A MOMENT OF GRACE
Word Music Maestra Grace Nono on Music, Identity & Expression

MUSIC, INFLUENCES & THE MEDIA

I NOTICED THAT ISANG BUHAY IS MORE UNIVERSAL IN ITS THEMES. WAS THIS INTENTIONAL? AND HOW DID THE SONGS COME ABOUT?
GRACE NONO: You're right (it's more) universal. It applies to all. The concept of this came last. The songs came first. That's always my method naman, inductive. (The material was) compiled over the years and it just so happened that the particular time I was making this, I encountered these people (who taught me the chants and songs). Sometimes I went out of town, but since I don't have the luxury of doing that always, they come to our place. Kasi we have an ongoing production: We're producing a series of releases on Philippine indigenous music, released ourselves under Tao Music. They're available at CCP, Metropolitan Museum. And so far we've done: Maguindanao Kulintang feat.Aga Botocan, and the Maranaw Epic Chants by Sidlaw Banisil, now we're doing Mangyan music. That's my parallel life. Because my career, that's maybe one thing that I do. But apart from that, there are so many other things, and so makikita mo ang traces---how they overlap sometimes.

DO YOU STILL HAVE TIME TO LISTEN TO MUSIC THESE DAYS?
NONO: While I'm working out, I listen, so I do 2 things at the same time. Listen and then do my stretches, stances, kicks, punches and sit-ups.

WHAT DO YOU LISTEN TO, YOUR MUSICAL INFLUENCES?
NONO: Ah, the cultural music of the world. From the Peruvians to the American Indians, the Japanese and Indonesians. These things are NOT available here, well meron akong kaibigan--- a journalist who has access to all of this. He sends me tapes from his collection, and you can also order. There are specialized World Music catalogs.
___ I have this collection and every time I want to listen, that's what I listen to. Because I know that what I put in is what I put out somehow. So I'm very careful. Not that you can escape it, because you can't. You know, I watch TV, when I'm tired...Pero hindi naman lahat masama kasi, eh. There are things you can use from everything. And it's important to know the language being used at the moment because that's your bridge to your audience. You have to know that language and you have to dress up your sensibilities in such a way that you're understood somehow, otherwise there's no point. It's a waste because it's just for you. It's playing to the converted and it's incestuous.

WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE?
NONO: Everybody who's open-minded, who'll listen to something else. It used to be, I'd discriminate and prefer the more intellectual types but not anymore. Everybody has the capability to appreciate anything.

AND HOW DO YOU LABEL YOUR OWN MUSIC? IS IT WORLD?
NONO: Right now, that's what they call it. But labels are bound to change, and my music is bound to change.

HOW DO YOU CREATE YOUR MUSIC?
NONO: No formula. But this time, we (Nono with husband & producer Bob Aves) were mostly collaborating. Either I start with the melody or say, the lyrics or the idea, or he starts with the harmonies, the groove. We brainstorm together.

HOW COME YOU DON'T HAVE A FIXED GROUP OF MUSICIANS AROUND YOU?
NONO: Alam mo kung bakit mahirap iyon? Kasi I don't play often. And so it's unfair for these people to wait for me. Because me, I can only play in my gigs. Sila, kawawa naman sila.

YOU FUSE ETHNIC & MODERN MUSIC. WHY NOT GO STRAIGHT OUT ETHNIC, SINCE IT SEEMS THE PAST IS VERY CLOSE TO YOUR HEART?
NONO: I asked that question. Specially when I started doing research. Wow, parang you romanticize the primitive, the ethnic and you want to simulate it, to be it, you know? To copy. In the end, I said, it's the same banana. You're still just copying. What is it that you're looking at? Is it the dress, the sound? If that's just it, nothing new. Your methods are still the same. Ano ba hinahanap mo talaga? And it's a question related to "Ano ka ba?" Di ba? Ethnicity is a very interesting thing. Is it your father's tribe, if he's Bulakeno, or your mother's, if she's Bisaya? Is it where you grew up? Is it where you are at the moment, in Manila? Is it where you'd like to be? What is your real identity and ethnicity? Kalooban.

In the end, I said, "You are everything." You are the sum total of all of those: your memories, dreams, present milieu. Everything. That's you. And so if my medium is music, I will express what I am at the moment. Yun ang identity ko. That's why I'll use English because I talk in English. This is like a microcosm of my consciousness at the moment, because it's bound to change. Yun ang totoo. I want to let it out. And so the mixing of the modern with the ethnic, because it's what I am.

GROWING UP

DID YOU SEE YOURSELF DOING THIS AGES AGO?
NONO: Of course not. Not as a musician. Being in the arts, yes. I was looking for a medium for a very long time. And I went to school for music only recently na lang,just to try to understand what I was already doing. Asian music courses. Since I was a kid, I'd always been singing but you don't treat it as a career. Sa akin, it's expression. Because I was always alone, I felt I could talk to my guitar. It was my way of letting out.

SO YOUR FIRST INSTRUMENT WAS A GUITAR?
NONO: Ukelele, playing paper roses. (laughs)

WHAT THINGS DID YOU PICK UP AS YOU GREW UP, THAT HELP YOU NOW IN YOUR MUSIC?
NONO: Of course I picked up the pop stuff ever since I was a kid. When I was in Makiling (High School for the Arts) though, it was something else. We were 'brainwashed', told to help forge a cultural identity. I was very young, and you hear all sorts of things bombarding you...and I thought it made a lot of sense too. And so I suppose the quest really started there. Although I must say that maybe the roots of nationalism were first given me by my father. I call him a professional activist. That and then Makiling, art, and then nationalistic tendencies.

WERE YOU A TEENAGE REBEL?
NONO: Yeah, of course! Siyempre it started as a rebellion. And that fuels your music, you know. My family never really supported my music. It was against their will, of course. I mean, it's normal, they just wanted their child to have a good future. Not a nocturnal lifestyle.

GOALS AND THE FUTURE

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS IN THE NEXT 5 YEARS?
NONO: To continue and for people like me to continue. Because we're doing something else in the sense that our music is not determined or dictated by trends. I'm not saying we live in a vacuum and we can escape that, because we influence each other. BUT I would say that, primarily, our motivation is from the inside. This is life expression. What you hear is what we went thru, that's why it's there. Not because it's what's popular. Sa akin, that makes a world of difference.

(silent) WHOA, THAT'S A LOT TO DIGEST.
NONO: Not really. It's just knowing what you want.

IS IT PART OF YOUR GOAL TO HELP FORGE A PATH FOR OTHERS WITH THE SAME MUSICAL IDEAS?
NONO: How are you going to do that? You cannot force things. The best thing I can do is just to keep on doing what I have to do. We encourage and inspire each other. "O, lumabas ang album ni ganito. Maybe I should do my thing, too." I'm being inspired, too.

IS IT YOUR DREAM TO ONE DAY GO GLOBAL WITH YOUR MUSIC?
NONO: It's not a dream. Alam mo, iba naman eh. For some artists "hitting it internationally" is wow, a dream. It's just getting your message across, that's it for me. It just so happens that my medium is music, and sometimes I don't even have to say anything I just have to sing. And there's a message there maybe. And global? We belong to one world. If your stuff reaches somewhere, that's it. ganon talaga iyon. What do you expect?

HEALTH, RELIGION & HUMANITY

DESCRIBE YOURSELF AS AN ARTIST AND A PERSON.
NONO: As an artist? As a human being, a TAO. That's more like it. I'm just trying to grow up, I suppose. To transcend myself always, and as much as possible. Dialectics had a big impact on my world view. To always outgrow yourself. And it's inevitable, but to have that awareness helps, it gives you direction. This helps me move forward.

But of course to move forward means going back and studying the past, trying to understand all the contradictions, and still coming up with work that's singular as an expression of your unity as an entity. Parang, to express all your inherent contradictions thru one note. Or one beat. At that moment. I'm not saying you can achieve this always because you can't. but to keep on trying, to have a little more mastery each time, of your warring forces. (laughs) You seem so overwhelmed, kain ka nga muna!

SEEMS LIKE YOU'RE VERY HEALTH-CONSCIOUS. WHAT'S YOUR VIEW ON ALCOHOL & SMOKING?
NONO: I used to do a lot of those, but I had to choose between that and singing. I had to give it up. It was hard then, yes. Now, I know that even without those, I can get the same high. Those kinds of induced highs have a very quick downturn, and it's a big fall after. Now, my highs are more sustained, because they're not induced.

YOU DON'T EVEN DRINK COFFEE?
NONO: I can't. I haven't taken it in ten years or more. I can't take any form of speed. Cause there was a time I started having seizures because of self-abuse. I know how it is. I've been there. And it was a different kind of life, it had its charm. But after a while it got boring too. I wanted to try something else. Right now Im experiencing the other side of it.

IS THERE A SPECIFIC RELIGION YOU LEAN TOWARDS?
NONO: Right now, what I'd like to pursue is mystic Christianity. More experiential. I don't know yet. I'm still looking for a teacher. But you know, everything is a teacher. I want a spirituality that opens you up, not closes you down. I want a spirituality that's really based on love. Love in all its... Ah, words are insufficient.

IT DIFFICULT BEING A FEMALE IN THE MUSIC BIZ?
NONO: Well, (at the start) the difficulty was that you'd get stereotyped as the entertainer. And I don't really look at myself as that. I have something to say, and sometimes they overlook that. They wanna see other things (laughs). For me that was really the big struggle. Now, not so much. Coz they know enough. They know what to expect. I'm not saying the struggle is over. 'Cause it's not just for me, but for other women artists as well. But strong-willed women who have their own voices...we know that everything is against us, eh. And so we have very little expectations and go ahead anyway.

SO IS THE FILIPINA IN THE '90s A LOT BETTER OFF?
NONO: Ang hirap naman ng sweeping statement. (laughs) I think we see more strong-willed, strong-minded women now out in the open, and we need more. Speak up, because that inspires the new generations to do better.

ANY MESSAGE TO COSMO READERS OUT THERE?
NONO: Relationships with men do not define women. That's just one facet of womanhood, and so if anything goes wrong in that area, it doesn't mean it's necessarily going bad for you. To have an identity that's not grounded on fleeting or fluctuating matters like career---these things can come and go. I guess the most valuable thing still, is to know your true nature---which is something that is not tangible but has tangible expressions.

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