Local bands to make their big-stage debut at Wanderland music fest

Those attending this year’s Wanderland Arts and Music Festival at the Globe Circuit Grounds will not only be seeing big acts from overseas. This year, the organizers included three local acts from a competition held late last year. The Wanderband competition, whose finals were held on January 24, saw eight bands compete for the chance to play this Saturday, May 17. The top three placers will perform alongside acts such as Swedish band The Royal Concept and Architecture in Helsinki.

These three bands have been getting some buzz even before the competition, and this is the chance for them to be on a big stage.

The first placer, The Ransom Collective, was the result of Kian Ransom and his high school friend’s decision to collaborate on performing Ransom’s songs with a number of their friends, some of whom happen to be UP varsity athletes.

The second band, Brisom, is the ensemble of singer and songwriter Brian Sombrero. He told GMA News Online that while he felt that he was too old for band competitions, he really wanted to play in Wanderland. “I wasn’t really expecting to win,” he said, “because definitely [all of the finalists] were really good.”

Both admitted that their joining the contest was a last-minute thing. “We were rehearsing for [our first gig] and [one of our members] scrolled through Facebook,” Ransom recalled, “and she saw a post inviting people to submit their material. So the very last day, I finished a video and sent it to them.”

The third-place band, though, is someone whose work your correspondent has been following. Chocolate Grass has some members in common with the band Wilderness, which is known for their percussive and off-beat rock sound. The experimental soul ensemble is fronted by Abs Haw, a recent Elements songwriting camp participant, who has worked with another singer and songwriter known for her soul material, June Marieezy. (She is also signed to the same indie label as Marieezy, Deeper Manila, under the name August Wahh.)

Haw told us that the band originated when some musicians were jamming during their friend Luis Alcantara’s birthday. “I was there a few hours after they [were jamming] and they asked me to write and sing,” she said. She told us that while their sound could indeed be characterized as experimental or new soul, she and her bandmates felt that it had a “groovitational pull.”

In December 2013, Chocolate Grass released their eponymous EP. A full-length record is expected to come out this year, and the band is quite excited to be on the Wanderland stage before that.

“Being the third placer felt great,” Haw said, “and getting to play in Wanderland in front of a lot of people is a privilege. I’m definitely stoked for that!” This week, the band will be getting together to jam a lot, as she put it, to prepare for their set, which will be the very first act visitors to Wanderland will get to see.

Her fellow Wanderband winners had good things to say about her and indeed about each other. “They’re both very talented,” said Ransom. “I love the uniqueness of Chocolate Grass and then Brisom’s got that classic alt-rock indie feel.”  Sombrero told us, “Chocolate Grass is a really good band...and I really love their music.” And Haw said that the other Wanderband winners had “very well-deserved wins.” She added, “I like the stuff they’re brewing.”

At least in the case of relative newcomers The Ransom Collective, this competition and the chance to perform at Wanderland meant big changes. “At first we weren’t that serious and we didn’t have any long-term plans,” Ransom said, “but the experience of practicing for long hours and really dedicating ourselves to that is what really drew us together.” It is a story that does sound familiar when one looks again at how Chocolate Grass started: musicians getting together and bringing others along to make musical magic. Indeed, the spirit of collaborative music-making is what might very well be the theme of this year’s Wanderland. — BM, GMA News

For more information on the Wanderland Music and Arts Festival, visit http://www.wanderland.ph. Tickets are still available through Ticketnet and SM Tickets.