Julie Anne, Gary V tackle realities of love in 1st collab

Collaboration is inevitable in the life of most artists. The experience is always unique and meaningful. Artists will find a way, regardless of their hectic schedule, to make it happen.

Julie Anne San Jose and Gary Valenciano know all that and their first collab takes in the form of Di Ka Akin, released under Universal Records. It’s among the recent releases that Original Pilipino Music (OPM) enthusiasts welcome and enjoy.

“I wrote the song last year. It was originally (conceived) as a solo (performance),” said Julie Anne, Asia’s Limitless Star, who considers Gary V as one of her musical influences, in a recent virtual group interview that also featured Mr. Pure Energy. “Tito Gary, he’s always been one of the people that I’ve always wanted to collaborate with. It’s always been a dream. I’ve always wanted to write more songs for the other singers and for the other artists as well.”

Paving the way was Universal Records that brought up the idea of her and the OPM icon to do a duet. Julie Anne had already Di Ka Akin in her trove of tunes that only wait for the right time to be recorded.

“Sakto meron akong isang song (Good thing I had a song) and I figured and told (myself) na bagay din siyang maging duet. And then, we recorded the song,” said she.

When Gary V got wind of the planned collaboration, the first word that came to his mind was “game,” even without giving Di Ka Akin a listen. That and his nod of approval signify the good reputation Julie Anne the artist and her work have.

“When you talk about artists at the level of Julie Anne, these are artists who just don’t come up with a song for the sake of coming up with a song,” said he. “They come up with something that stems from somewhere.”

With their workload at that time, the artists had to record the song separately. Julie Anne was doing Limitless: A Musical Trilogy, while Gary V was touring and left for the US.

Prior to seeing the song’s fruition, he also presented the idea of having Mon Faustino as the song’s arranger. “(He’s) a very flexible kind of arranger. He did an initial arrangement and I told Julie Anne and I said, ‘Listen. If there’s anything you want to change… just say so’,” said Gary V. “Again, being the artist that she is, she said what she wanted. So, it went back to Mon Faustino… The next thing I knew I had the music (in my studio).” Afterwards, both artists were ready to lend their vocal talents to the song.

“When I actually wrote the song, I wasn’t coming from a bad place,” said Julie Anne. “Parang it was like out there. When you’re trying to create something (as a songwriter), you need to put yourself in a scenario na naiisip mo na, alam mo yun, nangyayari talaga sa totoong buhay (that you know is happening in real life), and I felt like the need to write again, I wanted to come up with something.”

Di Ka Akin, as one may look at it, is about a complicated relationship, when persons involved have different perspectives of what’s going on between them. It has the he says, she says points of view.

“Kumbaga… may gusto akong iparating sa kanya, pero iba pala yung interpretation niya (Let’s say, I want to put across something, but the other person interprets it differently),” said she. “From there, the idea of (two people thinking) if they can work it out, if they can surpass such a challenge starts.”

“Kapag hindi kasi para sa’yo, hindi talaga eh,” added Julie Anne, “atsaka malalaman mo kung yung tao na yun ay para sa’yo talaga (You will know if the person is really meant for you).”

The singer-songwriter added that the song was initially about a no-label relationship, but when she and Gary V recorded it, the single turned into a post-break-up narrative that tackles themes about letting go and moving on. These are realities about loving someone.

“Before we actually shot the video, kinausap na ako ng director as to how it was going to be treated, how the video was going to be treated that they would get a couple that would express each other’s, you know, what they felt for each other,” said Gary. “What they felt, in other words, past tense. Now that can be positive and that can be negative. So, what I did was I just sang it with the least drama, you know, and I just allowed the couple.”

The man and the woman in the video talk and let each other know their feelings. They do it for the sake of closing a chapter in their love life and commencing another one, “more of a closure without the hope of the person coming back, but just letting the other (person) know,” said Gary. “Yung lalaki meron na rin siyang bago (The guy is with someone else) and the girl is happy.”

As for his mindset in singing the song, Gary shared, “When I recorded the song from the very start, it had to be ‘What are you feeling as a guy, Gary?,’ ‘What would a guy feel singing lyrics like these to the person, to the girl?’ and I left Julie Anne do her own thing and to express it her way.” Listeners will agree with him, when he added that “their vocals are blending with each other,” but emotionally, they are not the same.

The voices of Julie Anne and Gary V represent two perspectives when people decide to close a chapter in their lives to begin another one.

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