Ely Buendia launches indie record label with mix of veteran and new artists

Two years after it was founded, independent record label Offshore Music was formally launched. The label’s head honcho Ely Buendia said it took a while for the fledgling label to get going because they had “very little resources at (their) disposal.”

But the love for music was too great and so, alongside partners Derick Villarino, Philip Florendo and Patricia Sarabia, Buendia put up Offshore Music to seek out and nurture musicians and help get their music out to wider audiences and listeners.

“We don’t know anything about running a business, and we hardly know anything about supporting artists, except provide them help so they can be what they want to be without selling their souls,” Buendia said during the launch.

The Offshore music crew

Two other founding partners have already called it quits, according to Buendia, but they’ve since been replaced by new ones, including Dr. Eric Yapjuangco of Icon Clinic.

“Our dream was just too beautiful to let go,” Buendia said.

Starting out as a specialty company that pressed albums on vinyl, Offshore Music has since grown to become a full-fledged independent record label. The stable of artists includes seminal goth-rock band The Late Isabel, Pinoy rock legend Jun Lopito, indie darling Eyedress, pop quartet One Click Straight, a collaboration between Buendia and the Itchyworms called EB x IW, and Buendia’s own soul and R&B project with Sarabia—and Offshore Music’s flagship band—called Apartel.

Offshore also released indie folk favorite The Ransom Collective’s debut album Traces on vinyl.

In fact, in addition to Traces, all of Offshore Music’s album releases so far have been on vinyl, a practice that, Buendia says, make them one of the very few labels in the industry to do so.

This includes the EB x IW singles “Pariwara” and “Lutang,” Apartel’s debut Inner Play and upcoming albums from Lopito and One Click Straight.

But that doesn’t mean that all the music will be released strictly on the vintage format. The former Eraserhead said that they’re aware of current music trends and so Offshore artists’ music will also be available via streaming and digital downloads.

Apartel’s own sophomore album Full Flood topped the iTunes Philippines charts on the day of its release two months ago.

Buendia, who says he is completely hands-on in running Offshore Music as its chairman, said he got together with his business partners because they are all fans and collectors of vinyl records.

“We all have an ear for music and we feel that it is important to release an artist’s work in a format like vinyl,” he said.

Despite acknowledging the tremendous difficulties of starting a record label at a time when music consumption has changed so dramatically, Buendia and his business partners believe that the market for independent music is still growing due to renewed interest in bands and artists.

“It’s been kind of rough because we’re coming in at a bad time in the industry,” he said. “But we pick the ones that we believe in and whose music we like. We don’t sign anyone we know we can’t support as we have limited resources and a small budget to work with.” — LA, GMA News