Nothing you want will ever come easy. Ask any successful person out there and they will always have a story to tell of the struggles and hardships that they had to go through before they reached the pinnacle of their success. Just take it from Parokya ni Edgar’s lead singer Chito Miranda as he shares the story of their own hardships as a band.
Here is the text as posted on his Instagram account (@chitomirandajr):
Nung nagsisimula pa lang kami bilang banda, di kami binabayaran para tumugtog.
Like most bands sa underground/indie music scene nung time na yun, wala kaming talent fee.
Masaya na kami basta makatugtog kung saan saan, kahit walang bayad.
Sa katunayan, abonado pa nga kami kasi sagot namin ang pamasahe namin papuntang gigs (or sagot ni Dindin yung gas kasi may kotse sya hehe), at sagot din namin yung pagkain at drinks namin kung saan man kami tutugtog.
We did that for years.
The 1st time we got paid was at Club Dredd. Naimbitahan kami bilang front act, and we agreed to play for free as usual, but after playing, the owner (Patrick Reidenbach) decided to pay us P300.
I guess natuwa sya sa amin.
Either that, or naawa lang talaga sya. Kasi ang sabi nya sa amin, “gamitin ninyo yan pang-practice”.
P300 meant 3 hours na practice time sa Alberto’s Band Rehearsal Studio.
After a few more months, we got paid again.
This time we got P800.
And this was during the so-called “Golden Age” of Pinoy Bands nung 90’s.
We weren’t earning at all but we couldn’t care less. We had no money to buy our own instruments, but we kept on playing. We had no intentions of quitting school (or in Dar’s case: his day job), and hindi namin inisip na kelangan kumita kami sa pagbabanda.
We did it simply because it was fun.
1996 nung naglabas kami ng album. 1997 na nung unang nakabili ng sariling gitara si Gab worth P6000.
Can you imagine? 4 years na kaming tumutugtog, at 1 year na kaming may album, bago kami mabayaran ng enough money para maka-afford ng sariling gitara si Gab.
Si Gloc nga dati, nakakadalawang album na, pero nagtatrabaho pa rin sya bilang waiter. Pero di sya sumuko. He focused on what he wanted to achieve and worked hard for it. (ngayon kaya na nya bilin yung restaurant. hehe!)
Ganun kasi talaga yun. Kelangan mo paghirapan.
Kung mataas ang pangarap mo, then you need to work harder than everyone else…kasi kung ganun lang kadali yun, then everyone else would be doing it.
Rough translation:
When we started as a band, we didn’t get paid to play. Like most bands in the underground/indie music scene at that time, we didn’t have a talent fee. We were just happy to be able to play, even without getting paid. Truth be told, we even had to shell out money for transportation to get to gigs (or Dindin would pay for gas coz he had a car haha), and we had to pay for our own food and drinks at the places where we would play.
We did that for years.
The 1st time we got paid was at Club Dredd. We got invited as a front act, and we agreed to play for free as usual, but after playing, the owner (Patrick Reidenbach) decided to pay us P300. I guess he liked us. Either that, or he really just felt sorry for us. Coz he told us, “use this to practice”. P300 meant 3 hours of practice time at Alberto’s Band Rehearsal Studio.
After a few more months, we got paid again. This time we got P800. And this was during the so-called “Golden Age” of Pinoy Bands in the 90’s.
We weren’t earning at all but we couldn’t care less. We had no money to buy our own instruments, but we kept on playing. We had no intentions of quitting school (or in Dar’s case: his day job), and we never thought we had to get paid to play. We did it simply because it was fun.
It was 1996 when we released an album. It wash’ until 1997 that Gab was able to buy his own guitarworth P6000. Can you imagine? 4 years of playing, and 1 year of having an album before we got paid enough money for Gab to buy his own guitar.
Even Gloc already had two albums, but he was still working as a waiter. But he didn’t give up. He focused on what he wanted to achieve and worked hard for it. (Now, he can buy his own restaurant. hehe!)
That’s just how it is. You have to work hard for it. If you have big dreams,then you need to work harder than everyone else… Because if it were easy,then everyone else would be doing it.
What. An. Inspiration. What do you think of this story? Do you have any success stories of your own that you’d like to share with us? We’d love to hear them! 🙂
