O-live:              Alright so we are here with a bit more than half of Pitik, guys can you introduce yourselves?

Gio:                  Im Gio on Vocals and guitars

Ari:                  Im ari on back up vocals and guitars

O-live:              And your manager is…

Carla:               Carla.

O-live:             Thanks for being here guys and agreeing to do this interview.  Were here because you guys just finished recording an album, can you tell us something about the album?

Gio:                  The album is actually 6 years in the making.  When we started out in 2004, started writing material and stuff, we knew we wanted to do an album, it was always the clear path we wanted, we always wanted to be a serious band and to do something with the band but then through the years there were line up changes so that slowed us down, finally with the line up now we were able to finish the album, finally! 

O-live:              With the current line up now, how long have you been together?

Ari:                  A year?

Carla:              Maybe a year and 3-4 months.

O-live:              Saying that you wanted to do an album from the time the band got together 6 years ago, does that mean that 6 years ago you were writing your own material already or would you cover some songs?

Gio:                  Ya we would cover but we weren’t really the band that wanted to cover.  We always liked playing stuff that we wrote or that was original material, we really enjoy doing that. 

O-live:              Can you name one or two bands that you’d cover?

Ari:                  Finch, Taking Back, that genre…

O-live:              What genre is that for those that don’t know?

Ari:                  Probably the safest answer is Pop Emo.  In a sense, before it became pop emo.

O-live:              Do you consider yourselves pop emo?

Gio:                  No no no, not at all.  The sound that we came up with now is totally different from what we had pegged from the start.  Were big fans of Thrice at the time and Thrice now is different.

Ari:                  Post hard core modern…

Gio:                  Post hard core kind of sound.  Some people would call it a kind of screamo sound so that’s what we were pegging before but once we started writing it just didn’t come out that way.  So we followed suit and the early songs we made came up with a different sound.

O-live:              Have you always been called Pitik or did the line up change also lead to that?

Gio:                 Ah no, Pitik was from the start. 

O-live:              How’d you come up with Pitik?

Gio:                  When we’d play before at school parties, birthday parties or whatever, we wouldn’t have a name, people would describe and say “Pitik kayo pag tumutug ha!  Were hyper people and we get into it so the name stuck. 

O-live:              Your audience actually gave you your band name!  Lets talk about the album, what’s the name of the album?

Gio:                  The album is actually self titled.  In all these years of writing songs, I don’t think there’s a line or a name … We wanted to make sure that in this album is everything we just wanna do, everything we feel sounds good to us so its really just pitik!  Our sound.

O-live:              Is it a self produced album?

Gio:                  Yes, with close friend Monty Macalino of Mayonnaise. 

O-live:              So he was in all the recording sessions? 

Carla:               Yup he was our Engineer, Producer…. It was basically the 6 of us in the studio at all times. 

O-live:              You recorded at Tracks Studio, does Monty work for Tracks?

Gio:                  He does some projects…

O-live:              Ok so he handled all the engineering and the mixes?

Gio:                  The mixing and mastering was done by Angee Rozul. 

O-live:              How many tracks are on the album?

Gio:                  10.

O-live:              You know how on some albums the release a live track on it or include a music video or something, do you guys have anything on the CD like that?

Gio:                  Ah no it’s just straight up. 

O-live:              When will the album be available and where will it be available?

Gio:                  It’s gonna be released on Feb 5 at our album launch at Magnet High Street.  Availability for now is with us, at gigs… or you can email us at pitikmusic@gmail.com, or any of the facebook accounts, Gio’s twitter, myspace, multiply,

O-live:              Are you guys very active online? 

Gio:                  Ya we try to be.

O-live:              It’s really the wave of the future with the whole youtube generation right?  Like some people become famous because of it, not like before when it was the other way around.  You end up on TV because you are big time already…now, galing!  Alright, how long did it take to record the album?

Gio:                  On and off about 6 months. 

Carla:               We would go into the studio probably about once a week, probably about 3-4 times a month in probably 3-4 hour blocks. 

O-live:              So it was pretty relaxed?

Carla:               It was really relaxed! 

O-live:              Ya not like 5 days in a row, 10 hours per day

Ari:                  The latter part of the album, like the last 3 or 4 songs of the album were actually finished and arranged in the studio.

O-live:              What was that like, it’s your first album, you haven’t released anything before, what was the studio experience like?  You know like some bands are quite serious in the studio wherein its work work work whereas others mix it in with a bit of fun, others only have fun and never really accomplish anything, and others accomplish a lot while having fun.  For Pitik, what was being in the studio like for you guys? 

Gio:                  The first half of the album were the older songs.  So we’ve been playing that for years and know that in our sleep.  So that part was very fun!  It would be us just eating or drinking…

Ari:                  Drinking!   

Gio:                  Ya so it was very cool!  The 2^nd half of the album was more tedious.  Much more serious because we had to figure everything out.  With all the layering of instruments for the first half we already knew in our heads what we were gonna do since we’d been playing those songs for so long.  But I guess we didn’t expect that it would be that hard with the new stuff.  When we listened to the tracks parang narinig naming na may mga butas, this parts getting boring, so we all had to kind of butt heads at some point but it was all worth it. 

O-live:              Did you guys have any fights in the studio?  Like major disagreements?

Ari:                  No…

Gio:                  Nothing major.  But there were some…

Ari:                  Squabbles. 

Gio:                  Squabbles, tampuan.  We just wouldn’t talk to each other for awhile. 

O-live:              Did you have time constraints recording the album?  Like budget wise or things like that? 

Ari:                  A little of everything cuz our bassist Jay goes to school, I was applying then for my first job, Gio was finishing his thesis.

Gio:                  It was harder when we were recording due to time schedule

Ari:                  We’d usually go to Tracks at night na.  8 or 9. 

O-live:              With school or work the next day.  Good job man, hardworking!  Tell us a bit about your future plans!  I mean, you’re releasing the album on feb 5, are you gonna do an album tour, are you looking to get signed by a label, can you tell us a bit more about those side of things? 

Gio:                  Upon release of the album were having an album tour.  Like a bar tour.  The first leg after the launch will actually be in Saguijo at Kerplunk Night.

Carla:               Which Blue Jean Junkies are going to play at. 

O-live:              Feb 19, Saguijo. 

Gio:                  So that’ll be the first leg.  Were planning things for other legs but we don’t wanna do it…

Carla:               One after the other right away.  We wanna spread it out a little more.

O-live:              What about record labels?  Are you staying indie on purpose?

Gio:                  Not necessarily on purpose.  If someone wants to sign us, well and good.  Were open to getting signed.  There’s actually a new label now with..

Carla:               Monty Macalino of Mayonnaise.  Its called indienavy.  Were fixing things for that, im helping out as well.  Actually the idea for indienavy has been around for awhile, since 2004 when Pitik recorded their first EP demo, also with Monty.

O-live:              Ah so you guys do have recording experience already?! 

Carla:               Yes but nothing like a full studio set-up.   Like what you would have in tracks.  Definitely not like that but that helped them to be a little more prepared. 

O-live:              So you’re in negotiations with indienavy?

Carla:               No its already clear.  Were just finalizing things. 

O-live:              Good luck with that!  I was just reading an article recently about how some bands do better live or in the studio, whereas others do better live or in the studio.  Where do you guys put yourself with that?  Like do you find that your music is more the type of thing that should be listened to in headphones or are you the type of band lets say for a first timer maybe should see you live instead of on an album.  How do you guys see yourselves in terms of that? 

Ari:                  Based on experience, mas live talaga kami.  Yun nga, Pitik, from the name pa lang   Iba rin yun audio visual experience diba.  So siguro mas bigay pag live.  The passion is there I guess.  And studio wise, were still rookies so were still learning.

O-live:              Having said that, are you guys already looking to record your 2^nd album wherein now you’re more experienced in the studio, maybe you have new ideas now that weren’t implemented with the first album? 

Gio:                  Ya there are a lot of those.  Cuz recording the first album, with Monty as our producer, there was a big weight off our shoulders because Monty’s been with us from the start so he knew what we wanted and how we wanted it to sound.  And working with Angee Rozul of Tracks, we also wanted to learn so much from him so we went in there pretending we didn’t know anything and really listened to his critiques, what he had to say about things.  Probably what’s exciting for the next album is that we can all be even more hands on cuz we really know what works in the studio, we now know what can be done in mixing, what can be done by just layering the tracks, so that’s the exciting part, the more complicated part of the recording process. 

O-live:              Right right…the more technical aspect of it.  Earlier you said that Monty did most of it but now you mentioned Angee, what was Angee’s role in the first album? 

Gio:                  Angee was really more on post production.  After we recorded everything he’d mix tracks into a rough mix and then listen to our comments then he’ll break it down to us like why is it this way, why was it like that or like what are you guys really looking for?  It may be better this way or that way…so he helped out a lot in post production. 

O-live:              How nice that he gave you the freedom to chose your path rather than dictating.

Gio:                  The thing about the first album is that parang barkada lang lahat, were all friends, it wasn’t like were all afraid of Monty or afraid of Angee.  It was nothing like that.  They were really welcoming.

O-live:              So having said that will the 2^nd album likely be recorded with Monty and Angee at Tracks

Gio:                  Hopefully.  We wanna experience recording on tape, analog, we’d like to, if budget will let us. 

O-live:              There’s a big difference in the budget there isn’t there?

Carla:               I think 2 to 3 times more than digital.  And its like an hour per reel.

Gio:                  I think a reel is like 30 minutes! 

O-live:              Can you record over?  Like say digitally you can undo, can you do that with analog?

Gio:                  You would have to do the whole thing again.

O-live:              But then the tape is a little thinner by then?  Wow so how did the Beatles do that, live recording pa!  Hahaha alrite lets talk more about how you’re promoting the album?  Are you doing a music video?  Do you have a single out on the radio? 

Gio:                  The single is hopefully coming out, actually it was a stand out track.

Carla:               It was an NU107 In The Raw Stand Out track of the week.  I think that was in the first week of December. 

O-live:              Sorry whats the song title?

Carla:               Lantad.  That’s an In the raw stand out track and we got really good airplay with that.  Its supposedly on the playlist now although we haven’t heard it yet. 

O-live:              Calling KIM!  Hahaha!  Play the song!!!  Wait ok so Lantad’s been done then since before December?  And you haven’t adjusted it at all?  As you hear it on the radio is how you’ll hear it on the CD? 

Gio:                  Yup.  That’s the single were looking to push. 

Cont.