Over October on authenticity in today’s music scene

Growing up playing music for the church and listening to a wide range of artists, Buizon was exposed to plenty of genres but mainly gravitated towards John Mayer, Coldplay and Hillsong. 

In his free time, Buizon often still works on band projects: He edits every reel or meme that the band posts on their Instagram page. When he’s not doing that, he watches popular TV shows on Netflix. Right now, he’s watching House of The Dragon.

Joric Canlas - Bassist

As a young kid, Canlas played music in the church. His favourite bands back then were Fall Out Boy and Paramore. But gospel music influenced his style at its core. “On the way to this gig, I was listening to Planetshakers—I heard a baseline, and it brought me back to my high school days,” he shares.

He watches anime or modifies his cars when he isn’t playing bass for The Ridleys or Over October. “For anime, I’m currently watching The Rising of the Shield Hero, but I’ve finished so much like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures, Attack on Titan, and Kaiju No. 8. For my car, I like DIY stuff, changing the belts, and spray painting my lights to get a certain hue. I love the process of detailing myself, like sanding the whole car and then buffing it out,” says Canlas.

Joshua Lua - Guitarist

His musician roots also extend back to the church. Lua played the piano during the offertory rites of a Mass. But what truly immersed him in music were icons such as John Mayer, 6cyclemind, and Goo Goo Dolls. “I grew up without formal training, so I learned mostly through songbooks,” quips Lua.

When he’s not helping Buizon write songs, playing guitar on stage, or working at his day job in data, Lua likes to play video games. 

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Anton Rodriguez - Guitarist

Growing up, Rodriguez was engrossed with The Beatles. In high school, he joined some bands but found the experience challenging due to incoherent set lists. “We’d have a mishmash of genres. We’d play songs by Radiohead, followed by Sublime, then Rage Against the Machine. It was random,” shares Rodriguez.

Currently, Rodriguez is still thinking of what he can do in his free time. As a lawyer, he often had to wake up early to work while balancing band life. The remaining time was spent resting. “I used to work in a very fast-paced and prestigious law firm, so I barely had any downtime. While I left a few months ago, I still don’t know what to do with my free time. Though I try to exercise, play some games and cook at home… They [the other band members] really like the bulalo and sinigang I made when we went to Baguio,” he says.

Janessa Geronimo - Drummer

A huge fan of the local music scene growing up, one could say that it was part of Geronimo’s destiny to end up in a band. However, she only started to tap into her potential once she joined Over October. “I feel a deep sense of responsibility to come up with drum parts that help bring out the best in my bandmates’ songs. That’s what ultimately inspires me to create,” quips Geronimo. She grew up listening to Paramore and Incubus. Recently, she has been listening to Munimuni, with her current driver being Clairo’s latest album, Charm.

She likes to spend her downtime with her loved ones. “I make it a point to meet up with friends and family while also spending quality time with my partner. I also try to make time for myself,” shares Geronimo.

Starting in 2014, the members of Over October met during an event by their college organisation, the Ateneo Musicians’ Pool. The idea was pitched by Lua, who asked Buizon if they wanted to form a band. Buizon agreed, and they added Geronimo, Rodriguez, and their original bassist, Andrew de Pano—who left the band in 2016 to play percussion for Ben&Ben. All members hail from the same university except Canlas, who studied at the University of Santo Tomas. “We would see each other on campus, but we never really hung out and talked. We only got together after the event, and Lua asked me if we wanted to start a band because we have the same name,” shares Buizon.

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They made their musical debut by performing during the intermission periods of guidance exams and organisation events, where they’d perform covers. While the band’s name is Over October, the band had its first gig in September. ‘I think it was on September 21 or 23. Our band name on the poster was just ‘Josh Buizon and band,’ says Lua. It was only on the fourth of October that they started performing under the name Over October.

At the time, Lua and Buizon were workshopping band names. From silly puns of their names such as ‘Josh&Josh’ and ‘Joshko Po’ to online generated names like ‘65 kilometres per hour’ and ‘Hindsight,’ they struggled for a month to find a name that stuck. “There’s this band called ‘Farewell Fair Weather’, and I wanted something similar to that. A name that rolls off the tongue the same way. So I thought of what Josh [Lua] and I had in common other than our names. I realised we were both born in October, so we wanted Something ‘October.’ We even thought of things like ‘Blue October’ and ‘Silver October’ before finally settling with our current name,” Buizon tells Tatler.

Performing for almost a decade now, Over October has come a long way—with over two million monthly listeners. Their first ‘hit’—Wait—was released in 2018 and was the most streamed song on their platforms. The following year, they signed with Universal Music Group (UMG) and released their first Tagalog song, Sandali Lang.

Currently, they’re back to being independent artists with a new hit song—Ikot—that has garnered over 12 million streams on Spotify and is being used in a TikTok trend. Their latest song, Kaakit-Akit has reached two million streams in just two weeks. “It feels like a dream come true, honestly. As a kid, I looked up to so many of the local bands, and we’ve come full circle now that we’re the ones kids look up to,” shares Geronimo.

Creating music is a team effort for Over October. While Buizon would usually write all of their early songs, the rest of the members would pour their heart into the arrangement process. Lua and Buizon spent many nights on Discord and Messenger calls to work on lyrics and thinking of melodies as they shot their pitches on a Google Doc—something Lua would describe as “very college paper vibes.”

“I would write the lyrics, then show them to the band, and we’d all come together to arrange them. As we matured as a band, the songwriting evolved. Some songs were written by the whole band, but lately, Lua and I have been collaborating to write songs together. There’s even one song that he wrote, but that’s not out yet,” adds Buizon.

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Outside the band’s schedules, the five members like to hang out and do regular activities that close friends do. Whether having drinks at Geronimo’s house after practice or eating out, they keep their decade-long bond strong. “What you see in social media—us being silly and funny—is how we are in real life. We’re just having fun and making jokes behind the scenes,” shares Buizon.

“We’ve been friends for more than a decade now, and the boys are some of my closest and dearest friends. I think of them more as my brothers, honestly, with the amount of time and memories we’ve shared together. Daming kulitan, minsan tampuhan. Pero ganon naman pag pamilya,” adds Geronimo.

With a large community of loyal fans, Over October nurtures the fanbase that they’ve built through hangouts. The band has a Facebook group called ‘the Over Octobears’, where they announce their upcoming gigs so they can get to know their fans on a personal level.

During the hangouts, they would host open mics, give everyone name tags, and interact with the fans. “Sometimes, before we post it on our official social media pages, we’ll post it on the group first, so our hardcore fans get first dibs. We’ll just tell them we’ll go to a park and anyone’s welcome. We would ask them to bring snacks to share and mats so we can sit on the grass—and it’s all free. It’s really important for us that they know we care for them,” share Buizon and Lua.

Over October is also part of a sub-community called AnyOverRidleys born from loyal fans of Any Name’s Okay, Over October, and The Ridleys. The fanbase was built by one fan with a Twitter account of the same name. “That person was a huge fan of all three bands and people realised that they also liked songs from us. It was all organic; we didn’t do anything about it, and it just happened… We’re all friends with the other bands, so whenever we have a gig, it’s usually the three of us together,” says Lua.

“Our core fans have been there from the start. So whenever we succeed, they feel like they did too, and that’s true. We owe our success to their efforts, and it’s amazing how we got a whole new community just by existing,” adds Rodriguez.

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Today’s music industry—put plainly—is difficult to break through. While online streaming has made the music creation space more accessible, releasing songs isn’t all it takes. You also need to build your brand. “Now more than ever, being an artist as a profession entails so much more than being proficient in your craft. It’s not just about being good at what you do. You also need to be knowledgeable about visuals. You can’t just have a song. You also need to think of the art that goes with it and how to promote it… You need to strike a healthy balance between putting out music that you like while marketing it in a way that’s still you,” Lua shares.

Their advice to disillusioned and struggling artists? Keep going, and never lose faith in your work. “Never forget the joy that started everything in the first place. You’re going to have to do a lot, meet and work with a lot of people, and wrestle with a lot of emotions. It’s easy to get lost in all of it, but the joy that ignited your passion never goes away. It just needs protecting and remembering,” says Geronimo.

“Don’t look at the numbers too much, it’s part of the journey,” adds Buizon.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Over October is hosting its first solo concert at the Music Museum in San Juan. The band also has plenty of new songs lined up for the future, so stay tuned for what lies ahead.

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