The business of producing Bukas Palad's 13th album

It was supposed to be a matter of business.

Monday morning. I stepped into our conference room to meet with executives who were interested to secure our company's marketing services. As expected, everyone around the table offered his or her business card, and I was not prepared to break the custom. But neither was I prepared for what I was about to hear from the lady in the corporate suit after she had read the name off the white piece of board I had handed her.

"You are the composer, right?" she managed to ask as we firmly shook hands.

Noting the puzzled look on her colleague's faces, she reminded them of how they jokingly called attention to the holy hymns she would play in her cubicle, and how they would ask her if they had just entered some chapel or if she had become a minister overnight.

"Well that's his music," she quipped while pointing an accusing finger at me. "And I've been playing it since Ash Wednesday."

Not wanting to be blamed for anything, I could only give off a nervous laugh, move quickly into the day's agenda, and draw their attention to the powerpoint slide flashing on the conference room wall. Business as usual.

It's been two days since that Monday morning, and in between I've made it my personal business to revisit the songs that my prospective client has been internalizing since February 21st. So yesterday and today, in the privacy of my car, I've been filling my ears with songs in Bukas Palad's last two albums, Let Your Praises Be Heard and God of Silence.

I no longer remember the last time that I listened to these CDs, but hearing them again was like taking 20 steps back from an engulfing mural, seeing the big picture for the first time, and being awestruck. I do not even know what it was--the melody, lyrics, instrumentation, voices, or performances--that hit me. But hit me hard it did, and move me in ways quite profound. Perhaps it was the pairing of certain elements in a song. Or the sheer artistry of combined sound. Or the spirit behind each decibel heard. No one knows for sure; not even I, who have been producing Bukas Palad's music for the last 2 decades.

And here I am, at it again.

Bukas Palad is currently producing its 13th album since we formed in 1986, and anyone involved in such productions will tell you how debilitating the work can be. It is so easy to be overwhelmed by the tasks at hand--the songwriting, vocal arranging, minus one making, actual recording, cover designing, and other processes in churning out just one CD. It is so easy to be critical of the quality of each note sung, the loudness of an instrument played, the thickness of the reverb used, the photographic style employed, the color scheme of the liner notes chosen. It is so easy to lose oneself in attempting to produce the perfect album. Yet easier still and far more rewarding to find oneself when listening to the final product--while driving one's car through an empty street during Holy Week. It's like taking 20 steps back and seeing the big picture for the first time.

We are set to launch our double-disc album of 20 songs representing 20 years of Bukas Palad by mid-June. Frankly, I'm not sure we will meet the deadline comfortably, nor am I praying that we do. What I do pray for instead (and hope that my friends join me here) is that as we work feverishly on this project, we do so with the same talent and passion that God has gifted Bukas Palad with. That when the songs are finally ready for your ears (whenever that may be), you shall find God there. And maybe, if you do find God in the music, you will get to tell me all about it.