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Filipino indie pop-alternative rock band December Avenue released their most recent single, 'Ahon,' a collaboration with Asia's Phoenix Morissette.

The band and the singer-songwriter first performed the song live in an exclusive listening party on April 22 at the Teatrino Promenade in San Juan. The party was mostly attended by friends and fans of December Avenue and Morissette, as well as people from the music industry, media, and content creators. The song was officially released on May 9.

During the event, Zel, the vocals and acoustic guitarist of the band, shared that the song 'Ahon' is about finding your way back to your first love or passion that you lost along the way.

“Pero in a deeper sense, when I was writing the song, it's about an internal struggle. The word, 'ahon,' to rise up, is about kumbaga so sometimes, hindi natin naiiwasan, burned out, kumbaga parang sometimes, I question myself kung ano pa ba ang purpose ko and if I really have a purpose in life,” Zel said.

He continued, “So 'yung internal struggle ko with it, to find that old flame inside me. So I think that represents 'yung song na 'Ahon' kaya 'Ahon.'”

In an exclusive interview with GMANetwork.com, both Zel and Morissette expressed their excitement about finally releasing the song. The band's vocalist even admitted that this is the first time that they did a listening party concept.

“Kasi usually ang ginagawa namin, meron kaming bar gig, tapos launch. Pero wala ' yung ganito na parang premiere siya e, na parang for exclusive fans lang and friends and media. So sobrang na-excite din ako because 'yung collaboration with Morissette is sobrang iba e, sobrang iba talaga e. Kahit ako nga 'yung nagpe-perform parang kinikilabutan ako,” Zel said.

Morissette, on the other hand, revealed that she was looking forward more to their live performance of the song.

“Knowing also the calibre of Kuya Zel and the whole band na sobrang generous sila as performers, nakakahawa, kaya I'm just so happy na we're finally able to perform it live here today for everyone, exclusively,” she shared.

Speaking of their collaboration, Zel revealed that he wrote 'Ahon' with the intent of the song being a collaboration with other artists. However, he also admitted how hard it is to choose which artist to collaborate with, until they finally chose Morissette.

“I think nag-match lang talaga 'yung work ethic namin ni Mori, 'yung accessibility, at the same time, 'yung texture ng vocals na hinahanap namin, 'yung power na talagang kaya niyang mag-add ng dynamics du'n sa song,” he said.

According to Morissette, December Avenue's team reached out to hers for a collaboration, and she revealed that this might be the first of many collaborations the band wants to have with other artists.

“I think they wanted to do that again, do more collaborations and so I think I'm the first of many that they're gonna be doing for the next couple of months and releases so I'm just very honored that I get to be the first to have a collaboration of course with December Avenue,” Morissette said.

'Ahon' is now available on all major streaming platforms. The band also published the official lyric video on their YouTube channel.

MEANWHILE, TAKE A LOOK AT THE LISTENING PARTY INTERNATIONAL BAND LINKIN PARK HAD IN MANILA RECENTLY IN THIS GALLERY: