Singer-songwriter Nicole Asensio. Handout
MANILA – Singer-songwriter Nicole Asensio is set to drop a new song that took her years to write, record and release.
Titled “Silong,” the track will be available on Spotify beginning August 28.
Talking more about how the song came about, Asensio said she gave up on “Silong” many times because she could not find a proper ending to the lyrics she’d already written.
“It is also the only original song in my upcoming album that I did not predominantly write the lyrics for, instead I focused on the melody and being involved in instrumentation ideas with my bandmates,” she said in a press release.
While she first wrote the song in English, Asensio felt the melody asked for Filipino lyrics.
“I wrote 5 drafts of Tagalog lyrics and was unhappy with all of them. I reached out to a few songwriters for a writing collaboration, and none of the meetings happened. I decided it was time to bury the song,” she said.
And then her father passed away and that led her to stop writing songs for quite a while. Some years later, she decided to give the song another shot.
“But I wouldn’t take the lead on the lyrics for this one, I would be generous control-wise and let someone else take the lead. That person was a friend I’d never worked with before — Itchie Montilla, an ex-member of the Philippine Madrigal Singers. I sent him a melody and he sent back a draft of his lyrics, I edited them a bit and then called my trusted band barkada to come over,” she said.
Asensio got help from a group of friends until the song was finally ready to be recorded. At that time, another fear set it: “I’m going to have to sing. What if I can’t?”
To overcome this, Asensio sought the help of seasoned producer and performer Moy Ortiz to help her out with “because truthfully I was at a point where I lost all confidence.”
Asensio said “Silong” was originally supposed to be launched in January 2020 but the coronavirus pandemic happened.
Several months later, Asensio said she is now ready for everyone to hear this special song.
“Here I am, giving it a shot without expectations. Sometimes we can’t just play God and call out what’s meant to be and what isn’t… because our plans have worldly limitations… and who knows there may be a better plan that awaits if we choose to faith over fear,” she said.