Reese Lansangan’s Home featured in a center spread of this month’s YES Magazine.
…

The wedding day of Vic and Pauleen was drawing near and I was still searching for that ONE song to use for their wedding film. I was drawing blanks.

The collaboration with Johnoy Danao for Nikki Gil’s wedding was so creatively fulfilling (and successful) that I just had to do it again. But I have yet to find a songwriter given the time constraint.

So one night just after Christmas, I was driving home from a shoot and heard this quaint song on the radio. The melody was catchy but it was the lyrics that hooked me. It was witty. It was hilarious. It was intelligent. That song was Grammar Nazi, and it was by an artist I was familiar with – Reese Lansangan (whom I cannot tag here because she has exceeded her friend request limit – I know the feeling).

I reached out right away and set up a meeting. Wedding season was still in full swing so we had to meet at night after a shoot. We braved Katipunan and met her and her cousin Thea in Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

She was very much the vivacious artist I pictured her to be.
Platinum hair. Enthusiastic. Appreciative. Creative.
That meeting was on January 16. Despite the constraint, she gladly said yes to the project. The wedding was at the end of the month.

Really the only input I had were the themes of the song and a certain structure I needed for it to work with moving images.

We all know there was a certain “you and me against the world” start to Vic and Pauleen’s story that I wanted to play up. And that they didn’t care. Reese’s lyrics dealt with those teams in a tender, moving way that avoided cliches.

And when I heard the demo, I knew then and there, that was it. That was THE song.

But nobody knows
How we go
When we’re alone
It’s like we’re home

https://reeselansangan.bandcamp.com/track/home
Words and Music by Reese Lansangan (c) 2016
Arranged by Reese Lansangan, Allen Dave Articulo, and Choi Padilla
Mixed and Mastered at Point Bee Multimedia

Photo by Oly Ruiz.