Leather Bound

i have not been much of a music person growing up, with both my feet turning left and my fingers too crooked to make a bar on the fret. i only learned to play the guitar in the latter part of my college years, though i already know how to play songs with simple chords as early as grade 6. there was early attempt to be in a band called g minor together with fellow minor seminarians - as a vocalist. and in my first few years in san jose, i also became part of that famed acoustic band that often took over the stage of any resident band's performance in bonfire grill in marikina riverbanks.

one of the high points of my stay in xavier was being part of a band. together with peers in the faculty room, we just had an impromptu jam session in one of those hidden studios in the streets of little baguio, and voila, we have a band. we even had a gig at the now-defunct mag:net bar in katipunan, and it was forgettable to say the least. to redeem ourseleves, we decided to join a competition among the school's faculty and staff entitled "xavier's got talent" where we performed for sm gift cheques. hahaha!

before i forget, our band had a name: leather bound.

our lead guitarist got it from the phrase "leather bound books" which somehow refers to our job as educators. from then on, the music played the band. members came and went. after a school year, our drummer returned to the corporate world. a classmate of mine from the minor seminary joined as a percussionist the following school year, but our vocalist migrated to london for further studies at the end of that school year. the band went on hiatus on my third year, as we had our own projects with student bands. and inevitably, i also left xavier - as well as the band - to return to the seminary.

looking back at the experience of being part of leather bound and watching our videos gave me shivers down the spine. it brought a lot of memories of music through the years. and yes, i am still looking forward to play some music with the band again.

luckily, i was able to keep five video performances of leather bound in my facebook page. there are more that have not been recorded: our first performance during the welcome xuedi where we played a heavy version of david cook's "always be my baby", a cover of the dawn's "tulad ng dati" during the buwan ng wika culmination day, an encore performance of wham's "careless whisper" during the finals of the h3 bandfest, and more that i might have already forgotten.

anyway, enjoy watching and listening!

Leather Bound's cover of "Careless Whisper" by Wham


Leather Bound's cover of Coldplay's "Life in Technicolor II"


Leather Bound's cover of "Bailamos" by Enrique Iglesias


Leather Bound's cover of "Antukin" by Rico Blanco


Leather Bound's cover of "As long as you love me" by the Backstreet Boys
(our final performance as a band)