Lola Amour on ‘Dance with My Mistakes,’ bouncing back from failure

Lola Amour in a promo photo for “Dance with My Mistakes.” Image: Courtesy of Warner Music Philippines

Lola Amour is aware that mistakes are inevitable. This is why the members take it upon themselves to acknowledge each other’s mishaps and figure out what to do next. One result of growing from their mistakes is their new single “Dance with My Mistakes,” which is based on a personal story of their pianist, David Yuhico.

The OPM band — consisting of Pio Dumayas, David Yuhico, Zoe Gonzales, Manu Dumayas, Angelo Mesina, Jeff Abueg and Raffy Perez — had the knack for “taking sad things and making them happy” through music. The sad things in question include accepting that mistakes are normal, as reflected in their new single “Dance with My Mistakes,” done with international producers Hyuk Shin and Cuurley.

“As a band, usually what we do is we acknowledge it. And then we don’t really waste time on dwelling on the mistake. We just like to move forward all the time,” Pio said in a sit-down interview with INQUIRER.net while Manu, David, Jeff, and Raffy nodded in agreement.

“Siguro, kung may magkamali, ang gagawin namin (I guess if one makes mistakes, what we’ll do), once we talk about the mistake, the next step is what do we do next? Like, how do we move on from this? What should be the next step?” he added.

According to the band, “Dance with My Mistakes” was done at a songwriting camp in Malaysia. “It was the first song that we wrote in the second camp. The songs we wrote [at the time] are based on personal experiences,” Manu explained. Working with Shin and Cuurley was also the best of both worlds as it allowed them to “bring out the craziness” and tone it down at the same time.

“The mark of an amazing producer is that he sees what you do and he brings out the best in you. He doesn’t blend [music styles], but he elevates your own, and whatever you do, he’ll make it even greater,” David said of their working experience with Shin and Cuurley. “They’re really the perfect match.”

Dancing with failure

Aside from David, the band admitted that the majority of the times they had to “dance with their mistakes” happened during their college days. For Manu, there was a time he “bit off more than what [he could] chew” when “Raining in Manila” exploded in popularity.

Meanwhile, Pio admitted that his mistake during his college days at the University of the Philippines was “enjoying life,” instead of focusing on his studies. “The result? I was delayed for two years. I spent six years at UP,” he said, although it was clear that he had moved on from the incident since then.

“The turning point was when I was told that I couldn’t pass the class anymore because of attendance. That was when I was delayed for [a certain period of] semesters because the subject was seasonal,” he said. “At the time, it was heartbreaking to know that my batchmates would graduate and I wasn’t able to join them. In the end, the extra experience from my stay in college contributed to the meaning that life has given me. It translated to our songs also.”

Lola Amour in a promo photo for “Dance with My Mistakes.” Image: Courtesy of Warner Music Philippines

Meanwhile, Jeff recalled the time he was “a broke college boy” who enjoyed going out despite being penniless. “At some point during the pandemic, I had no money,” he said of the experience.

“So I was like, okay, everything that I have is going to my recital. I was like, I’m going to start saving smarter. I should have done that before. But yeah, here we are,” he further recalled. Manu then jokingly chimed in, “Don’t follow Jeff, we’re all about financial literacy.” In response, Jeff quipped, “Now, I am financially literate. I hope so.”

Raffy, on the other hand, said there was a time in college when he “wasn’t the most sociable guy” and would watch “The Office” most of the time. Looking back at his past experiences, the drummer wished he had taken the time to enjoy himself instead of “consuming [his] personal interests.”

“I didn’t make an effort to be close enough with my blockmates. I mean, we’re all in really good terms. But my mistake was that I didn’t make the effort to be closer to them because they’re all really nice people,” he shared. “I just wish I had experienced life more in college… But then, Lola Amour happened. And they all know about it. They even support me for that.”

Touching on their careers, David also shared that “Raining in Manila” came at a time when they were working on an album. “And then we completely focused on ‘Raining in Manila,’ which became a huge success,” he said, noting that the band was in the process of developing their sound during the time of the song’s success.

“And then when we went back into writing the album. It’s like, ‘Oh, this is an old sound.’ ‘Oh, but you want to go here?’ So we tried to shift. But the result was like, the album was a throwback, and also looking forward. I hope that’s what it sounded like,” he continued.

Pio then explained that the album is an “overdue” project for them, almost to the point that the members’ music tastes have changed. “We postponed it enough already to the point that nagbabago na taste namin (our tastes are changing), not our entire heart was making it for the music. It felt like there was also some level of, we owed ourselves to finish this, especially before.”

Inspire, instead of compete

Despite emerging as one of the most popular bands (especially for Gen-Z listeners) today, the band pointed out that they make it a point to focus on “pushing [their] limits.” For them, being in the music industry is a “dream job,” and they have to make the most out of every unique opportunity.

“To get as far as possible with all these opportunities that you’re blessed with, I guess ‘yun ‘yung nagiging passion namin (that is our passion now), to see where it brings us. It’s like we want to show other people and young musicians that things are possible,” Pio explained.

“And to see what we can achieve to represent also the OPM scene, not just ourselves, diba (right)? “You don’t have to follow whatever is out there. You can make your own path, you know,” he continued.

Lola Amour in a promo photo for “Dance with My Mistakes.” Image: Courtesy of Warner Music Philippines

Raffy, with a smile, pointed out that inspiring listeners is one of the greatest achievements an artist can have. This explains why receiving messages such as “your music saved me” or “your music changed my life” is a big boost for him.

“It’s like the greatest feeling for me, seeing other people [where] you play such an important part in their lives. That you don’t even realize how huge it actually is. So yeah, the inspiration that we bring as Lola Amour is not just the ‘Raining in Manila’ band, but also the band that somehow inspires everyone who listens to our music,” he further explained.

The band was also all smiles when David said he wants Lola Amour to be remembered as a band that “stayed true” to themselves.

“I want to be remembered as a band that was always true to itself. Always sharing music that we wanted, not what we thought was trendy or whatever. Just that we loved what we put out. And we were always true to that,” he said.