Color It Red Jazzes Up The Act
Color It Red return to the game in jazzier form than ever with 3rd album Pop Fiction
by Lionel Zivan S. Valdellon

published in PHILLMUSIC.com 1999

After a long silence and keeping a low profile, the pop-folk band Color It Red have returned to the spotlight with their third album, Pop Fiction, still under BMG Records Pilipinas.
___ It's been a good three years since their last recorded output, Fool's Circle appeared. Has the wait been worth it? And what is Color It Red like nowadays?

An immediate observation for those who have not seen them in a while is their personnel lineup.
Original members Cooky Chua (vocals) and Barbi Cristi (rhythm guitar) are still around, along with 2nd generation bassist Bopip Paraguya. But joining them these days are three (relatively) new faces. One is Sam Salazar on keyboards. Formerly a rabid CIR groupie, she joined the group a little after Fool's Circle was released. The other two are Ariel Policarpio on lead guitar and JV Torres on drums -- both alumni of alternative funk band Ethnic Faces, and veterans of playing abroad in hotel jazz bands.

Second observation: their sound. In place of the raw, often clunky (yet charming) music of their first album is a sleek, urbanized jazz more akin to a hotel lounge than a Club Dredd. Fool's Circle was already pointing toward this direction but was somehow lacking in cohesion. It's never been as smooth or as tight as this. And before you start thinking lewd images, let me remind you, we're talking about CIR as a unit.

The culprits, it turns out, are Ariel and JV, whose musical input and proficiency have added a professional lustre to their style. "(Which is how) we have achieved the new sound we have now," Cooky explains. "Actually, dati pa namin in-attempt yung sound na ito, pero hilaw."
___ The group adds that this is the sound they want NOW, at this stage of their musicality. "But our music changes because what we like changes every year."
___ This was the first time they consciously decided to make the sound "lighter"-- so that the listener isn't weighed down by the music. And they do point out that it wasn't a compromise on their part.
___ "We did what we felt would be appreciated," Barbi says.
___ Cooky adds "Gusto namin gawing pop ang album-- pop ang sensibility-- pero hindi naman hard sell."

The Facts of Fiction

Pop Fiction took 8 months to record because of scheduling problems. Often they'd only record once a week. It contains 10 original songs headlined by "Halika", the album's carrier single and one of the more memorable cuts for the group since they were able to put it together in just half an hour. (Pianist Butch Saulog, whom the group has been dreaming of working with for some time, did the keyboards for the tune.)
___ The jazzy "Upside Down" is a contribution from Mike Villegas, the album's producer, and former CIR member who is still a good friend to the band. According to Villegas, the present band lineup is probably the tightest. "The new members have adopted so easily with the rest. This is finally the definitive CIR sound."
___ All of the songs were finished even before they hit the studio. In fact, most of them had already been played live enough times to be well-polished by the time recording came around. Barbi shares, "Sabay-sabay namin ginawa ang mga kanta, unlike in the past."
___ Adorning the album cover is a hilarious portrayal of the band as '40s-style gangsters and bimbos. A complete turnaround definitely from past covers. "Trip lang ng banda! Para iba naman," shares JV.
___ Even the album title did not escape the more light-hearted approach that now identifies the band as a whole. "Parang trip din ang title," JV says with a hearty laugh. "Walang malalim na meaning iyon."
___ "Parang kailangan naming gumawa ng pop pero ayaw namin (na sobrang pop), kaya fiction," says Ariel.

Speckled Past

At the press launch for Pop Fiction held last August 8, 2000 at the Hard Rock Cafe in Glorietta, Makati, there were a lot of questions and conjecture about the membership changes and the new sound.

What would have happened if the band line-up had stayed the same?

Cooky says: "Well, musicality namin lahat hindi at par, compared to now. Mahirap sabihin kung ano'ng pwedeng mangyari. Siguro hindi kasing bilis narating ang tunog namin ngayon. Noong panahon, parang mga bata, konsumisyon talaga. Ngayon mature na, but all the old members are still our friends."

These days, in contrast, the words "maturity" and "professionalism" pepper their sentences. The band talks about being able to trust each other's talents during gigs, even when the band's performance as a whole lacks unity. They talk about being able to treat each other as siblings and barkada. It's quite obvious that they enjoy each other's company.
___The band now admits that in the past, they were a bit too complacent, content to follow the flow of events. More attention could've been directed to the length of time it took them to finish recording an album. Or to the choosing of a management team. Or to keeping track of what was happening in the city. They admit that so much focus was given to gigs in the provinces that by the time they came back to the scene in Metro Manila, they'd been left behind.
___ And with the rapid change in market demands, does the band feel they still have people willing to buy their records? Or are they now, merely a relic of the past?

"Feeling namin, there is a market for our kind of music. Sa tinagal namin dito, 10 years na rin, naka-create naman kami ng niche in the music scene. As long as we have good songs, we'll still have listeners."

Stranger Than Fiction

The band started out in 1989, when the barkada of Cooky Chua, Barbi Cristi and Maricar Florendo formed a musical group named after a crossword puzzle clue. They gigged a lot at their home bases of University of the Philippines, Diliman and the now-defunct Club Dredd, before landing a record deal in 1994. Their debut under Alpha Records was entitled Hand Painted Sky and contained the monster hit ballad "Paglisan".
___ Their stint with BMG Records began with the 1997 compilation album 1896: Ang Pagsilang, alongside artists like the Eraserheads, RiverMaya, Grace Nono, Sugar Hiccup,and FrancisM. Shortly afterward, they released Fool's Circle which spawned the singles "Full Circle", "Pagguhit ng Bilog" and "Shadows"-- the video of which made it as a nominee to the 1997 NU Rock Awards and the 1998 MTV Video Music Award for best video.

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