Moira’s storytelling gift shines anew in Pagitan and Pabilin

Moira dela Torre showcases her storytelling gift anew, singing about loss, grief, letting go and moving forward in her brand-new, double-track single Pagitan and Pabilin.

After the success of her first two albums — the eight-time platinum Malaya and the platinum awarded Patawad — the female OPM artist who holds the record of having the most number of digital platinum certifications, has dropped not just one but two songs fitting for the times we’re in. The singer-songwriter co-wrote the tracks with husband and frequent collaborator, Jason Marvin Hernandez.

“It’s a two-part story. Pagitan tackles the stages of grief, from disbelief, in denial, anger to acceptance. When Jason and I were writing it, we could see this is a song from the child to the parent, or from the perspective of someone who’s left behind to the person who had left. Pabilin is from the perspective of the one who left to the person left behind,” the Cornerstone artist, who incidentally turns 28 today, told The STAR in a recent exclusive interview.

Moira also marked a first with the double-track single, which was suggested to her by audio-streaming platform Spotify, similar to how Lisa of K-pop group Blackpink did her solo debut.

Pagitan came to her last year while waiting for a performance and playing around a piano. Next thing she knew, there was a verse, chorus and story building in her head. Jason loved the song and helped her complete it.

For Pabilin, Moira said it was Jason who discovered its melody on her voice memos, which she turned into a repository of unfinished music, and “he came up to me and let me hear this melody and lyrics. Tapos sabi ko, ang ganda naman yan. Sabi nya, gawa mo yan. Di ko matandaan because I’m very forgetful, hahaha! But from there, we also built and finished it together.”

Following the Autumn and Winter seasons as themes of her previous albums, she initially wanted her next work after Patawad to be about Spring. She hinted at this in Paubaya, the “last chapter” of her Patawad album, via its YouTube music video where in the end, her artist logo changed from a snowflake to a flower because “we really wanted Spring to come out by this year.” (The video, by the way, has almost 32 million views to date since its February premiere.)

Moira, instead, decided on the “duology” to represent the “halfway point” to her next full-length album. “We didn’t want to be insensitive also because, even us, we don’t feel like we’ve personally reached Spring yet. And as a community, we’re still getting there. But a lot of times, we forget that we’re already getting there… so we wanted to write two songs that would encourage people to make the halfway point,” she also explained.

And if there’s any lesson she wants her listeners to take with them from this point onwards, is that “we should make the most of our time because we don’t know how much of it we really have. If there’s something we’ve learned from COVID, it’s telling people you love them before it’s too late because we don’t want to move forward carrying so many regrets.”

Moira admitted her songs were written amid the loss and pain of some people close to her. Her assistant who’s like a sister lost not just a father, whom she didn’t have a relationship with but longed for, but also relatives who raised her in a span of two months. A church mate who helped Moira with her first song also passed on. “You don’t really know what to say to somebody who lost a loved one. There are no good enough words to make you feel better about losing someone. So, we just wanted to kind of piece together two songs that could be for the emotions that we cannot describe,” she said.

When The STAR told Moira that both Pagitan and Pabilin sound and feel like a prayer, she said, “That flatters me so much because when I started writing songs, ang naging inspiration ko po talaga is si King David when he wrote the Psalms. Actually, King David and Job from the Bible, they were the most honest like andami nilang pinagdaanan, parang, ‘Bakit ganito, bakit ganyan, ano ba ‘tong nangyayari, wala akong maintindihan,’ but in the end, ‘I will praise you,’ “I will trust you.’ That’s basically the core of all my songs.”

Alongside the release of Pagitan and Pabilin is the documentary-concert film The Halfway Point, where she reworked all her hits Malaya, Tagu Taguan, Tagpuan, Paubaya, etc. and shared never-before-heard stories behind their creation. The docu is available on her YouTube channel.

“We wanted to reimagine with a goal that when people listen to (the songs) again, it will be emphasized that we are now in a different season. When we look back at our memories, they’re all in place. But because we have changed and grown, nothing is the same.

“I remember around March or April of this year, I was listening to an old song. When I was listening to it the first time, I was so broken. But then now, I’m listening to it again, the prayers that I had are now answered and the person who was listening to it before isn’t the same person listening to it now.

“That was the message we wanted to tell our listeners that yes, it’s the same song with the same chords, but it’s now a more hopeful version… a version that has matured along with the seasons,” she said.

Moira also made sure the film featured her long-time band who has been with her since before her big break in 2016. “They’re really my ohana. (When I was starting) I didn’t have a family here in Manila. I was very independent at that time. I was living with my Tito but they have children as their own family,” recalled the singer, whose parents are based in Olongapo and the US.

“I don’t know, but I look for my dad or my mom, and my parents are separated. I have two families. I didn’t have that in those years. And so, aside from (actor and fellow Cornerstone artist) Kuya Sam Milby — I used to bring my friends home to him — I had my band and they’ve just become my best friends.

“These last six years, they have been my constants and I wouldn’t have evolved the way I have if I didn’t have them. I wanted to make sure that that is showcased in some way in The Halfway Point film because if not for them, I wouldn’t have reached the halfway point myself.”

Moira’s new tracks inevitably stirred excitement among fans, with some commenting if she’s going to break their hearts again.

Asked for her reaction to comments about her music being heart-wrenching, she said, “I always get asked bakit laging masakit yung kanta ko. But for me, because I’m more of a storyteller than an entertainer and the stories are usually experienced by myself firsthand or experienced by my loved ones but I get to live through them, it’s very important that I always come from a real place when I write.”

She admitted such comments used to bother her. “To be honest, I felt almost embarrassed to be this vulnerable to a lot of people. I don’t read comments. But there are times na bigla yun yung makikita mo sa feed mo na hindi mo naman hinahanap. So, there were times that I almost felt so discouraged and felt like I wanted to stop writing the way I do.”

She, however, realized that “when you know someone is going through the same way that you are, there’s so much validation in that. Pag alam mong hindi ka nag-iisa sa isang situation, ang laking bagay yung naitutulong ng alam mong di ka nag-iisa.”

Moira said music also got her through the worst of times.

“When I was going through, you know, my anxiety attacks, my depression and everything, worship music really helped me. When nothing else could enter, no other words from other people could get to me, worship music really allowed me to heal and help me process my thoughts, and that’s my goal for writing these kinds of songs… to bring validation to what people are feeling now and also to bring comfort in making sure they know that they’re not alone in this season.”