"THE universe conspired for us," shares Cylle Bulalakaw half-jokingly, relating how their band Ember was formed.
Ember, a 5-man band fronted by Cylle
with Bob Montalban on lead guitars, July Jainga on base, Keith Insular on
rhythm guitar, and Cloud Procalla, also acting as the band's manager, on drums,
recently gained a lot of traction with the successful launch of their music
video to a fully packed audience at a café in Iloilo City.
"I’m not sorry ‘bout a night of
constellations dancing / I’m not sorry ‘bout the stories my tongue just kept on
saying / I just did what I want to do / I’ll never be sorry for the night I was
with you," goes the opening bars of their breakout song, Beautiful Memory,
which premiered to a crowd of around 180 people during a MV launch, introducing
Ilonggos to the rising local band.
With a group initially comprising
Cloud, Cylle and Cloud's brother, Yussef, not working out, the band members
went on a brief hiatus. Cloud then found Bob on social media and, seeing his
numerous guitar cover videos on Youtube, decided to recruit him, not knowing
that Cylle and Bob were classmates who frequently jammed after classes.
"In Raymund Marasigan's words:
'Just go out and form a band,'" adds Cloud. And form a band they did.
Some time later, in 2010, everything
just fell into place. Their band mates July and Keith joined the trio
completing their lineup just in time for a first gig during the Iloilo Lokal
Tres in 2011.
Dubbed as Iloilo's kings and queen of
indie alternative rock, Ember recently set about putting together material for
a potential album release later this year and building up Beautiful Memory as
their headlining single.
Independent filmmakers Drae Pilarta and
Jay Palmares, approached the band for a potential collaboration and so the
groundwork for the success of Beautiful Memory was set.
Cylle and Cloud share that they were
expecting just around 80 people for the launch of their music video at Fuel.ph,
but the number quickly ballooned to 180, largely due to spreading interest on
social media – local Ilonggo bands not usually releasing music videos and
building a large fanbase.
In the MV, the band performs in the
middle of the wilderness just before dusk, as flashes of a couple running after
each other, taking photos through tall grass and bright lights, cut in and out.
The music video was widely met with a positive response, Ember attracting a
larger audience.
“We
know people who share our videos and our music to their friends in Antique,
Aklan and they always say they won’t believe we’re actually a local band,”
shares Cylle.
Known for their original compositions,
the members of Ember share that they “inspire each other.” Their band name,
chosen to evoke “passion, flames and burning,” actually also one of Cylle’s
given names.
Ember is now one of the most popular bands in Iloilo, and hopefully they’ll be conquering airwaves and audiences beyond the city soon, but its members share they wish to always remain humble and grounded – praying before each of their shows, and always thanking the Lord for the talents they’ve been given.
But through all the acclaim and
popularity, Ember and its members value each other and their friendship most of
all.
“We
are not just a band, we are family,” relates Cloud, and they hope they’ll be
making music and sharing beautiful memories with each other for many more years
to come.
Like Ember on Facebook
Photos from the Official Ember page
