The story behind Pixel Collective
MANILA, Philippines - Our goal is to spread awareness of the DIY culture of electronic music,” Sleepersecond’s Jezi Matias tells Supreme in an unassuming, soft-spoken demeanor. It was my first time to do an interview with the members of Pixel Collective — a ragtag crew of bedroom acts whose music is influenced by a grab bag of electronic music sub-genres, ranging from IDM to vaporwave, trip-hop to synth-pop. There were 15 of us seated comfortably at the carpeted area of ATEAtude in Cubao Expo one Sunday afternoon, sharing stories and cracking jokes over a bottle of beer.
“How does it feel, playing for a skater event in San Pablo, Laguna?” I ask the group. “Shocked yung mga taga dun sa amin,” Pet School’s Emil Estacio replies. “Hindi nila inaasahan na may ganung eksena. Tas yung lo-fi electronic music makakarating sa San Pablo City — dulo na ng Laguna yun, dalawang barangay na lang Quezon Province na.”
For a growing community of electronic beatmakers and producers who make music in the comfort of their basements or bedrooms, it’s admirable to witness Pixel Collective break the norm of typical electronic music gigs held in underground clubs like Black Market and indie venues such as Saguijo and Route 196. This is a group that doesn’t mind playing for a skate show dominated by punks and hardcore groupies, the same bunch of happy-go-lucky guys who put on a regular show at a friend’s garage or a sari-sari store in Cainta, Rizal. “Lahat na yata natugtugan namin,” Estacio recalls. As it turns out, they get things done in guerrilla fashion. But their biggest break was at this year’s Fete de la Musique Bedroom Beats stage where some of the members whipped up their inner crazy, performing a live electronic set in front of a huge crowd. “It was surreal. Strangers enjoyed our set even though they had no clue who we were as artists,” Estacio elaborates. “There’s room for music this obscure, but we didn’t expect that overwhelming reception to our set.”
Humble Beginnings
Their humble beginnings were even more interesting than I thought. Before Buwan Buwan Collective and Logiclub broke out from digital obscurity and made a strong impression among fans of contemporary electronic, dance and ambient music in the Philippines, Pixel Collective was quietly building its small but loyal cult following as far back as 2007. Formed by Zom Kashwak, James Ocampo and Von Vince Cruz, what started out as an independent net label producing glitchy experimental tracks on the social media platform Myspace eventually became a tight online and offline community, housing 34 music projects at the moment.
There is pretty much something for everyone here: music genres blur and recombine, going beyond trends and chart smashes. If you dig electronic music marked by anatomical formlessness, go listen to Sleepersecond and Fictional Character. For those who like something more accessible but eclectic, check out synth-pop revivalists S E R I E S, chiptunesmith Kashwak, post-house revisionist Brandon Cueto and future beats innovator Alisson Shore. And for people who are into the more left-field end of the electronic music spectrum, be sure to explore music acts such as Lush Death, Escuri, Namo and Pet School. However different in form and style, Pixel Collective shares a distinct lo-fi quality in most of their recordings: a sense of grime that shies away from the glossy exteriors of their more popular counterparts in the scene. “May feel siya na may hiss eh. May dumi,” Lushdeath describes. “Sanay kami sa murang gamit.” Everyone laughs at the thought of realizing this aesthetic affinity. They all seem to share a fondness for sloppy, lo-fi jams that reject conventional music norms in exchange for something inherently intimate and personal to them. While others see it as a shorthand for Internet-mediated depthlessness, I see it more as an assertion of independence and power, a creative space not limited by rules and structure.
Internet Influences
“Lahat kami mahilig sa Internet culture,” Pixel Collective’s latest recruit, Brandon Cueto, shares with a cackle. “I think more than any collective, kami ang pinakamaraming reference sa memes. Kulang na lang mag-usap kami in meme language.” From a distance, such fascination with meme culture seems a little trivial, but these guys utilize the platform as an effective marketing strategy that collects thousands of views for some of the artists in their repertoire. S a r s i, a Vaporwave music project by founding member Zom Kashwak, recently set the Internet ablaze with a hilarious, millennial-friendly mash up of Drake’s Hotline Bling and My Chemical Romance’s Helena. “When your scene days meet the new you,” an anonymous commenter responds on the flip, perfectly describing what the track is all about. In light of the June jokes, Brandon Cueto trolled the Internet with his reinterpretation of Urbandub’s First of Summer where he replaced the lyrics of the original with dates of the calendar. The meme-ification of music seems to be part of Pixel Collective’s agenda, and it somehow gives digital ephemera a sense of purpose, a different perspective.
“We want to spread awareness about the different flavors of electronic music and, hopefully, encourage more people to express themselves using the art form,” says the collective’s page info. Pixel Collective is doing it one step at a time, through GIFs and sonic flips, pushing content creation past its surface context.
