Let's Not Fall In Love (SUAREZ SERIES III)

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Review of "That Girl" by Lyricbeat, from the album "Lyrics and Heartbeats" and how it saved the band by Deb Beltran

Lyricbeat is a 4-man 1-woman band that was formed only as a hobby at first during the members' university days. And this hobby continued until after graduation and the group started performing regularly every Monday-Wednesday-Friday at Mico Moco, a bistro bar located at Poblacion, Makati, Metro Manila.

Troy Zander Madrigal Park, an electric guitarist, is the leader of the band, though it was initiated by Zeldon Salcedo, who is also a guitarist and at the same time, a music arranger and one of the two vocalists of the group. The other vocalist is the only female member, Maddison Regalado. She is also the group's bassist. The keyboardist is Leonardo Carpizo who is commonly called as Ardo. And last but not the least, Asher Jed Suarez, the drummer and the songwriter of the band.

The group was first discovered by their now manager Ashley Escalante from XYZ Records – the number one recording label in the country – through a video of the first duet perfomance of Zeldon and Maddison that went viral nationwide. The group finally signed with the label last 2014 and debuted a few months after that.

But of course, it wasn't all rainbows and unicorns during their first year. Philippine bands were almost always underrated nowadays because of the current turnover of the music industry. Lyricbeat wasn't an exception to that no matter how good they were.

International and foreign music took over the entire industry especially Kpop among young listeners. Despite that, Lyricbeat continued to play and perform in various music shows and small concerts in the country with the hope of getting acknowledged by the crowd for their musical talents. They also maintained their MWF and weekend gig at Mico Moco.

On their first year anniversary, the group's drummer slash songwriter entered the national songwriting contest and won the competition with their digital song "That Girl." The song immediately hit and topped various charts on its first day of release.

"That girl with big eyeglasses and curly hair,
wherever she goes, I want to always be there.
That girl with black cap hugging her curly hair,
Wearing my favorite shirt, looking so insanely beautiful..."

With its romantically sweet lyrics, I can see how the song got so popular, as it corresponds to a lovesick boy who has a crush on a curly-haired girl to which people of all ages could relate to. I mean, all of us must have gone through the stage of having a crush. And this song had successfully perfectly described the feeling of having that special someone. It was a sweet reminder of something most of us have gone through at least once in our lives.

Generally, the lyrics in this song are simple, romantic and direct. Telling us clearly the story behind it.

They say writers share a part of them in every word they write. Now the question is, who is that girl with big eyeglasses and a black cap hugging her curly hair? Is she fictional or not?

Lyricbeat is now on their third year and have been topping the charts in every album release since "That Girl" and is now the leading rock band in the country. And even after gaining the title of Band of the Year for two consecutive years, and despite their tight schedules, you can still catch them live at Mico Moco every weekend.

After sending my draft to my editor via email, napahinat na lang ako ng likod saka pasimpleng humikab. Nakakapagod nang magbabad sa harap ng computer at manatili rito sa cubicle ko. I badly wanted a field work. I can't wait to go outside and do real work! Hindi 'yong ganitong nabubulok ako sa desk ko.