Asian Music Review | Asian voices matter
Deep, experimental, and totally empowering!
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Welcome to Asian Music Review! Tell us a little bit about you and your music.
We are Thoughts and Notions, a power-pop Christian band from Cagayan de Oro. We make music to help uplift wounded souls since 2006!
Hi AMR! I’m Rochy Dadivas, a singer-songwriter (manlilikhawit) from Bocaue, Bulacan. Currently, I have penned over 50+ songs of different genres—love songs, faith-based songs, and even children’s songs. Songwriting has always been an outlet for my emotions. But I also believe that God has given the gift of music for a purpose—to uplift souls, point people to Him, and to testify the good news of His grace through music. I’m grateful to Thoughts and Notions for tapping me to interpret their motivational song, “Heartbeats.”
Congrats on the release! What was your inspiration when you were writing this project?
Released October 20, 2023. “Heartbeats” is a personal song that we wrote that drew from Thoughts and Notions‘ chief lyricist Johann Tangchango’s personal bout with anxiety and depression. It was a time of intense difficulty for him and he wanted to share that dark experience, and how he was able to breakthrough from it in song form.
As for the music, Wilbert Tan was inspired by the tile to use an actual heartbeat and an ECG beep as the song’s main groove. Which he managed to pull off. And as the final element of the song, it doesn’t hurt that Rochy Dadivas‘ haunting voice makes the melody even more haunting. The song was tailor fit for Rochy to be the voice that brought life to it.
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What lessons would you like to impart with your audience?
During these times when people are dealing with anxiety, depression, and mental health issues, sometimes it is not healthy to overthink. For JT, this was the main issue, he was too mentally broken which wore him down. But then as he got deeper in to it, it was eventually what his heart that saved him.
We just want to share to our audience that sometimes when our mind plays tricks on us, it would be better to try to listen to what our heart beats for. True sometimes, our heart is broken and it would seem to be beyond repair. But if you try to listen to it deeper, you’ll hear more clarity. Especially if your FAITH in God is strong.
For JT, it was accepting that he can no longer do it on his own. And instead of surrendering to his depression, he turned inward and surrendered everything to God. That is what his heartbeats led him to breakthrough from the darkness.
What is your favorite part of this body of work?
Because the song was moody and quite experimental, it was fun to be able to actually listen to a beating heart and ECG beep to be actually part of the song. Especially the looping heartbeats throughout the song. In a way, we actually made our listeners listen to an actual heart beat as the song takes them to that whole experience.
Of course, having Rochy as the one who brought life to the song is something that completes the song. Because Rochy can very much relate to what the song is talking about. I think we wouldn’t have been able to pull the song off if it wasn’t for Rochy. In a way, Heartbeats is Rochy’s song.
What’s next on your journey?
Heartbeats might be the last song in a while for Thoughts And Notions. But that does not mean we’d be on a hiatus in terms of making music. In fact, we will be busy in producing Rochy’s upcoming EP. That’s one project that we are excited about. If you pretty much enjoyed listening to Heartbeats, just wait for Rochy’s own songs.
“Heartbeats” will leave listeners in awe with its superb production, haunting melody, and vocals. The track has similar vibes to Evanescence and Cranberries. We’re excited that this song can reach more audience to spread awareness on how important mental health is. Congrats Thoughts and Notions, and Rochy Dadivas!
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Stream Thoughts and Notions’ songs here:
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