A Gallery of Q & A with the guys of WarholSoup

WarholSoup has a sound that is a true infusion of many genres, like pure-rock, reggae, jazz, and more. They formed their band about three years ago and have been playing professionally ever since. You can find their music and performance schedule on myspace. I suggest you all listen to “Catch me if you can”. Their song “Let me love you” and the snippet of “Food for thought” are very jazzclub sexy. The young foursome is doing their best to help shed light on a recent tragedy that was over looked by the mainstream media by performing at a benefit concert tonight. Beethoven once said “Only the pure of heart can make good soup”; Andy Warhol once said “Painting is an excuse to listen to really good music”. Well the maestro and the art genius really must have had these guys in mind when they said those things. I was really lucky to get some time to ask the guys some questions about their most recent gig in NYC.

Q: Firstly can you give me a roll-call of the members in your band and what instruments they play. I am aware that you are the lead vocalist, correct?

• “Wonder” Marq Romero- vocals
• Ace “Weeping Panda” Arnejo - guitar
• John “Kedo” Sayson - bass
• Carlo “Ponti” David - drums

Q: Also how did you all meet?

A:Ace and John, in a Belleville, NJ basement, were trying to form a band for the past 5 years, but after several vocalists, they still couldn’t find one that fit their style.  Then came the summer of 2005, I was a solo acoustic artist who was searching for a band to help take my aspirations as a musician to the next level. I was seriously praying to God for a kick-ass band for 3 months straight.  I had a gig at a local Filipino heritage festival and I noticed some strange dude kept looking at me. Everywhere I was, he was there…watching me. Then it came to me, that he was probably gay. So I didn’t think about it anymore until I looked up and he was walking towards me. Not even introducing himself or saying hello, he said, “Do you want to join a band?”  I was totally taken by surprise at first until I reflected for a second and couldn’t believe that here I was, praying 3 months out of frustration for a band, and out of the heavens this drops on me.  It was an answered prayer, which later became known as WarholSoup.

Q: Who decided on the name Warhol Soup? Where did it stem from?

A: Here’s another interesting story that we were brought together by fate. Our very first meeting at Ace’s house the first thing I noticed was that he had an Andy Warhol painting that he made.  I got all excited because I was wearing my new pair of Andy Warhol Adidas Superstar 35th Anniversary Edition. Later that day we were trying to think of names for our band, and then just being overwhelmed with all the recent signs and answered prayers we went back to our first meeting and the Andy Warhol connection. We didn’t want to stick one genre, so we built on the Campbell Soup series that Warhol did.  We wanted the name to reflect our music: funky, jazzy, rock, hip-hop all into one. But also have a deeper meaning as well.  As Pop Art was a movement against abstract expressionism, our music is a movement against all the negativity that pollutes the media and society…positive, spiritual, and feel-good music.  An artistic and musical soup if you will….  WarholSoup.

Q: Do you all enjoy Andy Warhol’s work or do you just like canned soup?

A:I’m pretty sure, Ace, Ponti, and myself are Warhol fans.  Not sure about John. I think he just likes the soup.

Q: Ok Spill! *no pun* what are the guys in your band favorite soup dishes?

A: We all love sinigang! (stole this off of wikipedia: “a Philippine dish famous for the variety of ingredients one can use as well as for its taste. Though considered a soup, it is not eaten as is, but rather combined as a viand with rice. Sinigang is typically sour and is most often likened to Thailand’s tom yam. Sinigang often incorporates stewed fish, pork, chicken, shrimp, or beef. Sinigang’s characteristic taste is attributed to the ingredient that gives its sour taste, not to the meat’s flavor.”)

Q: What are the genre(s) of music that you try to have your sound embrace?

A: So many.  Jazz, funk, rock, hiphop, blues.  I guess you can say warholsoup is “Nu-Jazzy-Jersey-Multifunk-Rock-Rappery”

Q: Who are your influences musically and who are your heroes personally?

• A: Marq- musically: Michael Jackson, James Brown, Freddie Mercury (Queen), Stevie, Prince, Bob Marley, Rage Against the Machine. Personal heroes: Parents, Bono, Dhali Lama, Ghandi, Batman, and Spiderman
• A: Ace- heroes: Jimi Hendrix, slash, Bob Marley, Deep Purple, Eraserheads. Personal: mom and dad, Jose Rizal
• A: Ponti- heroes: John Bonham, Jimi Hendrix, Horatio Hernandez, Chick Corea, Dave Weckl

Q: What is on your mp3 player right now?

• A: Marq- Coldplay’s new album “Viva La Vida”, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Vampire Weekend
• A: Ponti- Typically when I run I listen to what-aolradio-calls extreme alt rock, like Slipknot, Sevendust, Tool, Foo Fighters, Mudvayne, etc. Gets the blood flowing, know what I mean. But, at home I mostly listen to Jazz, Fusion and Neo-soul.

Q: Now can you tell me a bit about the “Shine for Our people Event”? What is it? What is it for?

A: Shine For Our People is an event to help raise funds towards the Typhoon Frank relief effort in the Philippines.  Over one million people were displaced, and there are billions of pesos worth of damages to homes and agriculture.  557 died, and there at least 100 people that are still unidentified.

When I found out the typhoon struck my parent’s home province of Aklan, and even worse when I head the news that my cousin-in-law’s mother died on the ship that capsized sailing from Manila to Cebu, I immediately knew I had to answer the calling within me to help.  To think I was there in February for vacation, and to now see photos and video of the damage really breaks my heart.  I feel for my uncle Carlito Marquez, who is governor of Aklan. He is a strong man and an inspiration to the people there. I have all the faith in the world he will rebuild Aklan brighter and better than before.

Q: How did you get involved with “The shine for our people event”?

A: Like I said in the last question, my family in the Philippines was affected.  So this event literally hit home for me.  As a Christian, musician, and wannabe humanitarian, one of the main reasons I ultimately do music is to use God’s gifts as a tool to help out the less fortunate.  I’ve never organized an event like this, but thanks to the help of Jeannel Garcia and CeeJay “the DJ” Guiang (Deep Foundation), it will be a reality on Sept. 12 @ BLVD. And the response we have been getting has been better than I expected!  I believe people do want to help when disaster strikes, but the problem is we don’t know where to begin, how to help, or I’ll even admit this, that I get lazy to help, thinking with the mentality that “everything will be ok”. But on the real, helping is so much easier than we think!

I feel like there’s a lack of fundraiser shows with all the amazing talent that New York and New Jersey has to offer. It seems like every month it’s either a hurricane, land slide, earthquake, or something disastrous that leaves many homeless, missing, disabled, and even dead. So why not utilize all this talent for the greater good! I have a job that pays the bills and helps me buy the freshest sneakers around, so I’m not trying to make a fortune off of playing a show. Heck, I’m not even complaining, but it’s not like us independent artists make a lot from performing anyway. So this here is a call to action to all artists, promoters, organizers, whoever, to do their best to use the gifts that God gave you to do amazing things to help the less fortunate or whatever cause that you believe in!

Q: Do you feel that this disaster may have been overlooked by the mainstream western media in comparison to other recent Asian disasters and tragedies?

A: Definitely. Although I personally don’t feel it’s right for me to compare tragedies and say one is more tragic than the other.  People lives were lost in the earthquake in China, the tsunami in Thailand, the earthquake in India, and the typhoon in the Philippines.  That’s where the tragedy is the same- many lives were lost.  I do think one of the main reasons typhoon frank wasn’t given that much media coverage was because we’re at a time where all the media wants to cover is McCain vs Obama!  This is also just a theory, but with what seems to be so many natural disasters happening so often nowadays (seems like every month), the public may be starting to become immune when we hear a natural disaster strikes.  So hopefully this event will encourage others to pay attention and help raise awareness for such tragedies.

Q: How can we support this event and help?

A: You can support by coming to BLVD on Sept 12! But if you can’t make it to the show, you can donate any amount by buying a “donation ticket” at www.shineforourpeople.eventbrite.com.  All proceeds will be going to the Ayala Foundation.  And be sure to log on to www.shineforourpeople.com for updates on more fundraisers I’ll be planning in the future.  In the spirit of organizing “Shine For Our People”, I decided to buy the domain name and make an official site with the hopes of turning “Shine For Our People” into a continuing effort to help the poverty-stricken in my homeland of the Philippines, as well as in other third-world countries.

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I hope to leave everyone inspired to do their part for this event, even if you can’t attend please spread the word. There is a qoute from 1949s ”The Soup Book” that tells us that soup can do more to lift the spirits and stimulate the appetite than any other one dish …Soup is the song of the hearth…  and the home.  Also there is an old Latin saying that says between soup and love, the first is better …  All I can say to that is How fitting.

Thank you to Marq and the guys for giving me this interview on such short notice. I know you guys are swamped.. so thank you so very much!