Chewing the cud over Sandwich's new album 'Fat, Salt & Flame'

The mood was jovial and excited when Raimund Marasigan and the rest of Sandwich took the stage at Centris Walk on Friday night. Launching their new album "Fat, Salt, & Flame" to mark their 15th year as a band, the five-piece ensemble meant this to be a celebration of the band’s almost relentless live performance work. All the nine songs were drawn from new material that was tried out on the road. The material was compiled over a long process of rehearsal and live performance, the band added, with their Instagram account documenting the marathon 15-day recording session. Marasigan emphasized that this was the first album that was recorded live. “We always wanted to record live,” he said, “because I think we are a pretty good live band, but we usually record multi-track.” “We rehearsed [about] 25 to 30 songs,” Marasigan explained, “and then chose the songs that we liked, not necessarily the best songs… and then we recorded the main tracks live, all five of us, in the same studio. We recorded it until it [felt] right, and we felt that when it felt right, kumulot na 'yung aming toes.” The new album’s name comes from what bassist Myrene Academia described as the band’s other love, apart from music—food. Academia described how they would find time to try the local food during their out-of-town engagements. And after all the culinary excursions, the conclusion was that fat, salt, and flame were the elements that made food good and that was something they wanted to celebrate. But this was not the theme that bound the album together. There were other subjects, but they were deconstructed, as a member of the band put it, “para lumapot.” One of the tracks, “Mayday” is a 13-month-old song. “Direk Marie [Jamora] asked us to write a song with a party feel [for her movie 'Ang Nawawala'],” Marasigan recounted, “and it was Mike [Dizon] who came up with the chorus, ‘Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!’” At the time they were filmed singing the tune in mid-March, Marasigan admitted the lyrics were “dummy lyrics” and “we wrote the song [so that] it would look good cinematically.” Academia and guitarist Diego Castillo added that they rehearsed the song the night before and they filmed it the next day. The version in "Fat, Salt & Flame" is a very different creature, the band emphasized, from the tune the crowds at the last Meiday gig first heard. The album has some highlights to look forward to: guitarist Mong Alcaraz (also of the band Chicosci) and Academia would be doing lead vocals on the song “New Romancer”, and Tirso Ripol of Razorback played a solo on "Manhid," which closes the album. Ripol's contribution came after he was dared on Twitter to play a solo guitar part for one song. Ripol came over with a complete set of equipment, and played for quite some time. His reward? A bottle of “Jack”. Marasigan said that their labels let them do their own thing. Which may have been something that turned around and bit them as the record executives were wondering about the absence of vocals on the album’s title track, which turned out to be an instrumental. The band has gone through a lot of changes and challenges in 15 years, and their time together left them almost attached at the hip. Guitarist Diego Castillo noticed “that I’ve spent more time with them than my own family, even my girlfriend! Palagi ko silang kasama [I’m always with them].” To which Marasigan added the caveat to the closeness, “Part of that is knowing where to invest your time, your priorities.” It's this seasoning of camaraderie, hard work and passion that they put into their career that flavors enough of "Fat Salt & Flame" that may make it worthy of a nibble if not a thorough chew. — DVM, GMA News Photos by Kris Rocha courtesy of Polyeast Records