Being iN a bAnD...

memories of my band occured to me instantly when i see my guitar.the hardships, the short comings, the love stories, the gigs and every person we've met in the world of underground music. from the underground artist back then, to the rockstars of today.

we've been together for almost 5 years. still no manager, quite a little gigs, havent had a demo yet but we got a lot of original songs.there are alot to tell about my band. not to mention the story behind our name and the "before gigs experiences".

in the beginning:

we're all grade school friends in aquinas school(a catholic school exclusive for boys). who would have thought that 4 guyz from a very innocent school that teaches strict catholicsm could end up having a band worth telling for? coincidence? maybe. we started to form the group in 3rd year highschool and the rest was history.

...and what's your band name again?

actually, we named the band "twelve" in our first 8months i think. why twelve? well i thought of a name out of a common number that has been used and noted from all the books i've read. like for instance, the 12 gates of heaven and the 12 angels from the bible, the 12 systems of the human body, 12 days of christmas and 12 eggs that makes it a dozen. and its really coincidental that our drummer's surname is "Labindalawa". later on we add up the words "dirty finger" and eventually eliminates the vowels. (parang sa text message)let me tell you first a little about the "dirty finger" on how we decided to add it up to the previous and common "twelve".

...and what's your band name again? (part 2)

jijaw(on vocals) have a p.e. of ice skating in megamall. jijaw and his classmate were practicing sort of a stunt. when their about to execute it, jijaw went off balanced and fell. then his classmate accidentally stepped over jijaw's middle finger with his ice skates. (oooohhhh.. thats gotta hurt!) luckily, jijaws nail bed on his middle finger was the only organ that had been cut (horizontally) instantly by the ice skates blade. he retorted.. "duguan yung daliri ko nun nung dinala ako sa clinic!" he went on with his life at u.p. with a little bandage on his right hand middle finger. then evry time a common friend sees him, they greet him with a finger-up-in-the-air sign as hello. thats when the time we all add it up to the band's name. funny? hell yeah!

funny antics?

there was this barangay band contest we've joined last 3 years ago. the crowd wasnt enjoying the first few bands before us. in other words- theyre so bored. we're slightly drunk that night and we played 2 songs(both originals). when we're highly enjoying our song, jijaw(vocalist) attemps to jump but he didnt noticed that the wire of his microphone tangled on his left foot. this stopped him to jump high and fell off- back first! as in! sobra! ouch dude!!! instead of humiliation, jijaw stands up and raised his fist up and shouted "YEAH!!! ALRIGHT!!!" the bored crowd stands up and clapped their hands. there were huge shouts and laughter.. so hard. hehehe.. the 3 of us at jijaw's back cant resist to laugh too. unfortunately, we didnt win. but atleast we're perfect 10 in Audience impact! Since then, it's been the laughing stock of the band every practices and meetings...

Lessons learned in experiences:

we've experienced the times we had no money when we went to our gigs. we havent even had the bread to buy a bottle of san migz and pulutans. at ang masakit, kahit may binenta kaming tikets, kahit pamasahe man lang wala kaming nakuha every after the gig. minsan kasi, pag di namin na bebenta yung mga tix, we end up kami yung sumasalo. then at the end of the night, even if our pockets had no money left but for ride fares, naka ngiti kaming umuwi sa aming mga tahanan. sometimes pa nga... we experienced eating only skyflakes and drinking pepsi in an 8 oz. bottle before the show starts. hati hati na kami ng ganun at busog na kami. its hard being in a band like we have, but it makes us proud everytime we reminisce. these all made us to become better persons.

...and the music goes on and on and on...

we've been together for almost 5 years. with the spirits we have, the endless hungry stomachs every gig, and the friendship that makes us more than brothers, i think i'll chose to be with them again for another 5 decades or more... success? yes i think we're successful enough despite the fact that we havent had a demo yet. because for us, success doesnt depend on albums we can produce and make millionsof copies sold. its the time you've spent countless days on a band that taught you great lessons in life... its more than fulfilling just to have friends like them and make a band out of that friendship.



"We were young, and we played
But we never, ever grew tired.
We’re so happy and so gayAnd you never heard me cry…"

-an excerpt from the song "Tootles" by 12 drtyfngrs