Sandwich's 'Morena' is more than just a perfect song to play during Philippine summer

Welcome to Philippine summer, when the sun feels right next to your face, you sweat even before you could retrieve your towel post-shower, the aircon feels paltry at 2pm, and dangerous heat indexes come aplenty.

It can feel like satan's miserable joke, but in the backdrop of Sandwich's new song, "Morena," even the sweat trickling down behind your knees as you do nothing feels right, sexy even.

The new release from the veteran band sounds fresh and feels news. It starts with a march of piano keys before the crunchy guitars, the solid bass lines, and the familiar Sandwich groove come together, giving it in an unexpected but rightful frame. Its lyrics, a poetic ode to our skin color makes "Morena" the cool summer bop to which you really cannot help but groove and dance.

It was released on Spotify early this year, with guitarist Diego Castillo's warm beach sunset photo as its cover art; the live band performance video came in last March, highlighting the addition of a rondalla.

All this points to what Sandwich tells GMA News Online in an exclusive interview: "Morena" is their love letter to the Philippines.

"We wanted it in the form of a harana and used the elements of a kundiman and folk songs," Raimund said on Zoom, adding they really didn't want a "retro-sounding song."

"We just wanted the elements but we wanted it to be modern and up to date to how we sound as a band," he said.

The idea came to drummer Mike Dizon as early as 2019. "Naisip ko lang na parang nag-die down na yung power ng 'Noypi.' Wala nang [kanta tungkol sa] Pilipinas," Mike said.

He approached Raimund with the idea. " Sabi ko, gawa tayo ng song tungkol sa Pilipino pero color yung ibibida natin —'yung pinakamagandang kulay natin. Brown," he said.

Mong Alcaraz recalls at that time, he was tripping on full kundiman playlists on YouTube. "Ang unang idea ko na sinabi ko sa kanila, gusto ko mag-chop ng samples, hip-hop style. Sinabi ko kay Raims, na gusto ko kundiman song tapos si Mike, may lyrics tungkol sa morena. Nung bumalik sa 'min 'yung demo, full on kundiman. 'Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit' style," he narrated.

According to Diego, the whole band was shocked and didn't know what to do with the song. They quickly forgot about it.

In 2023, while Raimund was touring with the Eraserheads, the rest of the band continued jamming together. They came across the song again, and "Mike and Diegs, looked at each other, ‘parang maganda to a,'" Mong said.

According to Mike, Diego previously did not like the song. "Nung una kasi, kundiman na kundiman. Hindi ko pa marinig," he said. But when he heard it again in 2023, Diego could imagine the beats that would frame the song. "Late umabot na sa 'kin, pero ang ganda," Diego added.

From then, finishing "Morena" became the usual quick song writing exercise for Sandwich.

"We work very, very fast," Raimund said. "I think 90% of that got recorded. What took long was trying to make it sound like the band. But the song was there from the start. It was 90% what it sounds now. It was the arrangement that took longer."

According to Raimund, "Morena" followed the usual Sandwich songwriting process. "When one of us starts it, it rarely sounds like [how it does] in the end. It transforms. It has to go through the whole band and then it becomes Sandwich." 

Citing observed changing habits of listeners, Polyeast Records Marketing Manager Ethel Cachapero said they decided to release "Morena" as a one-off in January "to open the year" with a plan to release an EP later this year.

"And we don’t mind," Raimund said of the release strategy. The band is constantly working on things — a riff, a bass line, a bunch of lyrics, a beat — that they have "folders of stuff we are working on."

"The songs are there and if we need to work on them, we work on them," he said.

At the moment, their live video performance has already generated more than 33K views, with "Morena" commanding some 30,000 streams on Spotify as of writing.

Says Cachapero, the label considers "Morena" a slow burn, one that will tickle its way to popularity as time goes on. It's a different approach all together, and one they are betting on "Morena."  

After all, the single is more than just a summer jam. It's a love letter to the Philippines, and one that contains a call action to love oneself.

Recalls Raimund, they were out of town when Mike noticed the number of commercials for whiting lotions. "Hindi ko alam if Mike will remember, pero [sabi niya] 'ang daming gusto magpaputi!' Eh ang ganda ganda ng kulay natin."

Quickly, they remembered Heber Bartolome's "Tayo'y Mga Pinoy" song and thought, "let's do a version of that, or something like it."

"Proud to be Pinoy, but sexier. Masyado kasi tayong — maganda rin kung maibalik 'yung pride sa color natin," they said.

— LA, GMA Integrated News