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Saturday, July 01, 2006
Espina: Paul Cañada: Bandaholic
By Cattski Espina
Til the Cat lady sings
If you’re a big local music fan, you’ve probably seen Paul Cañada play on stage. It would be impossible to miss him because he spends more time on stage than anybody else in the entire local music scene. I guess that’s what happens if you are a member of more than one; in his case, six bands (sometimes more).
Paul plays lead guitar for Zzubu, Frank (his main band), Johnnie, Coolie Dredd & The Microphone Commanders, Uno and my band. He says playing for different bands keeps him open to different types of music and performance styles. It keeps his gig life active; he rarely runs out of bookings. It also gives him the chance to experience diverse human personalities with the different band members he deals with on a regular basis. In addition, it exposes him to the unique musical crowd surrounding each band.
It would be easy to conclude that Paul could be hungry for attention to involve himself with quite a considerable number of bands. But I can truly say that he’s doing it simply because he loves to play, and not because he intends to end up famous.
Besides, it’s not entirely his fault. Bands approach him to play for them… and I can understand why they would do that, from personal experience. His versatility and performance level can really enhance a band during live gigs. More importantly, he knows how to have fun onstage and he exudes an aura that reminds you to have fun.
The not-so-fun part is when all his bands are booked on the same date at different venues. When this happens, we all have to go through the stressful process of time adjustment, and we also have to contend with event organizers who cannot understand that we have to wait for Paul, who’s still at the other venue playing for another band. Amazingly he still makes it to the gigs, maybe not always on time, but always armed and ready.
In principle, Paul can be categorized as a session guitarist. A session player is hired on a per gig basis, capable of playing anything put in front of him. In Cebu, he could be considered the most laudable and in-demand. But because he blends in pretty well with each band, he comes out like he’s one of them. He’s an automatic member and the title ‘session guitarist’ can easily be taken out of the picture.
When Paul isn’t playing live with his bands, it doesn’t mean he is taking a rest from music. He is, more often than not, digitally-manipulating recorded music of our local artists at Zzubu Recording Studios where he works as Sound Engineer.
Currently, he is working on the upcoming albums of artists like Stagecrew, The Ambassadors, Powerspoonz, Zzubu and my band’s third album. He also has a long list of local artists’ albums which he mixed, mastered and produced.
As Paul would put it, Sound Engineering is a totally different story. The technical side of it isn’t that difficult, though, since he already has a background on electronics and computers thanks to his Electronics and Communications Engineering degree.
The challenge lies in achieving what the client wants his recording to sound like. He finds this challenging because clients don’t always succeed in trying to describe the sound that they have in mind. So it becomes a keep-trying-until-you-get-it process that can sometimes test his patience.
So far, I feel at home with Paul when it comes to producing our songs. I really don’t have to elaborate much on what sound I want to achieve, he always seems to know where I’m coming from. The best part is that he respects what the band wants, regardless if he finds it a bit inappropriate. He leaves the band to realize and decide on its own.
Paul still prefers to play live than to be in an isolated studio. He said he never wanted to be a sound engineer from the start, but it fell on his lap. And with years of research and experience, he became one full-swing. Now bands are falling in line to work with him.
If there’s one guy who’s truly enjoying his life right now, that would be Paul. He may not realize it fully, but he actually has the best of both worlds – gig and studio life. And the way I see it, he is in a place with overflowing Red Horse beer and music that never ends.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 30, 2006 issue)
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