Photo:
Jay Jao |
If you listen closely to a song by The Skyflakes,
you suddenly find yourself listening to the story of your life.
Crazy office co-workers, tv-channel surfing, distant friends,
distant memories -- all of these things and more are told to the
tune of The Skyflakes, a Filipino American Indie-Pop Rock band
based in the Bay Area. Ron Ramos, guitarist, songwriter
and co-founder of The Skyflakes took time out of his busy schedule
of writing, performing, and -- just recently --changing baby diapers
to talk to us about the band's beginnings, influences, and upcoming
plans.
First, can you introduce the members of
the entire band? When and how did you all meet and decide to form
The Skyflakes?
My name is Ron, I play guitar and write the
songs for the skyflakes. On vocals is my wife Tricia, who I met
in 1991 at UC Santa Cruz. On rhythm guitar is her youngest brother,
Jericho. On drums is her other younger brother, Oliver Saria.
And on bass guitar is our dear friend Jesse Gonzales who we met
through our working together at various shows at the Bindlestiff
Theater in san francisco. A few years ago, Jericho started a garage
band with his high school buddies doing covers of their favorite
cure songs. I had a background in music (piano lessons, self taught
on guitar through college), our cousin O.J. (who played bass in
the band before Jesse joined in 1999) also had experience playing
guitar, so we got Oliver on the drums and took over the instruments
left in the Saria family's garage. We had fun playing cover songs
of The Ramones, Luna, Smashing Pumpkins, and Nirvana, so I guess
you can call them influences. Finally, Bindlestiff Theater wanted
to have a concert featuring Filipino American bands, and Oliver
was involved with the theater at that time, so he said if we learned
some songs, we could play at that show. So we practiced and perfected
our cover songs. At the time, Jericho was singing. One day Tricia
heard us practicing and hated Jericho's style, so she agreed to
try it out and we all thought her voice had a unique cuteness
to it and from then on she took over for the vocals. At that time,
we formed "Bandsilog".
Why did you decide to change your the name
to "The Skyflakes"?
Well, although many liked the name "Bandsilog," even
more didn't know what it meant. We got tired of explaining the
answer, plus Jesse replaced O.J. on bass, and we figured with
that change, a name change would be suitable too. "The Skyflakes"
had a nice ring to it, we love the cracker, and it kind of matches
our sound.
People have described your music as kitschy,
or bubbly pop/punk music?
How would YOU describe your music?
Lately its been electro/garage/indiepop.
When listening to the lyrics of your songs,
it's as if we're inside someone's head and reading their innermost
thoughts. This is true in the lyrics of "Bad Thoughts"
of course, and especially in "Calling in Sick" where
you talk about people at work and their quirky personalities.
The lyrics seem to echo thoughts that all of us at one time or
another have found ourselves musing over. How do you come up with
the lyrics from your songs, where does the inspiration for the
words come from?
Most of the lyrics are just nonsense or simple
translations of daily experiences. I usually write a melody first,
so it's basically what easy subjects I can chop up into simple
syllables to fit the melody.
Despite the upbeat melodies of your songs,
the lyrics have a more serious undertone, even sinister at times.
Is the intersection of such opposites deliberate in your music,
or is it just a "happy accident"?
I think it's deliberate, especially when I
try to pair it with Tricia's child like voice.
March was marked with the arrival of, as you announced on your website, a "new member of the
Skyflakes". How has being a new father changed the way you approach your music. How has it altered your creative process? Do you think it has it already influenced the type of songs you write about?
No, not really. I have not focused on writing
since Cicely was born. I have been more focused on the joys of
fatherhood. I think in time, I will be inspired to write more
but it takes much more time than I currently have.
Being a Filipino-American Indie band,
how much of your Filipino roots have influenced areas of your
music-making?
Probably more on a subconcious level, although
some of our songs are about the struggles of being a minority.
When I say subconcious, I mean that our songs aren't based on
any specific Filipino experience. We all just happen to be Filipino
American and value that.
What is your take on the Bay Area music
scene? What do you like the most about it? And what would you'd
like to see more of?
The Bay Area music scene is great and we've
experienced a lot of support, especially from Asian American and
Filipino American artist communities. I feel that in the past
few years, the Bay Area music scene has flourished. My favorite
part about the scene is being a part of it and in turn being able
to meet and experience new bands, and make new friends, while
experiencing new music.
What inspires you to start writing the
next song or making the next album?
Nothing really inspires me except for the
joy we still have of writing, performing, and recording. It's
a lot of fun, and I hope continues to be so...as far as the themes
of our new songs, a lot of them are based on movies or movie characters
(Lost In Translation, Donnie Darko, Requiem For A Dream
to name a few...)
Could you share what current or future
projects that you have planned or are in the works?
We are currently wrapping up a new set of
recordings which will probably become a new album including about
10 songs. Hopefully, we can find some artist to work with and
make a video for one of the songs, which is always fun and helps
in promoting.
If you were stranded on a deserted island,
what 3 cds would you want with you?
Hmmm... That's always hard and I 'm sure the
rest of the band would beg to differ, but...
- Filipiniana (Pilita Corales)
- Minimum/Maximum (Kraftwerk)
- John Williams Anthology (John Williams conducting
the London Symphony)
Where would you rather be right now?
On a deserted island (preferably somewhere in Tahiti...)
