The trouble with the curve: One of indie music’s best kept secrets, Dystocia Curve, is on deck for another at-bat.

The trouble with the curve: One of indie music’s best kept secrets, Dystocia Curve, is on deck for another at-bat.

by rick olivares

Our new album is going to be titled, “Gardenero,” shared Dystocia Curve lead singer Bong Banal. “Para sa mga nagtatanim ng sama ng loob.”

The other members of the band – guitarists Archie Verano and Gerald Agapay, and Banal’s wife, Mads, who plays keyboards and sings as well – let out a nervous laugh. It is said that jokes are funny because they are partially true. And it seems even more ironic how the band’s career has mimicked its name (the term ‘Dystocia Curve’ refers to a chart that is used to determine hard labor during childbirth).

Eight years in and two albums in – well, four because the debut album Complex Disorders of Adult Life encompassed three volumes and a total of 36 songs – the members of Dystocia Curve aren’t exactly laughing.

The band has struggled in terms of well… recognition or even sales. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy but with Bong’s really good songs, us gigging non-stop, we thought we’d find some form of success. Maybe not stardom but something to make everything worthwhile,” admitted Verano. “But that wasn’t the case.”

Dystocia Curve formed in 2004 after Banal thought that he’d try his hand at songwriting after his one-man art show. “I essentially wrote songs about life’s concerns; my problems, problems that people – who I personally know -- go through.”

Those songs formed Complex Disorders of Adult Life, the box set describes, are ”36 songs of love, loss, and life”. It was a product of abundant passion and emotion; a deep belief in the power of music to express one’s self. The songs were about heartaches, weakness, sins, unfaithfulness, romance and sex, midlife crisis, failing people, and having no direction. Bong’s earnest vocals were pained and cut like a knife. And despite crisscrossing with the gossamer voice of Mads, if you listen closely, it’s intense and leaves you in a state of mush by album’s end.

That trilogy of albums reminded one of American indie pop band, The Magnetic Fields, that released a three-album opus titled 69 Love Songs that was celebrated by music critics for its unique takes on age-old clichés while providing off-beat and lush instrumentation.

Dystocia Curve is the same in concept and spirit but is closer to Yano minus the biting sarcasm. It was an album about coming to terms with failure in love and the promise of something new. Even the follow up, Metro Love, that was released in 2014 and featured 13 songs about city life and its myriad concerns that literally swamp a person, the music was just as introspective, poignant, and painful.

“At the time of Complex Disorders, we were still dreaming, still trying, gigging. Songwriter’s Night at Conspiracy, Club Dredd, Freedom Bar, production nights,” related Bong. “Hindi namin alam around the time the album came out, nag greatly wane yung CD sales. Feeling naming after this album, I could retire from my work (in advertising). We were swinging for the moon….”

“We made a lot of sacrifices. We had expectations. Then hindi na-meet,” succinctly put in Agapay. “Dati sabi ko, itong weekend ibibigay ko sa Dystocia Curve. Ngayon, mahirap.”

“Hindi naman ako masyadong nag-expect kasi meron din naman akong ibang buhay,” bared Mads who is a doctor by profession. “Yung passion ko sa music hindi tulad sa tatlo. Pero, gusto ko rin maging ibang buhay. Kaso hindi pala ganun kadali. Ibinigay mo na ang lahat pero wala. When I was young, I was used to winning. This time, I was disappointed. It is life-changing; a new experience to me kasi hindi ako nag-win. Yung sugat Malaki. And because of that, ang hirap mag-dream.”

“Pero now, life moved on. Hindi naman pala natapos yung mundo,” added Bong.

The band hasn’t performed together in over a year. The last time they performed it was as a duo; the Banals performing at Uno Morato while both Archie and Gerald attended to their new families. 

Yet hope springs eternal. There’s a new album on the horizon. And mayhap, a new approach to a career that has jaded them to a point. One where their melancholic and poignant songs will reach a bigger audience. It is a new approach in which they are planning meticulously like an advertising campaign.

“’Gardenero’ – with a ‘G’ – is 27 new songs,” revealed Bong. “I am not really saying it’s more of the same, but it’s our collective story from the past four years.”

The band refuses to place a date on its release. Instead, the talk now about a different approach to gigging, to get their music across.

“Ako?” summed up Verano. “I think we’ve always had good songs. Maybe now, with a different approach people will get to hear us.”

Maybe this time, they’ll be able to smack that wicked curve ball that life has pitched to them.