they are tragic. But what is most tragic is when we go through tough times trying to numb ourselves of the pain and not learn anything at all. We should feel the experience to achieve fulfillment.

JAKE: Based on my experience, is how to become professional and taught me how to be humble, keep your feet on the ground.

BIMBO: I guess sometimes, along the way, you really make mistakes, but through experiencing those mistakes, eventually, you’ll know what to do and how to correct them.

EUGENE: You think you know everything but you really don’t. Everyday is a school day.

Q: Do you consider Truefaith a band who is in constant state of reinventing itself?

MED: It is a continuous process of reinvention. Love Parade is a testament to this. If we don’t evolve naturally, then there is no point in moving on. Stagnation is as good as not breathing.

JAKE: Yes, to become better and more creative in this business.

BIMBO: Yes!

ALLAN: Truefaith’s music has always remained relevant in Filipino society.

EUGENE: Yes. Reinvention is one of the key factors that has made the band survive all these years.

Q: Did you have an idea of what direction you wanted this new album to go in or did you just jump in and see what happens?

MED: We consciously wanted to mine our influences in music for inspiration and perhaps direction. With that in mind, we jumped in and just let everything run the course as natural and as organic as possible.

Q: Individually, what’s your vision for the band in the future?

MED: Love Parade is an album with a purpose – it inspires and gives hope. I want us to make more music on this level but probably with more direct motives and specific intentions. I want Truefaith to reach an international audience and gain prominence abroad.

JAKE: My vision is to make more albums and good music in the future and become a legend hehe.

BIMBO: I guess we’ll be trying out more and newer arrangements for the songs that we’ll come up with. We will experiment with what would or wouldn’t work, but definitely it will retain the Truefaith sound for years to come.

ALLAN: To develop a regional and an international audience for Truefaith’s music.

BENEDICT: To be number 1 in the industry.

Source: Pinoy: Your OPM Music Authority (May-June 2010)

Truefaith has been a long tough enduring band. You won’t help to imagine the rough times that they’ve been together facing personal as well as music matter ordeals. Nonetheless, things like these would seem to let them going, stronger and wiser. One instance of their true test of faith when is when life taps them at the shoulder, in 1996, the band disbanded. Their musical torch faded away like a dying flicker in the dark. But hope against all hope gives blithe again to a dying flame. Through the instrumentality of Medwin Marfil (lead vocal), the band was reborn to make a rather more huge splash in the industry.

Truefaith now has now 13 sizable albums including 15 collaborations. Those 13 albums sing and triumphantly herald their 18 years of a roller-coaster ride in the industry. They are one of the long enduring best bands our country could ever have. They’re getting better than ever. Now, here they’re getting set for the thirteenth brand new album – Love Parade.

Let’s take a closer look…

On the Record

Medwin and fellow band members got to take the hustle of answering our inquisitions on the next album. “Love Parade is our 9th. studio album (13th. cd) and our first under our new label Viva Records. It has 12 new original songs written by the band and produced by us as well. In this album, we went back to our new wave and 80’s pop roots and the prevailing themes of the songs – aside from of course, romantic love – are hope, faith, and inspiration. It is generally a feel-good record. It is the most lush-sounding of all our albums; we hired the very talented Jack Rufo to mix the tracks. It took us from the middle of 2009 to early January of this year to complete the record.”

Each of them laid down the songs they expect to play the most in the album:

MED: I totally love “Strange Flower” because it’s the first time we’ve done something of that sort – a confluence of genres from indie pop, dance-rock, new wave and soul all in one. In the recorded version, we have as guests on this particular track Luke Mejares, Carlos Magno of Out Of Body Special, and Ryan Armamento of Corporate Lo-fi. I like singing it live ‘coz it’s funky and I love to dance onstage.

JAKE: “Pangako” and “Mountain Wind.”

BIMBO: “Yun Lang”, “Lihim”, and “Run.”

ALLAN: Mostly, I look forward to playing the more upbeat songs from the new album such as “Yun Lang”, “Pamgako”, “Hurray”, and “Tonight.”

EUGENE: “Mountain Wind”

BENEDICT: “Lihim”, “Mountain Wind”, and “Parada”. Nonetheless, everybody’s pouring in part of their heart in every song in the album, no exception.

As long enduring band and band members of course, they were sought for as gurus in the industry who are at their prime and at the heights of their senses.

MED: I feel that I’m more relaxed and more secure with my capabilities as an artist. I have understood that in the past I’ve set up self-restrictions that I didn’t realize were there. I think now I can express myself freely without pretensions. And our fans, the audience have felt it and reciprocated the same vibe.

JAKE: Yes, I became more cautious in making music.

BIMBO: From day to day experiences and being influenced from constantly evolving genres of music, I guess I’m more mature at my playing but still learning because it’s a never ending process.

ALLAN: I am very much more relaxed and constant as an artist. I don’t look forward to prove anything but simply to enjoy creating and performing music.

EUGENE: More relaxed and confident because of the gained experiences.

BENEDICT: I’m more disciplined now. In my timing while playing the drums, I’ve learned to listen to my band mates and incorporate their suggestions into my musical routine.

Inspiration is still the king of the penning. Medwin and Eugene are the main songwriters of the band. Medwin explains, “Songwriting is a very cathartic experience. I’ve known how it could heal me at some level once the words just pour out like water. It is an exercise of tediousness to be honest, but the outcome can be very rewarding. A lot of times though I write about other people’s experiences – that way I don’t feel much of the burden to give out a certain personal mystery away.” Eugene seconded, “The fact that you have created something that people can relate to when you share it with them.”

A happy soul is Medwin’s “push” motto to go on with music, as well as life itself. “I want to enjoy life and to maintain that happy disposition. A happy disposition can make you look and feel young. Being in a band and as an artist can help you achieve that. Music makes you young inside and out. I also have higher goals like philanthropy and social work which I hope to seriously pursue in the future, and again being in Truefaith would be a good way to channel my energies to that point. Making good music, entertaining people and pop dominance are my modest motivations for now…hehe.”

Medwin gets his thrills from an idol Basil Valdez if he has to write a song with, “Local? I want to write a song for Basil Valdez. Idol ko siya since I was young. His voice just brings you back to a much more innocent time like in an old movie. Celluloid dreams. Foreign – I want to write for Sade. I love her and her band. She’s a pure soul deluxe!!”

On the studio during the process for Love Parade, some drops of beer and The Bar – apple flavored does the trick of getting in the heart of the album.

Source: Pinoy: Your OPM Music Authority (May-June 2010)

The recent 2010 Truefaith Canadian Tour generated a plethora of smiles (and booze???) from OPM enthusiasts in the band’s grueling five-city tour from May 21 to June 5. Shifting from city to city on land would really somewhat take the starch out of you, but, hey, it is all about entertaining Pinoys abroad, and the group, as always, would never belt their usual stuff below 100%.

Weeks after their plane touched down at NAIA, I chatted with lead vocalist Medwin Marfil and found out that the tour was more than just performing for a huge throng of screaming fans from various areas, but it also turned out to be an educational one for the guys since it was their first trip to the land of the Maple Leaf.

GERBS: After toiling in another country for almost a month away from your loved ones, what was the aura as you finally arrived in your homeland?

MED: Toiling? We didn’t go around carrying crates or clean caribou poop hehe. It wasn’t entirely 100% fun- or all smooth running- but we surely enjoyed! We might have been away from our family and friends but we surely felt a lot of love from all of the Filipinos we met and who watched the gigs. What did u mean aura, Gerbs? Aura namin when we arrived? Well, we had the feeling that we gained some great reward by experiencing the beauty of this wonderful country and its kind people (especially the Pinoys there); we also felt really good that we were back home- I personally welcomed the warm weather. So what was our aura? Very pleasant and tingly hehe.

GERBS: Of all the countries that you could have played at the start of this year, why did you choose Canada? How did it all come into fruition?

MED: Canada was in the works for some time now. It’s not a matter of which countries we want to play in on a priority chart. I guess no artist locally can ever do that. It’s always which producer gets to work on the papers much quicker and what comes to our table first. Australia was supposed to happen last year but until now it’s still in limbo. Canada came easy because the producer was our manager, Andy Barce’s cousin-in-law. We will have a Dubai show this July 23 and hopefully Guam and Saipan by Aug. Ayos!

GERBS: Since this was your first time to travel in this country, what were the places you visited?

MED: Well, of course we went around the cities we played in: Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. We didn’t see much of Toronto ’cause we were just there for a day so we missed Niagara Falls- bummer! Next time! Winnipeg is a big flat plain but the Pinoys there were anything but flat and plain hehe. On our last day there we went to the Asian Heritage Festival- that was a thrill! In Calgary we were ecstatic like children when we experienced our first snow! ‘Twas odd really that it should snow there when it was nearly summer. That was just pure joy! (It continued to snow ’till Edmonton!) Before our gig in Calgary I got to go around the city’s Zoo. Then the day after the show we went to the magnificent Canadian Rockies- we went to the Banff and the very beautiful, Lake Louise- it was still frozen! Very very pretty! Going back to Calgary we saw a brown bear by the side of the highway! At Edmonton we stayed at the hotel of the world-famous West Edmonton Mall. Eugene and I spent an afternoon at the indoor water park- something we both saw in Discovery Travel and Living before. So having a dip in the immense wave pool was so much fun! We love Vancouver; reminds us so much of San Francisco- very cosmopolitan and modern and yet very quaint and charming! We visited our relatives in very picturesque South Surrey- the band came along for dinner. Then we went to magnificent White Rock Beach- you could see Washington state from there. Both areas I hear have been favorite locations for films/tv shows like The X-Files and Twilight. Canada is such a majestic country!

GERBS: Experiencing the Canadian culture, what were your learning experiences as you discovered that aspect? Any type of fashion, food, or beverage you guys enjoyed that cannot be found in the Philippines?

MED: Canada is very multi-cultural. Being there, I never felt like an outsider at all! Everyone is very very nice! We were hoping to eat more exotic food during our meals out in the cities but since the sponsors usually were Filipino restaurants we got to eat more of our own kind of cuisine. But we of course got the chance to try other cultures’ food: Indian, Vietnamese, Korean and the unstoppable and ubiquitous Chinese buffet (king crab!) with Tsing Tao beer! We also tried Canadian beer (Molson) and the killer of the tour: Canadian whiskey- Crown Royale! haha. Our friend, Reece flew in from Dallas just to watch the show with some really crazy tequila in tow. In Edmonton, friends also made us try some Cuban rum and this Mexican liquor that was as claimed by the label made by the Aztecs for rituals- really!! OK enough of the alcohol! Allan tried this pink innocuous beverage that had this look on the bottle that reminded you of album covers by The Smiths. He has a picture of it in one of his photo albums.

GERBS: Any new acquaintances you guys experienced during the entire trip?

MED: We definitely made lots of new friends in every city. Everyone was so warm and loving! They are all in our Facebook accounts and in the Truefaith pages now hehe. I surmise there were still lots of people who didn’t get the chance to see the band because of their personal schedules and perhaps the tour’s promo didn’t reach them. We hope next time we will get to see all of them.

GERBS: How did you all adjusted to the changing conditions such as jetlag and land travel from one city to another, and still belt out incredible performances?

MED: We were all so excited so adjusting to the weather, the jet lag and tight schedule wasn’t as hard as we previously imagined. The warm welcome of our fellow Pinoys always made us ready to go with our daily commitments.

GERBS: How was the crowd turnout and behavior during the gigs? Which city/s had the “wildest” fans?

MED: Not all of our gigs were well-attended. (I guess- and this is also the opinion of the locals- our producer’s marketing of the show wasn’t efficient enough and the tour dates were changed three times.) But even if a place wasn’t packed the exchange of energy between the band and the crowd would always be at high levels! It was all crazy fun, but if I had to choose which show in which city was really wickedly wild I’d have to say, Calgary.

GERBS: How did they respond to the “Love Parade” album songs?

MED: The new songs were very much appreciated by the crowd and we’re more than glad that they love the new material. Everyone enjoyed, Pangako, Lihim, Hurray!, Mountain Wind and of course, ‘Yun Lang.

GERBS: Which of the songs in your entire repertoire did the audience enjoyed the most?

MED: Aside from the new songs, people of course enjoyed the classic hits Kung Ok Lang Sa ‘Yo, Baliw, Muntik, Huwag Na Lang Kaya and Perfect. And even the other songs, Hi, How Much I Feel, Awit Para Sa Kanya etc.

GERBS: How were the album sales during the tour? Would the album be sold in Canadian music outlets and/or online?

MED: There were a lot of things that constantly brought frustration to the band during the whole tour (not enough promo and little time for it, lack of a production team- all of which our tour promoter should have ironed out from the start; although she did claim she had it all worked out for us before we left the Philippines) and the biggest one of which is the failure of keyboardist, Jake Lumacad, manager Andy Barce and technical assistant, Joey Co to come to Canada due to- according to our main promoter- difficulty to acquire cheap tickets for the whole three weeks or so we were there. Andy was supposed to bring the hundreds of copies of Love Parade to Canada, but since he failed to come along for the tour we didn’t get to sell cd’s. Sobrang sayang kasi everyone wanted to buy copies of the record. Oh well, maybe next time.

GERBS: Are there any plans of visiting other countries? If so, where and around when?

MED: We will be in Dubai on the 23rd of July. Guam and Saipan just might happen this August. Singapore perhaps before the year ends. Australia and Europe- still both in limbo. Another U.S. tour will be next year!

GERBS: Any message you want to impart to the Truefaith fans situated in Canada whom you have left behind?

MED: To all of our friends in Canada, old and new: Thank you very much for all the support and all the love you have shown to us during our tour! We had such a great marvelous time there with you guys! Sana makabalik kami agad kasi sobrang nagustuhan namin ang bansang Canada, lalo na ang mga tanawin at of course, ang kabaitan at pagmamahal ng ating mga kababayan diyan! Sana po lagi nating suportahan, ‘di lang ang musika namin kundi lahat ng musikerong Pilipino here sa Pinas, diyan sa Canada at sa buong mundo! Itaguyod natin ang OPM! As I always say, we hope all of your dreams come true! Keep in touch and Keep the Faith! Blessya all! Cheers!