#CaviteLocalMusic: People
No sugarcoating—just straight up playing fresh tunes and living out a passion for music.
Originally intended to be a solo project, the acoustic duo People is an up-and-coming band composed of DLSU-D Biology students Matt Perez and Daniel Domingo, who both recently decided to be a duo to write songs about their own stories and what they’ve learned from other folks.
Before People, lead vocalist Matt began pursuing music back in his high school years through songwriting, eventually producing their album’s first track titled “Set Sail”, an atypical love song with a ballad vibe fit for slow dancing. His deep interest in music spurred his current bandmate, Daniel, to venture into also pursuing music and songwriting.
Their first self-titled album, “People,” is comprised of six originals, with four tracks played during their first gig at the De La Salle Health Sciences Institute event last August. People’s storytelling ranges from something as intimate as a love letter to something as painful as goodbyes. In their latest released track “Drowning,” Matt recalls how he wrote the song about a girl he chased who only dumped him in the end. He couldn’t compare the feeling to any other word but drowning.
The duo relies heavily on their own vocals accompanied by acoustic and rhythm guitars and sometimes their friends for backing vocals, percussions, and other instruments. Surprisingly, People manages to produce very distinct acoustic tracks—surely something to hook you in with their calm, raspy voices, and endless, intimate guitar strumming.
For People, it’s all about envisioning. Working your way up the local music scene is a challenge, but they know that keeping the endless possibilities in mind helps. With almost a year and a half into making music, People has already scored invitations to play gigs outside of campus. To them, playing gigs and getting a silent crowd are the best because it makes them feel that their music perfectly does its own magic in overwhelming the audience.
“Laging memorable yung pag sobrang tahimik yung crowd. Like, they’re actually listening to my voice. It feels good,” says the frontman, touching on how their music can do its own magic in overwhelming the audience. “And since some people don’t know our songs, yung iba parang, masarap sa loob yung nakikita mo silang taking a video or parang sinasabi nila na it’s good.”
Just like regular students, these fresh talents juggle their dedication for both passion and academics. Even though these youthful storytellers are like your average students learning to balance passion and music, there are nights when they would stay up late recording songs, jotting down ideas, and daring their own creativity and art of rhythm. And just like any newbie band, this duo’s ultimate dream is to play somewhere quite ambitious, such as a music festival in London (pretty much Glastonbury, they say). People shares how they take their spark from experience and bring that same spark to the music they make.
“We sometimes play na walang talent fee. It’s not all about the money. Money is not the issue. We just want to play our music, yun lang. [It’s a] passion,” People says.
For Matt and Daniel, at the end of the day, just playing their pieces is what they’re after. And that’s what their band name is all about—writing and living out their youth.
Listen to them on Spotify: People
This article was originally published in La Salleño Volume 25.
