Who can forget the chokehold that “Raining in Manila” has over everyone?
When the funky song with catchy lyrics was suddenly released at the same time when streets were flooded because of the heavy rain, everyone was just singing, vibing, and reminiscing about that “used to be” special someone—-Mahirap bang mag-isang nanginginig?
“Raining in Manila” is without a doubt the 8-piece Filipino pop-funk band Lola Amour’s biggest hit song to date. With over 121 million streams on Spotify and more than 72 million views on YouTube as of writing since its release in June last year, the single is a contender to the band’s friendzone anthem, “Fallen.”
The band is composed of Pio Dumayas on lead vocals, Raymond King on bass, David Yuhico on keyboards, Zoe Gonzales on lead guitar, Angelo Mesina on trumpets, Jeff Abueg on saxophone, and Raffy Perez on drums.
Formed in 2016 at the De La Salle Santiago Zobel School after the merger of two rival bands Sinigang na Baboy and Decaf, the boys were actually friends with one another.
From bonding over lunchtime at the cafeteria to making music together, Lola Amour has come a long way—from staging shows in the country to sharing the stage with British rock band Coldplay.
Setting the bar for the band’s success is when they performed at the country’s largest arena for Coldplay’s soldout concert in Manila last January 19. The band played together with Coldplay’s frontman Chris Martin in front of 55,000 fans.
“It doesn’t feel real because these are people that we only see on social media, on TV, or listen to in music,” Dumayas shared.
Although there wasn’t much time for Lola Amour to mingle backstage with Coldplay, Dumayas said Chris Martin was a nice and warm person with no awkwardness at all.
Following the success of “Raining in Manila,” Lola Amour admitted there was pressure to release a song as good as it is or maybe even better.
‘As good as ‘Raining in Manila’’
“Initially, there was pressure. There was a time [that] everything we wrote, everything we pitched, it was like, “Ugh, it’s not ‘Raining in Manila,’” Dumayas replied to SoundStrip‘s question at a listening party on March 15.
For Lola Amour, they only felt the tension to produce a song as equally good as “Raining in Manila” for only a short period of time.
“Sometimes you have these highlights in your career, but, you know, you just keep going or else there won’t be any other highlight,” Dumayas pondered.
Saxophonist Abueg said there was a lot of pressure at the start but eventually, “We all just decided, ‘Oh, let’s just create something that we enjoy doing.’ So we ended up going with that.”
King, the band’s bassist and background vocalist, shared that the pressure is coming from himself and not much of external pressure.
“I want to make something that I can be proud of. And of course, ‘Raining in Manila’ is something we’re proud of. It was hard to come up with something that says, ‘Okay, I’m happy with this,'” King added.
Meanwhile, Yuhico said he didn’t feel any pressure about it because it was just a song for him.
“You don’t know what people will like and what they won’t like… Hopefully, you’ll like some other things. But I don’t know if you will,” he reflected because Yuhico said he just enjoys making new songs.
With the pressures falling, Lola Amour braved the rain and cold. As the season changed, the band shone even brighter with their new single—and an upcoming album!—this time around.
‘Namimiss Ko Na’
Lola Amour recently dropped a new single titled “Namimiss Ko Na,” which was supposed to be a track in response to “Raining in Manila.”
However, King explained that “Namimiss Ko Na” is not just about missing someone but how he reacted and came to terms with his grandmother’s bout with Alzheimer’s disease.
“When you’re in the late stage of Alzheimer’s, ‘pag tingin mo sa mata, parang wala na yung tao [when you look at them in the eyes, it’s as if there’s no person left]. So that’s what I miss,” King shared.
Nevertheless, King encouraged their listeners to dance to it despite the sad story behind it.
Self-titled album
Lola Amour is also set to release their self-titled debut album coming out on April 10 after making their promise in 2019.
“It took a while for us to make an album but we’re happy to tell you guys that after five years, we finished an album,” Dumayas said to their fans at the listening party.
Teasing their fans with 1-minute excerpts of all the songs in the new album, Lola Amour has grown with maturity—turning their navigations in their teenage years to adulthood into music.
With topics ranging from love, loss, and being away from home to mental health, the 9-track album has wrapped the band’s signature funk rock sound with catchy lyricism that is sure to make a mark.
Lola Amour is set for a two-stop album launch in April, with the first stop happening at Circuit Event Grounds on April 13, followed by a trip to Draft Punk in Cebu on April 27.