Original interview by DOUGBROCK
Retranslated to English for the general public by Sinking Fish
Original interview upload: January 29, 2023
Quick Links:
- Part 1: The Early Years
- Part 2: Taking the Leap
- Part 3: Rain-Soaked Dreams
- Part 4: Going Up with the Boys
- Part 5: The Rocksta Mentality
- Part 6: Tasting Success with SB19
- Part 7: Future-Proofing and Taking Risks
- Part 8: Keeping an Open Mind
- Part 9: Closing Thoughts
DOUGBROCK Radio Episode #89 Part 4 – Going Up with the Boys
Felip: They were interviewing us, right? I didn’t know the questions, and no one was allowed to tell me. I was last to go in. So yeah. I went in.
Hold on, I’m going to cough.
So I went in. They asked me a question.
Dougbrock: Wait, hold on. Sorry, sorry, sorry. There are 3 of you, the other 2 are done. You’re the last one. Okay go.
Felip: So the first question was, “In your opinion, why do we need to accept you?” I’ll never forget it.
Dougbrock: That’s so hard. “Why do we need to accept you?”
Felip: I said, “Because I’m the best one here.” I said that, man! I told myself I need to be confident. I’m going to risk this even if I look arrogant in front of them. I want this.
Dougbrock: How fast did you think of that answer?
Felip: Straight, no hesitation, “I’m the best one here.”
Dougbrock: “Why do we need to accept you?” then that right away?
Felip: It was like this, okay. I was sitting like this. Now ask me.
Dougbrock: “Yo, in your opinion, why do we need to accept you?”
Felip: “Because I’m the best one here.”
Dougbrock: That fast!
Felip: I put my hands on the table. “Because I’m the best one here” I even made this sound. I really made the interviewer laugh. They chuckled, “Okay, in your opinion, who is the best dancer trainee?”
“Out of the trainees you’re with right now, the best dancer?” I said, “Me, even out of the 4 who are already in, I’m so much better.” I said that!
Dougbrock: That day! Have you told your group mates this?
Felip: And then I said, “I know I’m not the best singer here, but I’m confident in my dance skills. So I think you need me.” That’s what I said! I acted so full of myself. Then they just laughed, didn’t say anything else, and had me go outside.
Dougbrock: Was it just 1 person?
Felip: Just 1 person. And then the 4 went in. They talked.
Dougbrock: Oh, the 4 who you’re group mates with now.
Felip: Yes, I thought, “I don’t understand what I’m feeling anymore.”
Dougbrock: You don’t know if you answered correctly.
Felip: I was like, “Why was I so arrogant? maybe they won’t like me anymore.” This and that. I had so many thoughts.
Dougbrock: “I’ll just go back to the province!”
Felip: Oh I was never going to go back there, I told myself. “I’ll just work. I’ll talk to auntie to help me get a job anywhere.”
Dougbrock: As long as you can stay here.
Felip: As long as I can stay here. I’ll work, I’ve had enough. I kind of lost myself.
Dougbrock: Your mom was so mad, and then your grandma- how could you return there? You didn’t finish school. So much pressure.
Felip: So much pressure. There were a lot of things happening in my mind. So they had us go home.
Dougbrock: They didn’t give their answer right away?! They made you go home?! What kind of-
Felip: They said in 1 week, actually they said after 3 days, they’ll give an answer. But then 1 week passed, and still no answer.
Dougbrock: Still no answer, shit! Hopefully it didn’t rain during that time. It’d be so hard waiting.
Felip: It was still raining, man. Still raining. Then it was supposed to be 3 days, they said. But it’s been a week, still no text. The anxiety was intense!
I contemplated starting to work, and began preparing. I wanted to apply [for jobs] even though I’m the kind of person who struggles to even place an order in fast food chains because I would be too shy.
Dougbrock: Why?
Felip: I don’t know. Do they call it a phobia or something? My whole family knows it. [That] even if it means I can’t eat, I still wouldn’t place an order because I’m super shy. They ask so many questions!
Dougbrock: Really? You couldn’t order at fast food?
Felip: I really can’t place an order. I was shy, scared, all that.
Dougbrock: Okay, so you had a phobia for that.
Felip: Well, maybe. I can’t say if you can actually call it a phobia. It’s probably because I grew up in a rural area, or maybe that’s just me.
Even in college, my friends would place an order for me. So I never got used to it. I’m scared to ask questions, ask for directions, stuff like that.
I had to fight against it. I had no choice! I had to find work since they hadn’t contacted me when it had already been a week.
Dougbrock: Right. They said 3 days.
Felip: 3 days. So I thought that was it. The situation felt hopeless! So I was about to leave, then I suddenly got a call, “Come to the studio.”
Dougbrock: That same day?!
Felip: That same day. So I thought, “Why do they want me to come? It’s already been a week.” So I asked why. And they said, “Why? What, don’t you want to train?”
Dougbrock: Like you don’t even want to.
Felip: Yes, they said, “Oh, you don’t want to train? Do you want someone else to train instead?” I was so excited, man. Super happy.
Dougbrock: Because you finally got accepted!
Felip: I was jumping around, I said, “Lord, thank you so much.” Because it felt like heaven fell on me. So then, yeah, I went to the studio. And then I’ll skip- we were complete, 5. I think it was for about 6 months that I trained.
Dougbrock: With them this time.
Felip: Yes, with them. Six months, then we debuted. This was 2018.
Dougbrock: And then you debuted. So there. That was childhood up to training. I really respect that situation wherein you needed to sleep, but it would rain.
Felip: Oh, this part my aunt doesn’t know about. But there was one time when I was soaked, and she came out. The noise woke her up.
It was raining, and I was drenched. I was scooping out the rain water. “Ken, you poor thing! Come inside, sleep in here!” I said, “It’s okay, auntie! It’s already 5am, so I’ll cook soon!” She didn’t know. Just that one time, she caught me.
Dougbrock: But it happened a lot of times during the rainy season. And you had to endure that even if you trained for 9 hours.
Felip: Yes, and my rest was already not enough, right?
Dougbrock: And you still need to bring your cousin to school. Oh my god, respect!
Felip: That was the only time that she caught me doing that.
Dougbrock: Well I really really respect that. So that was from the start until debut.
We talked about so many things. We’re going to take a break first.
[Channel Promotion]
So what now? Let’s get back to the podcast.
What is up, cyberspace? You’re still here on your favorite podcast, I’m Dougbrock. To everyone watching there on the livestream, there on our premiere, thank you so much. If you still haven’t subscribed, just hit the subscribe button. And of course also hit the notification bell so you’re updated on future episodes and other programs of Dougbrock TV. But let’s get back to the podcast. We’re still here with Felip.
Felip: Yup. Yo what’s up everyone? I’m still here.
Dougbrock: Bro the story earlier was so solid. Shout out to that aunt who chose to let Felip stay even though it was all so sudden. This guy is so surprising! He suddenly arrives with a half sack of rice.
Felip: It’s true!
Dougbrock: But yeah bro, moving forward. You guys launched, the group just debuted, which is SB19. Five members. And then what? 2018.
Felip: Yeah, so we made our debut. But opportunities were limited because we operated as an independent company. Being independent artists, we lacked connections and had to navigate various paths. It was hard to get connections because our company was owned by a Korean entity, so they also didn’t have connections here in the Philippines.
Dougbrock: They didn’t really have a network yet.
Felip: Yes, really nothing yet, so I remember our 1st performance. I’ll never forget it.
I was feeling down because this was our very 1st performance. My aunt watched- they all came to support me; Uncle Den, Aunt Ann, and my cousins—two little ones, and one in college. They watched, and my voice cracked, man!
Dougbrock: Your first live as SB19.
Felip: I couldn’t shake off my nerves; after all, it was our very first performance, and there were people watching. That really weighed on me.
They tried to reassure me, saying it was okay, but it didn’t feel that way to me. I still felt bad, but I managed to pull through and make up for it.
At that time, we hadn’t officially debuted yet; they were simply giving us a taste of performing live and experiencing what it’s like to have an audience.
Dougbrock: But you guys weren’t launched yet.
Felip: Yeah, at that point, we hadn’t officially launched. They were simply introducing us, teasing our upcoming debut. It was our dream to become true artists, so we chose a ballad for our first performance. We wanted to showcase our singing abilities—believing that first impressions are lasting.
Eventually, we debuted, releasing our very first song titled “Tilaluha”, a ballad. We were thrilled when it was released on Spotify, YouTube, and other platforms; But nothing really happened. No one seemed to support it.
Dougbrock: No traction.
Felip: Yes. But we were still happy to see it, “Wow our names are here!” You know that feeling? As new artists, it’s a dream [come true] to see your name and yourself on YouTube or any platform.
We were so happy but there was just a lack of enthusiasm from others. So we couldn’t resist feeling unmotivated to continue. We talked that if on our next release nothing happened, we’d stop.
Dougbrock: Who talked? The group? You 5? Was the talk personal?
Felip: The group, the talk was personal.
Dougbrock: So the group was really sad, huh?
Felip: Yes, really sad. Because every time, we had an open forum.
Dougbrock: After events and stuff like that.
Felip: Yes, we’d admit our feelings and that discussion came up—we acknowledged that if nothing changed, it could be the end of our journey.
“Go Up” was released; so was its music video. Still, nothing happened. No one watched. Well, a few did, but not much.
It was our passion to perform and make music, but it gets hard sometimes. People often say things like “Even if no one listens…” [and stuff like that] but for us, having an audience was important. I invested in myself, so personally, that’s how I felt.
I took a risk, so I was hoping that people would take notice of us. When the music video was released and nothing changed, we found ourselves brainstorming all sorts of ideas, thinking, “Let’s give it one more chance!”
Dougbrock: Because you guys believed in the song.
Felip: Yes, we had faith in the song. “Alright, let’s give it one more shot,” we decided. So, we filmed the dance practice and released it.
The next morning, as I walked into the studio, they said, “Hey! Guess what? We’ve gone viral!” And I said, “Huh? What do you mean [we went] viral?” [I was taken aback] because I wasn’t much into social media.
So they just told me, and I said, “Is this a joke?”
They were jumping for joy! So they said, “It’s seriously not! Look on Twitter!”
Dougbrock: How many views was it when you looked?
Felip: A lot already. Twitter was where it went viral. Someone shared it, “Wow, we actually have a boy group that’s super synchronized like this,”—[while also] praising the song and all. I said, “Wow!”
I think it had 600k views on Twitter. Just overnight!
Dougbrock: Wow! That was so much at that time! So fast!
Felip: I thought to myself, “Could this be the beginning?” It was truly incredible. Among so many individuals, to be granted an opportunity like that, we were among the fortunate ones who persevered. There were times when we thought about giving up. But yeah, every time we felt like things are becoming hopeless, something always urged us to go on. Perhaps we do still have a purpose.
So a lot of people found inspiration in our journey, and we were slowly getting recognized. We got invited to different TV stations—so we were performing as we established our name. Eventually, we had our first concert, which was for free. The aim was to widen our reach and attract an audience. The concert, [although it was] free, drew in around 300 or 400 people, if I recall correctly.
Dougbrock: Where is this?
Felip: In San Juan, what is that place called?
Dougbrock: Music Museum?
Felip: No, it was really small.
Dougbrock: Teatrino?
Felip: It was like- Yes, I think that’s it. It was like Teatrino.
Dougbrock: In Greenhills?
Felip: Yes yes. Oh Greenhills? In San Juan yes. It was there.
Dougbrock: Anyways, somewhere. A small venue. And then, just free.
Felip: It was just free. Around 300 or 400 people attended the concert, since we had a viral breakthrough. So yeah, people came, we were happy. We invited our friends, uncles, aunts, and cousins—they all came. Following this success, we began touring locally.
Dougbrock: What year was this? Still 2018? or already ‘19?
Felip: Seems like it. Wait, this happened in… was it 2019? We had to stop because of the pandemic.
Dougbrock: The pandemic was 2020. So this was 2019.
Felip: Yeah, this was ‘19. That’s right. Because it was the “Go Up” era. “Go Up” was popular at that time. So yeah. We were able to tour 5 cities I think, and then the lock down suddenly started. It stopped. So what we did was just [create] content on social media.
Dougbrock: During pandemic.
Felip: During pandemic. But we’re thankful because there were still brands that connected with us to keep going.
Dougbrock: Sponsors.
Felip: Yeah, we continued to receive sponsorship and brand endorsements, which we were deeply grateful for. While others may not have been as fortunate in this regard, we were thankful for the opportunities we had.
Dougbrock: Despite the pandemic.
Felip: Despite the pandemic. Because for the artists… right? For example, you just started, and then suddenly there’s a pandemic. It’s heavy. It weighed heavily on a lot of people. But for us, we were really lucky because-
Dougbrock: That was the time when-
Felip: Yes, we were super lucky. Also because it was our fans who provided unwavering support. So we’re very grateful to them. Anyway, the pandemic was still around. We weren’t allowed to leave then, right? Because [of the] lock down.
When we were allowed out again, we shot our “What?” MV and it did pretty well. There was a surge in viewership and reactions because everyone was at home during that period.
Dougbrock: Everyone was just at home. It was popular to be on Online Rambulan, right?
Felip: Yes, Online Rambulan on Facebook, 5pm. So yeah, we released “What?”, then one after the other.
Dougbrock: And “What?” was still successful, right?
Felip: Yes, still successful. We’re still thankful. Our fans were there with us, and have remained so until today.