Robee

Blvd. of Broken Dreams

Every Rose Has Its Thorn (Poison/Rock Of Ages cover)

Lyrics by Enzo Tan
Music by Thirdy Saruca

My friend, Enzo Tan, and I were tasked with writing some new songs for a play our class has to put on. He was tasked to do the ligawan song, and I came up with some chords for it already in my mind. Luckily, he gave me the lyrics and said to just add chords to it...and I did.

Collaboration to the max.

Sapat (Demo)

The seventh and my favorite song from The A.P. Project.

You know those corny, soppy OPM love ballads? This is my send-up to that.

What happens is that I play the teacher and the original buhat student comes to me for advice if he should help his friend in the competition. Add a bit of bromance and pretty gay imagery (running into one another's and the one lifts the other in the sky...which we did in the play) and you got it.

I originally WAS going to go full on for this ballad but I ran out of time and needed to cram it. I strummed so ballad-y chords and had something...turns out it was the chords to the Aerosmith ballad "Fly Away from Here". I thought it was good enough and added some fancy chords and had an entirely different song.

This was the only song I actually sing in the play, and of course, I get the high notes. You'd think that'd be easy for me to do since I'm considered to sing fairly well but first practice of the musical and I broke my voice from singing Breaking Free super loud. So from then to  February  of this year, my voice would either be good or fail me entirely. Luckily, I'd cough and drink water all day when we had to perform the song later that day and ended up nailing the note.

It was my big duet with my song-writing partner Mon Santos and we went full on with it as this song runs at 2 minutes. We performed it for the Christmas party too.

I'd end the song differently on-stage. Instead of what I do in the recording here, I'd do the "ah" thing that Elphaba did in the end of "Defying Gravity". Try it. Pretty spot on. I planned on doing a musical "Oo" or "ah" whenever I finished it but I liked the Wicked one a lot (this wasn't the only Defying Gravity reference in the play too).

Dedication: Mon Santos. My Right Hand Man for the songs.

Anong Gagawin Ko? (with Instruments)

The eighth and best song in The AP Project.

In between scenes, I needed to change the stage from a stage to the principal's office, and I needed time to do that. Weirdly enough, this is a thing in musical theater: "the transitional song".

So, the scene ends with the group mates getting into a sapakan. The lights black out as we change the stage and hand out props, all while the lyrics were being flashed in a static manner. It was fun.

This was probably the real first song I wrote for the musical. It was already finished before I even had a story.

(Metallica references. The "yeah"s I do are for James Hetfield and the deep laughter at the end was my send-up to the end of Master of Puppets.)

Dedication: To those who make sapak

Sapakan Na Dis (with Instruments)

The final song in The AP Project.

Reprises are your friends.
And I decided the best way to end a play about being group mates, hating one another then reconciling is to sing a song about your experience as group mates once more.

To make it even cornier, I had the four students go up on their chairs and do a freeze frame jump to end the whole play.

Dedication: To all the group mates out there. This one's for you.

Pare, Group Mates Tayo (Reprise) (Acoustic Demo)

The supposed third song to The A.P. Project.

When I found out we had only fifteen minutes to tell the story, so I ended up having to cut out scenes, subplots, and songs from what was the original hour long musical. This was both a song and a scene that was cut out.

The scene is that the group-mates split and begin working on their projects in a project session. However, due to rivalry, they ended up trying to take a peek at one another's projects....which leads into a sapakan (which becomes more relevant in the end of the play).

The song is pretty long as I based this on "A Map of New York" from If/Then. It worked both as a song and as the background in which the plot is moving forward.

When our teacher checked this, he wrote down that he wanted to see this song because of the title.

Dedication: Darth Jader. Enjoy, sir!

3. Meet Yung Deadline (Acoustic Demo)

I had the title for a while and had no idea what to do with it. My band Menatex was going to play at the Assumption Antipolo Band Screening (we didn't get it...i mean i messed up the entire second verse), and my crush at the time said she'd go. This song, whether she knows it or not (I'd replace a lyric in the chorus with her name...and i did it when i performed the song at her school), is dedicated to her and every crush I ever had or will have.

LYRICS:
She puts on a perfect smile and though the teeth's unbalanced, I feel I'm at home from seeing her face
There's just something about her, maybe lust or maybe witchcraft, that just makes me think of her all day

But then it's time to move along and forget about the girl who you praised
But then you just keep coming back when you know you shouldn't stay

I'm an uncared underdog, and she's the one I'm think of
I want her with me but I want to get her out
She's the cigarette that I can never push my lips against
I'm in love with her but I gotta quit so give me the ashtray
To put this out

I wish I could be the one to stare into her eyes but I'm told I'm not good enough to fit the role
That's why I choose to go away, but something about her makes me say to not give up when the ball misses the goal

But then you try another time and say aside that this time will change
But then the shot crashes the plane, and I still want her after the ashtray

I'm an uncared underdog, and she's the one I'm think of
I want her with me but I want to get her out
She's the cigarette that I can never push my lips against
I'm in love with her but I gotta quit so give me the ashtray
To put this out

(BREAK)

I'm an uncared underdog, and she's the one I'm think of
I want her with me but I want to get her out
She's the cigarette that I can never push my lips against
I'm in love with her but I gotta quit so give me the ashtray
To put this out

To put this out!

***
Fun Facts: I wrote this and another song in a week, along with teaching it so that we can perform it at the end of the week. We only played this because i couldn't memorize the other one fast enough. And with messing the second verse, I was meant to ask my crush out to the Ateneo dance and that ended up influencing made-up second verse during that performance.

Ashtray

This is my first attempt at writing a short song each day because Billie Joe Armstrong did it, and I really haven't written anything in over a month. I'm supposed to make a short song each day about anything that happened during the day, so I based this on a feeling my friend had today.

LYRICS:
Well she's sitting right in front of me and I can't make a sound
I'd rather be any place else than right behind her now
Looking straight ahead will make me dead as I stare without her knowing
At least her right there, may seem unfair, but hey it keeps me going

I don't want to disturb you with my idiocy
Or that I find myself so hideous, you see
Even if I know that you are out of my league
I wish you could only see
The guy behind you

Fun Fact: I named it this way because of the long titled Weezer song "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here"

Well, She's Sitting Right in Front of Me (Short Song of the Day)

I heard a couple friends were going to go and hang-out with one another and I felt awful because I wasn't invited. I was invited to a hang-out the week before but no one except me showed up. I wrote this all during a quiz.

LYRICS:
Hello my dear
Nobody's here
They all just went out when you came in

Don't think about that
Just lie on your back
And cry until you fall asleep

Dream when you'd be brought along 
Instead of singing this stupid song
Sitting alone in an empty room all alone
While they're all out without you
And having fun

Hello, my dear
Nobody's here
Oh my only fear
Nobody's here for you

Nobody's Here (Short Song of the Day)

We recorded and submitted this as our demos to get into the Assumption Antipolo Band Screening. Ended up in the Top 10 for their annual Battle of the Bands. 

Creds to Heinz Viray for doing the beatbox.

Yellow (Coldplay)/Inside of Love (Nada Surf) mashup

A song for someone you can't bear to lose

lyrics:
I don’t want to go if you won’t go. rather stay and keep you close
I don’t want to go home without you
Even if the night has just begun, or if you can see the morning sun
I won’t leave this place without you

Having you right next to me makes me feel like I am in a dream
Then I wake up all alone, without you close I feel so cold
I want you here to be with me, and stay here for eternity
We’ll let the world around us go and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall

I want to put your hand in mine, know that everything’s alright
Cos I don’t want to go home without you
We can dance or just sit down. I don’t care what happens now
Just as long as I’ll be here with you

Look at light shining in your eye. Don’t want this to ever die.
I don’t want to go home without you
I want you to know I love you so, even if you already know
I don’t want to spend my life without you
I don’t want to go home without you

If you’re tired and want to go, I won’t let you walk alone
Cos I don’t want to go home without you

Thirdy Saruca

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