Origin(al)

UNCUT VERSION

OUT EXCLUSIVELY ON

BANDCAMP

tep skiee

15 TAKE

AMADA

I dedicate and especially thank through and for this work

Andrew Oribiana, for being my 2nd grade teacher who refused to excuse me from singing live in front of my whole class despite my 2 absences just to escape the obligatory exam in Music, and despite it all called on to me to sing in front of people for the first time.

Something about the way he was adamant on having this selectively mute girl singing in front of everybody made me feel like he was long decided to give me something I didn’t have nor could want- a liberation through my voice, and especially of being heard.

I was so nervous, I bit my lips and remember my palms shaking as I take in everybody’s present looks and ears as I sung the song I chose. And I thank him for saying, “You have such a beautiful voice. I don’t know why you hide it.”

The man who taught me guitar when I was a little girl through the summer, moreso, who passed the love he had for it to me. He was truthful with me and Rocky’s younger self as we learn guitar at the age of 6, and 4. With red guitar I bought for less than 500 pesos, Filipino made, Filipino wood, Filipino paint, steel strings tenacious on being high above the frets but unwavering. It calloused my fingers and I studied like a soldier just because I knew my mother always dreamt of being able to play the guitar and I thought this was a way to give it to her.

He made me learn everything with a gentleness, an integrity, a humility, and a patience that has softened the work despite the gruesome challenge it was for my whole self. I thank him for being cheap and reasonable not only because we had no money but neither did he, and he exemplified a trust of his love for music and the excitement to sustain that in all of us. I may have not wanted to learn the guitar for me, but I knew the guitar wanted to be one with me in our own way as a kid. It opened up more than just opportunities in this Life. It opened something inside my mind and my heart that stayed for Life. Bless you.

OR1G1NATION

09/25

hindi, genius!

MïnENA

Manoling

Queens of heaven

Fayafa

pixie

Isis

Kakaw

Hayup

Medisin4

Mountain

Or1g1n4T10N

Dragon

Mapa

Thank you to Jay Mangui, for liberating my voice, being the first person to hear so much more of it with me in the devotion of the craft, and being some assigned angel that had faith in my own sound, song, and love for music. Music loves you back!

Thank you to A-safe & Tepskiee who believed in the work, who put in work before anybody could listen and without anybody asking them to, who believes in themselves, who is the representation of what Bliss yearns to reveal herself to be, become and arrive for. You inspired me to allow my strength to shine because we’re fighting together. You deserve Bliss the music more than anybody, and you deserve Bliss the reality so much more than anybody can comprehend. Only God we need, only God knows.

Thank you to Manong Sorbetes who watched me grow up in Quezon City from baby to Grade 3. Who always smiled at me and made me feel like I had joys in Life and added secret extra scoops just to make me smile. He still, to this day, made the best ice cream. May you fly in peace. May your legacy be felt, and never withheld Love!

To Pahinga, Hinay, Boo, Grasya, Mimi, and all the animals I love and who loved me actively.

To the tiger I shared my soul to and hers to me when I was in New Zealand at 8.

To the man who led the Haka and let me join their private ceremony.

To all the books I read.

To the librarian who let me sleep, rest, wait how many hours in her library every after school, or before classes start when I was in Prep until I was in 2nd Grade. Who first showed me what a library is for with the heart of a true lover of books and why we make them, read them, need them, save them, and receive them to be saved.

To Tiny Blessings, and Kyle- whose heart has always been clear. Whose advocacy is deeper than the acknowledgment of society, you are lifelong accountability, devotion to those who need to be free the most, who get the worse of the lack and pauses of humanity from around them and before them.

To each streetkid I met, made friends with, grew with, fly with, soar with, rest with, fight with, and more- this is all for you. I carry you. I love you. Now.

To Rocky, for if not for your existence, life will not be this beautiful to me. Music will not be this holy without us finding and being found by it together, growing together and through whatever. I’m so happy you are my first family, and my eternal family.

My Lola Cecilia, who is the same as the 30 minute joys I had every week in 2nd grade for Music class, whose liberty is a walking tribute to all the ones before her and after as her answer to the call to Love, to care. Mothering has only felt clear from you in the perfect times that we met- in fullness, in authentic expression before anybody could identify real to not, and a woman who loves with the utmost integrity, clarity, and strength in flexibility, formlessness, and boundless magic.

Inang Kalikasan, na walang pagod, walang kondisyon na sinalo at minahal ako, na inuuwiaan ko bawat oras, na tahanan ko kahit kailan. Ikaw ang nag-iisang lahat lahat ko, binibigay ang sarili ko sa iyo, at kahit na ano man, ay lahat din ng ikaw ay binibigay mo. Wala na akong ibang mabigay pa na Hustisya kundi ang pag-ibig na walang hanggang mabubuhay para sa iyo.

For Maya, forever.

To Love, you have my everything. Gladly… Always.

I don’t believe in coincidences. I believe in our land, our ancestors, our truth, and the love that lasts in us.

I believe in us.

I believe that “us” is a more layered and meaning-filled identification than we can comprehend.

Tayo.

Tayo.