Carlo AquinoTalks Music and His New Band “Sand Box”

By Love dela Cruz

We cought up with teen star Carlo Aquino to talk about music and his band “Sand Box”

Remember the immortal line, “Akala mo lang wala, pero meron, meron, meron”. These were Carlo Aquino’s infamous line from the movie Bata, Bata Paano ka Ginawa where he became the most celebrated child star of his time. Now Carlo is all grown up and still shining as ever.

Last year he won the coveted Best actor for drama in the third annual Golden Screen Award’s, for the movie Aking Paggising sa Kinamulatan. One can construe that this young achiever has already proven his talent on the big and small screens now he wants to prove himself on the other side of entertainment–Music.

Tugtog.com had a chance to sit down and chat with this, soft-spoken actor about his band and their music.

Introducing Sand Box

A constant TV viewer of ASAP may already know, that Carlo along with John Prats and Stefano Mori had a band when they were thirteen years old. The band was called JCS, aside from the celebrity members, the band also had other people involved, “Meron kaming sessionista, keyboardist saka bassist, yun si Y saka si Alvin”.

Carlo, Alvin and Y started out as friends, he also shares that their bonding moments were cultivated due to his constant over night stay in their homes. The idea to form a band came from Carlo himself and the rest as they say is history.

Carlo plays lead guitar and vocals for the band, he also writes their songs as well.

He started writing songs when he was still a part of the JCS stint; he just never had the opportunity to put them on a record due to lack of self-confidence, “Nung JCS gumagawa na ako (ng kanta), pero nahihiya ako ilabas, ganoon naman sa una”. His personal influence in song writing includes, Brandon Boyd of Incubus, Eminem, Bamboo and Rico Blanco of Rivermaya. As the interview progresses one can observe that Carlo is a very reserved person, he admits that song writing and music itself is his only outlet to release his angst and joys.

Carlo Aquino plays with his new band, Sand Box The band is now on it’s fourth year and they’re coming out with an album under Viva records. The bands influences ranges from different classes of rock. Their genre is yet to be classified; all Carlo could say was that their music is similar to Sugar free and Hale’s sounds. “Ayokong mag bigay ng genre, hahayaan ko na lang sila mag judge”, Carlo believes that when it comes to music, everything is relative.

They also haven’t decided on the carrier single for their break-out album, the gang is still choosing over their original compositions like Alaala, Panaginip and Kayong dalawa. He also reveals that he wrote the song “Alaala” together with their drummer and the song is about their individual experiences in life and in love.

Actor or Singer?

Sand box has been playing a few gigs for quite sometime now, they’ve performed in Ratsky’s and Meyricks to name a few. This just shows that the band already has a loyal following. However being a well recognized drama actor has it’s downfall. Carlo is aware that most of the people who come to their performances are indeed there to watch him and not his band, “Ayokong manood sila kasi nandun ako, gusto ko nandoon sila dahil sa tinutogtog namin”. Carlo knows that things like this are virtually unavoidable and that it’s up to him to come up with a plan to change this.

Speaking of change, Carlo is utterly different when he is performing on stage and when he is acting on movies and on TV. He elucidates this as he talks about his life off camera, “Ibang iba ako pag nakita mo sa labas, naka jeans at sira-sirang pants ako, so ganun yung gusto kong image (on stage)”.

The chances of transcending from acting to singing may not be as successful as hypothesized, especially in a country that values the idea of consistency, but for Carlo he is unafraid of this reality. His love for music is his strength to put all inhibitions aside, “Ibibigay ko yung best ko, kung hindi nila magustuhan ok lang. Gagawa at gawa pa rin ako ng musika”.

His love to entertain whether it be on stage or on the big screen deserves a standing ovation from his fans and from all of us. Carlo Aquino is an exemplar of versatility and audaciousness, for pursuing his dreams and goals in life.

Tags: Carlo Aquino, Philippine Celebrity, Philippine Entertainment, Philippine Entertainment News