From the archive: Loko

september 2005

this announcement has long been forthcoming. now i can finally make it official. i've landed my first record deal for one of my orignal compositions. the song is a midtempo love ballad entitled "loko" and it's one of four tracks in the debut cd of new teen pop-rock artist angeli mae. the cd is now available in record bars everywhere under the viva records label.

there. it feels so, so good to finally let this story out after holding on to it for months. i didn't want to preempt or jinx it in any way so i kept it a secret all this time. the story started february when i wrote and recorded the song and sent demos to three labels. viva called in march and the song got produced in may. the cd was initially scheduled for release end-june, then rescheduled for mid-july, then got bumped off for august 30.

you can't imagine the excitement i carried when i went to the record bar that day. you also can't imagine the disappointment i felt when i didn't see the cd there. or anywhere else. i checked back again every single day thereafter. i also checked with my contact in viva at the end of the week. he said it's been shipped to the record stores and that most likely the stores are still in the process of making inventory and labeling the cds. he advised me to check the stores again the following tuesday, the regular release day of new records. (it's what wednesday is to new movies.)

i did. still no angeli mae. she would not appear on the record store shelves until two tuesdays later. at this point my excitement had already subsided and picking up the cd of my professional recording debut didn't feel special. only unusual. and funny. both for me and, moreso, the salesladies in the store. after all i got 5 copies. the cashier had to double check with me not just once but twice if i was indeed buying those many copies. of the same cd. of a new unknown artist. i can tell she thought it was weird, i was weird. her smiling face threatened to break into laughter. for a moment i considered explaining myself. but then i thought that would be too defensive. and proud and shameless. so i just nodded my head and gave a wide smile. i too threatened to break into laughter.

please do get a copy of the cd. it's fun, it's melodic, and it rocks popfully (or pops rockfully). and that's no loko.