In their own words: Four amazing women on being musicians and artists

Sometime this month—National Women's Month—four female musicians were ambushed on the set of "Palakasin Ang OPM", a concert held at The Fort in Taguig City that brought together artists of different genres, or of different generations, in one event.

Held at recorder-point by the interviewer, these women acquiesced, stood in one corner of the backstage, and allowed themselves to think out loud as the tape rolled.

They were: Lolita Carbon, the iconic frontwoman of the folk supergroup ASIN who now enjoys a successful solo career as well as being a third of Tres Marias (along with Cooky Chua and Bayang Barrios); Casper Blancaflor, blues singer-guitarist and contestant on The Voice; Lara Maigue, a classical opera singer of high musical pedigree; and Kai Honasan, noted singer-songwriter who weaves dreamy pop tunes on her ukulele.

1. As a female singer-songwriter observing odd work hours, how do you manage your work-life balance, especially in a culture like ours that still expects women to play a traditional role (as mother with an omniscient presence at home, or maybe as girlfriend with a supporting role)?

Lolita Carbon (folk rock icon): Prioritized pa rin ‘yung when you have a baby. Hindi mo basta iiwan nang hindi ayos. Iiwan mo sa yaya—part ng journey ito. Minsan kasama mo sa mga tugtog. During our time, walang Facebook. Telegrama pa! Mas mahirap dati. Ngayon, you can communicate through Facebook. Buti na lang graduate na ako diyan (laughs).

Casper Blancaflor (blues singer-songwriter): What I find difficult about being a female singer-songwriter is that when you’re a female singer and you really wanna be sold as a female singer to everyone, I think you don’t get as many followers as the male stars. Women [become groupies] because they like this guy, but I don’t think men will [become groupies] and follow you around. They may like you and listen to your songs, but they’re not like the women who follow the men around.

Lara Maigue (classical opera singer): Sometimes ‘pag tinatanong sa akin ‘yan, napapaisip ako talaga: How do I do it nga pala? I’m a full time college student taking up classical music. I’m an opera singer. How to balance classical singing and writing pop songs? How to adjust to that? What I do is I take it a day at a time. I attend school but at the same time—there’s always time for music. Stick to the sched—although sometimes alam mo naman mga musicians, paiba-iba ng schedule…I make sure nababalance ko. If I have homework and song na deadline, I don’t miss. While I’m young, I’ll do everything that I want to do.

Kai Honasan (multi-instrumentalist, singer-ukelele player): As much as possible I try to still wake up in the morning! It sounds cheesy, but to get exercise in. Part of trying to keep up with the musician lifestyle is to be healthy. So I wake up in the morning, run for a bit…



2. For the single ladies: how do you deal with well-meaning relatives who insist on you getting married, having children and basically taking on a more traditional female role in society?

Casper Blancaflor: I think I have a lot of relatives going, “When are you getting married?” I think it’s interesting they suggest that but I don’t see or feel the pressure from my family. It’s because marriage is a choice and in your life only you can make the decision. My advice for people the same age as me [is], when you choose a boyfriend, make sure that he’s someone who you wanna marry.

There are many young people who will just have a boyfriend and they know eventually that they’ll break up. The reason you start a relationship with someone is because you want to have a long relationship with him and if you change it all the time, we all experienced that…but now I realize as I get older that life is short, and if you’re gonna invest in someone, better invest in The One.

Lara Maigue: That’s a funny question because I recently broke up with my boyfriend because he was asking to marry me na! (laughs) And I’m 23! My mom—the great thing about my parents is that they’re both musicians and they understand this life. They know that I still want to do a lot of things. So they’re very supportive, they trust me enough that they know what I want to do. Marriage—I’ll play it by ear. I’m a young, independent woman—I’ll go for my career!

Kai Honasan: My friends and family know I’m so focused on my career.  Inuunahan ko na. Do you know how busy I am right now? So they kind of don’t push it na.

Ah yes, I’m dating. As much as possible, not a musician! I need someone to balance it out.

3. What is your opinion on collaborations? Palakasin Ang OPM is a cross-genre event and I imagine that doing music in styles other your own, while allowing to reach a new audience, may somewhat dilute your own reputation or brand. How do you feel about this?

Lolita Carbon: Ay, hindi issue ito sa akin. Hangga’t andiyan ka at active ka, you learn new things. Katulad nito, working with Davey Langit, mahirap song niya pero inaral ko sa style ko at ganun din siya…sa genre niya. Natututo ka pa uli. Basta music, madali at saka love mo ang ginagawa mo.

Casper Blancaflor: I find collaborations interesting. Tonight I am collaborating with Mr. Dingdong Avanzado and it’s my first time to collaborate with someone from another genre.

4. You have a show the next day and are horrified to discover that you have no voice! Has this ever happened to you? What do you do?

Lolita Carbon: Ay oo, nawalan na ako ng boses. ‘Pag bata ka pa, abusado ka. Buti nangyari na wala akong tugtog. Cautious na ako masyado. Hindi na ako nagpupuyat. Basta enough sleep. More than seven hours a day.

Casper Blancaflor: Yes it has, just last week! Well I gotta pay for the damage. I have to rest. I will get more sleep and I will change my music, in a way that I can sing it. I can heal it by rearranging the song…if I need to rap, I will rap it. I’m a person who likes to fix things…be it my aircon and my refrigerator. I got it from my grandfather!

Kai Honasan: Fortunately it’s never happened to me. I will practice and come up with an all-instrumental set! I play a variety of instruments so I will try to entertain them using just music.

5. What is the best thing that ever happened to you as a woman?

Lolita Carbon: Ay siyempre when I had my first baby. I got pregnant at a very young age. Hindi ko makalimutan na prinioritize ko yun. Pinaglaban ko ‘yun. When I had my first baby, parang ako ‘yung ipinanganak uli.

Casper Blancaflor: When I met God. He knows who I am to Him. The best thing to happen to me was having learned that I am a spiritual woman who loves God, who is after God’s own heart. If I start from that, I can affect other people.

It used to be very hard to accept that the female should submit to her husband. But that’s a law in the Bible. It’s important that the woman choose a man of God and the man will help the woman in her spiritual life.

Lara Maigue: Being my own boss. I may be in school but I do a lot of work. I manage our music studio, which I put up in 2011. I get to make my parents retire early, because they teach in that school—I get to manage my own time as manager and partner of the school. I get to promote music and teach students, kids who wanna play music, who wanna sing.



Kai Honasan: Graduating college, probably. I took up Music Education in UP. I was teaching in preschool before. Kids were my first audience!

6. Other than your mother, which other female personality has inspired you the most to pursue your musical dreams?

Lolita Carbon: Ang hirap, kasi marami akong kinatuwaan! Kay Janis Joplin. Noong araw, naaliw ako sa mga kasabayan kong folk singers. Kaya ako naging folk singer ay pinajam lang ako. Isa lang ang alam ko sa gitara…”Me and Bobby McGee” ni Janis Joplin.

(And the rest is herstory – writer)



Casper Blancaflor: Oliver’s female orphan friend in the musical “Oliver”—the one who sang “Maybe.”

Lara Maigue: I would say Celine Dion and Barbra Streisand. Barbra Streisand and Celine – they studied music. Their sound is very distinct. Hanggang ngayon, who doesn’t know them? They’re not ordinary, and Celine is taking care of her husband. I was in the US last December. I was supposed to watch her concert in Vegas, but she cancelled because she had to take care of her husband. Napakalaking bagay para sa akin just to know that she’s Celine Dion and she’d give that up…

I wanna be like them, like I want to have a family life and still be in this career in music. I keep on saying that while I’m young, I’ll do everything that I can. Kasi when you have a family already, your schedule is very limited…you have kids…so before I do that I want to prove to my kids that I was like this, I worked hard for it. And I want them to see that, not by me telling them “ganito ako.” I just want them to feel while growing up, my mom was like this. Just like how I saw my mom growing up. Because I watched my mom [soprano Nanette Moscardon-Maigue] perform in the whole Philippines—she did classical singing, Metropolitan Opera…I was there, you know.  Even while I was in her tummy daw, she was teaching me voice already and doing opera!

Kai Honasan: My grandma Alice. She raised five boys and a girl. She plays the piano…she’s such a strong woman. As much as possible I try to emulate her in everything I do. — BM, GMA News

The author wishes to thank Bactidol and J&J brand manager Paolo Reyes and Belle Gutierrez and Trish Esclabnan of UM for making the interviews possible.