the PREVIEW

The much awaited preview of Black Pipe's Concert DVD

The Making of Black Pipe's Araw at Ulap Concert DVD

After three months of studio work, I've decided to highlight the "Black Pipe Experiment" with a concert DVD project that will put Black Pipe in a full-length DVD feature presentation. It took us a week to prepare everything. I had meetings with my creative people to act as both consultants and directors for this shoot. Every staff pitched in including some performers who did back stage work and wardrobe consultancy.

Elmir Castillo and Joey Puna gave the most input by co-directing the concert shoot with me as well as defining the concept of the shoot. Prior to the shoot, they also rehearsed the band for the "attitude" thing. Gil Montano together with the Art Department executed a lot of Elmir's interpretation of the set design while the costume department retrofitted the band. Ayu and some of the performers prepared the band for wardrobe and make-up. Ian Cuenco made the lighting design while his assistant Ed Datuin directed the lighting for the actual show. Santi Soriano took care of the audio department. Santi, Ian and myself were the camera operators that day and all the production sub departments pitched in.

Thank you everyone for this successful shoot and now it's time to suffer in the editing phase alone. Hehehe.

P.S. Thanks to Mc Monderin, Aris Gutierez and Ivan Mariano of Alamat for being there to support your sister band's Concert DVD shoot.

Black Pipe the Album / Araw at Ulap

Bob is Back!!!

Bob comes home

Bob, not his real name, -- his real name is Arnel, but he has gotten used with everyone calling him Bob -- Gonzales is back with Black Pipe. That means that Black Pipe's sound would be more wicked with those fat fingers back on the keyboard. He's really an excellent musician.

So I met them whole again Wednesday last week at Barbariba on their regular Wednesday gig and saw Bob who looks fat n' rite just the way I want him. Seeing him after all the years past and hearing him play just reinforced my faith on those fingers. So we decided to jam in my office / studio and I picked an old Joe Jackson song called Fools in Love. The studio jam was way better than the live set we did later that night.

Bob's return also means that I'd have to rework on some tracks again to put Bob's keys on the music, not to mention that we'd have to re-shoot the pictorials. But I know that it's all worth it and seeing the boys together again gives me a feeling of satisfaction.

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!