Only on OMG! Bamboo: Life with no limits
What’s a rock star without an honest-to-goodness tattoo? Ask Bamboo, who has never had one since he stepped into the scene many years back as frontman of the now-disbanded Rivermaya (the G clef "tattoo" on his arm is for Tattoo Home Broadband, where he is the endorser).
“I’m a blank slate,” he explains his unmarked body. “Life is about change.”
Bamboo is talking from experience. Until he started guesting twice a month on “ASAP” and became a mentor-judge in “The Voice of the Philippines,” Bamboo never imagined seeing himself regularly on national television. He was happy creating songs, albums and music videos.
Testing his limits
“I didn’t expect to have two shows,” he told Yahoo Philippines OMG! “I like the idea of sort of pushing myself to doing different things. I learned a lot about myself through this whole process.”
It was a risk. But it was a calculated one.
Bamboo “just jumped in to see what happened” because he was holding on to something concrete – his all-original album, “No Water, No Moon.” He knew it will remind people that more than being a mentor-judge, even a TV performer, Bamboo is a music man. And his album says it all for him.
“I’m very confident about my album,” he says.
“No Water, No Moon,” recorded in the Philippines and completed in the US (Bamboo was raised in San Francisco), shows a brooding Bamboo, dripping with angst.
Except for “Carousel,” which speaks of “no doubt, no fear,” the songs in the album are about things dark and dreary.
Tough year
Bamboo admits he did “No, Water, No Moon” during a tough year in his life.
“Quit your pounding at my door/I’ve been having such a long day/Why you giving me such a hard time/Can’t we play nice,” he writes in “Spin.”
Bamboo is especially proud of “Spin,” which he recorded during a one-month stay in the US.
“I learned a lot during that brief month. The (sound) engineer flipped the song. It was supposed to be heavy acoustic in front with electric stuff at the back. He put the electric stuff in front and the acoustic at the bottom. This guy blew me away, how he just compressed certain sections of the song.”
While others see parts of Bamboo’s “Spin” as “dumi,” the sound engineer in the US, notes Bamboo, did not. Instead of editing it out, the guy said he found it useful because it sounded like Bamboo was “gasping for air.”
That blew the singer-songwriter away.
“There’s artistry there!”
Bamboo’s artistry shows, not just in his music but in his Instagram posts. Because he’s into street photography as a hobby, Bamboo uploads landscape photos.
“I put my stuff out in Yahoo. I use compact cameras because the big ones are hard to lug around.”
Photography also comes in handy when Bamboo does music videos and album covers.
The film major can apply his knowledge in taking photos when he fulfills a cherished dream: directing a music video.
“People ask me what else I would want to do. I would like to be a producer and be behind the camera, if given the chance.”
No to teleseryes
He’s had offers to do teleseryes, but sorry, slapping somebody – even in the make-believe world of television – is not Bamboo’s cup of tea. He’d rather spend his free time thinking of what to do when he finally directs the music video of “Morning Rose,” a cut from “No Water, No Moon.”
“Maybe I’ll do a Hitchcock thing – with the shadow.”
For a change, he will stay behind the camera, thinking of angles and interplay of lights.
But it seems Bamboo’s dream has to remain just that – a dream – for now.
Bamboo says his is “crazy.” He is booked solid with shows in the Philippines and the US up to “the whole of next year.”
And he is overwhelmed. That’s why he’s adapting by learning how to multi-task even more.
“I’m learning how to write at the same time do what I’m doing now. That’s the hardest part of being on the go.”
Making his presence felt on social media
Being on the go also means turning to social media more and more to stay connected with people who matter.
The family man uses Skype, Magic Jack and Facebook to connect with family and friends in the US. Bamboo may look like an icon of all things modern and sophisticated, but the guy’s old-fashioned values of family and even music remain.
He believes “home is where the family is.” And he’s glad the Filipino in him gives him a supportive family, where “older cousins take care of younger ones.”
“That’s the great thing about being Filipino. Family support is very strong in our culture.”
Bamboo is also grateful to childhood friends in the US who keep him grounded.
“It’s good to talk to friends. They always bring me back down. They always tease me about being a rock star and ask if they’re gonna fetch me in a limo. And I go, ‘You don’t have to, guys.”
It’s easy to get carried away when you have 251,652 Twitter followers, when young and old mob you in the mall or in the bank. But Bamboo feels humbled, not boastful.
“I feel the weight of that at times. I’m just wowed by everything!”
And because he is, Bamboo tries to answer every single tweet. It’s hard, considering his busy schedule. But Bamboo doesn’t mind saying "Hi" if it will make his fan happy.
What about the bashers, who attack his decisions in The Voice of the Philippines? Bamboo loves them. Without them, Bamboo takes it as a sign that “I’m not hitting a nerve, I’m not doing my job.”
For him, it’s better to be talked about in coffee shops and offices than not being noticed at all.
Sure, he’s still a private person, but Bamboo thinks answering questions and giving his opinion on Facebook and Twitter is just great. After all, that’s part of how he lives life without limits – with or without the company (Tattoo Home Broadband) whose slogan he is taking oh so seriously.
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