Bamboo says his wife, kids came first during long hiatus: ‘I didn’t want to miss those moments’

In an interview with PUSH ABS-CBN, the singer said he deliberately slowed down to be present for his wife and their children.

“It’s just 11 years passed because it’s just about my life, right? I had priorities with my family. It told me that I have to sort of slow things down and focus on that. Because with having a family, you only get to live these moments once, right? I didn’t want to miss these moments. I thought they were crucial for me,” he said.

He added that he hopes the time off made him better as a person.

“And so that made me, I hope, a better person, right? Giving that pause away from work and whatever, and just finding the time to be back,” he said.

Bamboo’s return is marked by “Alon,” a heartfelt song penned by composer and keyboardist Ria Osorio. He said the track, released under PolyEast Records’ new sub-label filtered music, went through several years of work before he felt ready to put it out.

Bamboo first played “Alon” for members of the media, then sat down to talk about why his comeback took so long.

When asked how he knew the time was right, Bamboo said it came down to a gut feeling.

“I’m not going out, I’m not touring, I’m not doing this. It gave me a little footing again, right? And ‘Alon’ just came about because it was the right song at the right time. It felt right for me. And to be honest, I wasn’t joking when my manager was saying, ‘Why, after all these years? Why put out something like this?’ He questioned it,” he shared.

“Sinasabi ko, it’s not about that. It’s about an emotion, what I feel. For me, it’s about riding your own wave, right? There’s a certain wave, a landscape people are going through now, so we’re not following something. It’s about creating something that means something to me. And it’s a kickoff to what’s going to happen next year,” he added.

For Bamboo, the drive to keep making music never went away.

“It’s finding meaning in that purpose, right? So it was never a question. I always moved forward, always did my thing, and it’s just the constant curiosity of being an artist. How far can I push myself? What are my own limits? That’s what’s important,” he said.

He picked “Alon” because the song mirrored what he was going through.

“Because it spoke to me, basically. It speaks of a time, what’s happening. It’s what I felt day to day, right? That anxiety, that frustration, whatever happens, it spoke to me. And because I’m the kind of guy who listens to something and rolls with the wave, I’ll keep that emotion until the end,” he said.

“And sometimes when you hit the bottom, you pick yourself up, you dust yourself off, and that’s when you can lift yourself up,” he added.

He also hopes listeners will feel less alone when they hear it.

“So I’m hoping this song finds that emotional tie with people. That they can find that they’re not alone in this, right? Even though our circumstances are different, our lives are different, we share the same values of what we want for our people, right?” he said.

Bamboo said the song is also his response to the state of the world today.

“I always say the world as humanity, all these things going on, right? The chaos going on. I just want to start thinking about happy songs again, right? To get back to that status quo. But when there are so many things going on, you have to prioritize. Before I can do this, I gotta figure this out now. So I’m putting this out as my calling card. Okay, we gotta bring it back. We gotta do something,” he said.

Born Francisco Gaudencio Lope Belardo Mañalac, Bamboo first became famous as the original lead vocalist of Rivermaya, singing with the band from 1994 to 1998. In the early 2000s, he teamed up with former Rivermaya bassist Nathan Azarcon to form the rock band Bamboo. The band released four albums between 2004 and 2008 and gave fans hits like “Noypi” and “Hallelujah.” After the group broke up in 2011, he went solo with “No Water, No Moon” that same year, followed by “Bless This Mess” in 2015.

Even without a new album, Bamboo stayed in the public eye. Since 2013, he has coached on several seasons of ABS-CBN’s “The Voice” franchise, including “The Voice Kids” and “The Voice Teens.” Ria, the songwriter behind “Alon,” has also worked on the show as one of its arrangers.