An ‘architect of music’ and proud Filipino on the global stage

Just like the world’s most stunning structures, the most beautiful songs come to be from an architect’s vision. For before singers and musicians can even perform and trigger a host of emotions from a particular song, an inspired process first takes place between a songwriter and producer.

Once in a while though, there comes along a behind-the-scenes music man who has both the gift of a songwriter and the genius of a producer, just like in demand Filipino-Canadian architect of music August Rigo who continues to soar in the international scene.

The full-blooded Filipino who was born and raised in Toronto has a very impressive songwriting discography scattered about the charts. Read Justin Bieber’s “U Smile,” a song which Rigo says “changed his life”; One Direction’s “Gotta Be You,” a track he gave the group during their earliest days; and Chris Brown’s “Back to Sleep,” a he says he wrote in his basement and took two years to be discovered.

Most recently Rigo wrote and produced songs for K-Pop worldwide sensation BTS for their “Map of the Soul: 7” album. Debuting No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Chart in February, Rigo has writing and production credits on the first two singles “Black Swan” and “On” featuring Sia. The latter also hit No. 4 on the Billboard Top 100 on its release. Likewise, Rigo wrote and produced young Filipina rapper Alex Bruce’s latest single “Go Crazy” under Sony Music Philippines.

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‘Tiyaga’

Born Dan August Rigo to a Bicolano father and a mother from Laguna, this would-be global songwriter and producer grew up in a very Filipino household all the way in Canada. It was close-knit, full of food and laughter, and of course, abundant in music.

“We’d eat a lot of Filipino food and do karaoke,” Rigo recalled chuckling to The Sunday Times Magazine via phone interview.

He remembers being bitten by the music bug more than the rest of his family when he saw King of Pop Michael Jackson’s legendary “Billy Jean” performance on Motown’s 25th anniversary TV show.

Then still in his teens, the Michael Jackson fan taught himself to play keyboards and guitar, and eventually travelled to New York City and bravely met with producers and record label heads to pitch his songs.

Asked how he succeeded in the cut-throat world of recording, Rigo humbly said, “Konting tiyaga [With a little patience], as they say in Tagalog.”

Learn more about this Philippine pride in the international music scene with the rest of The Sunday Times Magazine’s exclusive interview with August Rigo.

What qualities should a songwriter and a producer possess?

I think that discipline is the number one thing. In order to be a songwriter or producer, you’ve got to fight those very creative lulls. Also, it’s easy to be a songwriter and a producer but the hardest is actually be a working songwriter/ producer and getting to the industry.

It took me years to be able to break into the industry. One has to stay true and keep fighting to get in. It’s a tough world out there. That’s definitely the first thing, then you’ve got to have love for the music. You just have to love what you do because it is hard get in and to stay in. Those are two key steps towards succeeding in this industry.

What inspires you to write songs?

I take inspiration in all types of places. You know, I watch movies; I listen to other music. I really just go with how I’m feeling. I’m a lyric-based writer so a lot of the times I don’t shut off my brain. I just keep a notepad of ideas. Like I’ll take one or two lines from watching a movie and realize, this is a great concept for a song then expand on that situation.

Can you talk more out your creative process?

Like I said, I’m a lyric-based guy when I’m writing a song. What I usually try to do is finding good lyric to base the song of whether it be sad, happy, or something that sparks inspiration. With “Go Crazy” for Alex Bruce, I was working with another songwriter, a friend of mine, Vince Nantes who also worked on the BTS songs with me. He gave me the cool little beat idea.

I really like to take a lyrical concept and I catch that to the music. So, for Go Crazy, I wrote the first verses in English and Alex sent me back the Tagalog version of the verses which I thought were amazing.

What about your production style?

I try not to lock anything to any certain style. I’m pretty eclectic in my taste in music. But I do lean towards more R&B/ hip-hop sonic. That’s my very core. I love urban music, pop and R&B. As a by-product of how I grew up with the music that I listen to, hip-hop infusion is hard for me to get away from because I learned a lot of the early influences in music came from what I learned in karaoke. So that’s where the pop influence came from.

How do you know if your song is a good fit for a singer or an artist?

What I usually do when I’m working with an artist is I try not to impose too much. What I try to do is take the artist as existing and just add my own flavor to what they’re doing.

Especially in the case of somebody like Alex, she already had a sonic and a vibe that she was growing with. I was really impressed by that. The idea wasn’t to change it but just to add some more layers to it and a bit of an international. Just my own sonic to what she does.

You want to make sure that the artist is the priority when you are writing a song for them. I usually write something that I love and present it to the artist. Sometimes they love it, sometimes they don’t. I start with an idea that I think is great then it’s basically giving them half the painting and I paint the rest.

Do you prefer collaborating with others or writing alone?

My normal process is I do write things alone. I like to be private in that aspect of things. I’m an only child so I think that’s a by-product of me growing up like that. But when an opportunity comes to write with your friends, the collaborative thing is a fun thing to do. But on the whole, the majority of the things I write, I write by myself.

How did you end up writing a song for Filipina rapper Alex Bruce?

I do a lot of KPop so I was actually in Korea one time and I was speaking to Roslyn (Pineda, general manager for the Philippines) of Sony Music. I decided to take a trip to Hong Kong and see if I can jump on board with something and she mentioned Alex. I did the research and I looked in at Alex and I was just floored about how good she was at 12 years old.

I said it before, she has the soul of a seasoned veteran. I was surprised by her rapping and her intensity was very impressive. So, I jumped at the opportunity to be able to do something like that. I just thought I could sink my teeth into it and add another piece to her story. That’s how I ended up being introduced to her stuff.

Was it your first time collaborating with a Filipino artist?

This wasn’t the first time. There are a couple of Filipino artists that I worked with before. I’ve been working with this artist named Young JV for a number of years now, since the very beginning of his career actually. JV is a really close friend of mine.

But yes, this is the first time with Alex that I had been sought out to work and this is where I’m sinking my teeth into, trying to really create a song and help bring [this artist] along for now and for the future.

What should Filipino artists do to make it internationally?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot. That’s a good question. This is the part of the reason I wanted to delve into the Philippine music industry.

I think what we need is to have more artists that are a little more individual in character. I think that we have in terms of the talent pool in the Philippines, an abundance of it; An abundance of raw, amazing singers and dancers. We have a lot of that right now that is in the forefront of the industry. We have a lot of amazing dancers that are dancing for the best and the highest ranked artists in the world. We have choreographers, songwriters and producers. But we don’t have a lot of music artists in the forefront. So I think embracing who you are as Filipinos, whatever that is individually, is going to be a good start to getting into the mainstream.

Here’s also my thought on this in terms of timeline: A lot of Filipinos in the music industry right now like myself are all first-generation Filipinos whose families immigrated. This is the first generation of us that are actually able to dream like this — to actually have a dream to be a musician. In my experience, for a lot of my friends that I have, we all have the same situation. Our parents didn’t have the opportunity to come here and dream like that. They came to America and Canada to make a life; to send money back to the family in the Philippines.

We are a very young nation in the music industry and the mainstream music industry as well. We’ve taken leaps and bounds in this first generation and that has been apparent in this industry. So I think that with just a little bit of time and patience, it will happen.

What is your message to aspiring songwriters and producers?

My advice is that they should get into music for the right reasons — because you love it. If you love the music, definitely get into it because it is rewarding. It takes time, discipline and heartaches. Things don’t happen overnight. There’s no such thing as an overnight success. Every overnight success you’ve seen has been working for 10 or 20 years behind-the-scenes before you saw them.

It’s like the picture of an iceberg. You only see half of it. The rest is underneath the water. Music is an amazing thing. It can cross genres. If you get into it for the right reasons, because you love it, it will always love you back.

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Special thanks to Chen Aurelio-Cornelio of Sony Music Philippines for arranging this interview. Follow the author on Instagram: markbonifacio25.