Interview with singer Tria Bascon
Dear readers, we’re about to present you an extended Q&A with Tria Bascon, a talented singer and passionate traveller: we’ll discover her way of life, her upcoming projects and her music career. The original interview can be read below, in English; it will be later on released in Italian.
I know you are from the Philippines, but from your Instagram account and music videos we can see you are a big traveller. So, let me start with asking you: where and when did you realize you wanted music to be your job?
I come from a very musical family, with older siblings becoming professional singers, and music as a natural part of the family whilst growing up, but I really became a professional singer quite by chance.
Whilst studying for a degree in Business Management at University in my hometown of Cebu, I was also working as a bartender in a very elegant pub and restaurant which had a 4-piece jazz band with a very good jazz singer. I learnt all the songs by heart just by listening to the band every night for 2 years. One night, after work, whilst practicing a song for a presentation in school, my boss came by and heard me singing. He was surprised to learn that I could sing, told me to practice with the band and offered me a weekly slot. Some days I was the singer and other days, the bartender.
After a couple of months, I was offered the opportunity to sing full time as the Resident Singer in one of the major hotels in Cebu, even before gaining my degree.
My eldest brother is a professional singer and became a great influence. He encouraged me to take it up and move to Manila where there were more opportunities.
A couple of years later, I made the move to Manila and started singing in all the luxury hotels there.
For many years now, I have been working overseas, performing as exclusive Resident Artist in many luxury hotel chains. This is one of the reasons I now travel extensively and frequently between US, Europe and Asia, both for professional and personal reasons.
Would you tell us more about your creative process? Do you just perform the songs? Or are you also involved in writing and arranging them?
My normal routine every night as a Resident Artist of a hotel entails singing an average of 40-50 songs/night. Fortunately, this has allowed me to develop a very wide repertoire over the years of experience, enabling me to sing songs of different types and genres to accommodate a wide variety of audiences. This includes jazz standards, ballads, bossanova, latin jazz, blues, rock, pop, fusion, contemporary pop, songs from Broadway musicals, etc.
Very often many specific songs are requested during my nightly performances. I usually have these requested songs written by my arranger in Manila, Rito Lanuza, to enable me to sing them with the band. This is after a discussion with Rito on how we rearrange the song to make it my own version.
For the songs in my albums, I have different arrangers write the arrangements of the revived songs in order to have a different version or interpretation.
I have original songs in the albums that were written for me but have not tried writing my own songs yet. That is something I would like to do in the future when I have more time.
One of the most popular tracks from your album (Wanderlust, 2012) is entitled I’m Old Fashioned and I think it perfectly defines the classic and elegant piano bar atmosphere provided by your music. Where do you get your inspiration from? Which are your icons?
The Wanderlust album represents the type of music that I usually sing in my nightly performances. Since I travel a lot and perform for a very international audience, the album is like a musical travelogue.
Most of the songs in the Album are classic standards, the concept of the album being that of the Old Hollywood Glamour, an era that I love so much.
There are a lot artists that have influenced my music such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Natalie Cole, Frank Sinatra, Julie London, Barbra Streisand, Patti Austin, Carpenters, Diana Ross and also including many contemporary artists. I truly appreciate many artists from an entire spectrum of music genre that it is difficult to mention them all. I also find the music of Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli very inspiring and moving.
Again, in your album there are songs in many languages (even one in Italian!). How many languages do you speak? Did you learn languages because of your career in music?
I have always had an interest in learning languages but starting my formal studies came about by circumstances at the time, rather than planned.
Italian was the first language studied, being inspired by working with Moreno Donadel in Beijing. Moreno was my pianist, becoming a very good friend, and a collaborator on my “Wanderlust” Album.
French came about later as preparation for a post graduate course in Hotel Management at the IHTTI School of Hotel Management in Neuchatel, a French speaking region in Switzerland. Part of the curriculum was the requirement to take a foreign language, choosing Spanish. I studied Spanish in University and coming from a country colonized by Spain have many Spanish derived words, a great help.
If possible, I believe the best way of learning a language is to be fully immersed, and fortunately I’ve had the opportunity to live and study intensively in Rome, South of France and Madrid. With all three languages I’ve returned to each Country taking further intensive courses as well as continuing with private lessons with my Tutors via Skype.
Most recently deciding to further my Japanese by joining an intensive course in Tokyo in 2020. Unfortunately, Covid caused the plan to be abandoned.
Whilst not strictly planned, I’ve loved the process of learning languages and it is a wonderful aid, both performing and interacting with my audiences.
I would like you to tell us about something you consider your biggest achievement as a singer by now, and then something you are really looking forward to.
My biggest achievements as a singer is firstly when my Wanderlust Album, which I also produced, was nominated in several categories and winning in 3 categories at the AWIT Awards. These awards are the Philippines’ equivalent to the Grammy Awards. I was fortunate to have worked on the Album with renowned International jazz pianist Moreno Donadel, who was my collaborator, Moy Ortiz who was my Album producer, and also with the best arrangers and musicians in the Philippines. It is a validation of all the hard work and effort I put into the Album.
Secondly, is the opportunity to have been consistently performing as Resident Singer in many international luxury hotel brand chains for many years.
I am looking forward to releasing my second Album on which once again I’m producing and collaborating with Moreno. The release has been on hold due to several circumstances including the pandemic last year. I hope to be able to do that as soon as the timing is much better. Then eventually, launch the third Album.
Are you up to something interesting in the next months?
Moreno and I have started working on a third album project. The concept is an acoustic album of foreign language versions of songs including Italian. The back-up tracks have already been recorded and I will be recording my vocal tracks soon.
And finally: would you like to say something to our Italian readers?
Amo l’Italia e mi è piaciuto viverci per diversi periodi di tempo. Spero di tornarci quest’anno.
I love Italy and I liked living there. I hope I’ll visit your country again this year.
We suggest you to follow Tria both on Instagram (where she personally manages two accounts) and on YouTube: you can also visit her official website and download the audio tracks of Wanderlust from Spotify, Amazon, iTunes and CD Baby.
Interview Edited by Giada Giamborino e Chiara Tomasella
