Since they first made waves in 2000 and gained a solid, steady following with their acclaimed 2004 debut release, “Doll’s Head,” a lot has happened to indie goth band The Late Isabel.
Although they continued to play together sporadically, certain band members had to attend to other individual pursuits. Drummer JP Agcaoili is also known for his work with Greenpeace Southeast Asia as its communications manager, guitarist Allan Hernandez has been the longtime managing editor and currently acting editor-in-chief of FHM Philippines magazine.
Bassist Rudolf Bacale and percussionist Ted Baula also have their own respective occupations.
And lead singer Wawi Navaroza is an accomplished, globetrotting photographer who took her visual images to Asia, Europe and America, which also caused The Late Isabel to go on hiatus from time to time.
Allan said what didn’t stop was the band’s creative process. “There were songs we had written as far back as when we started the band in 2000 that did not make it on ‘Doll’s Head,’ and so the plan was to include them on the next album, with the new ones we were writing at the time.”
When the band was ready to record the new material in 2006, they encountered technical problems that forced them to re-record what was already laid down. Wawi’s travels became more frequent even as Allan continued to write new songs for the band.
With a signature sound that’s often been compared to The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, Bauhaus and even the Velvet Underground, The Late Isabel still managed to release a limited edition EP called “Lackadaisical” in 2011, recorded shortly before Wawi went to Spain on an art grant.
The EP would prove to be a teaser of things to come for The Late Isabel, whose name was inspired by “a series of posters showing this half-familiar woman always in transit,” according to Allan.
Five years later, a fortuitous meeting between Wawi and Pinoy rock icon Ely Buendia at the Hong Kong Art Fair in 2016 paved the way for the revival of their aborted sophomore recording. As it turned out, Ely had just set up his new label Offshore Music and right then and there offered to produce the album that would be called “Imperial” for his own label.
In discussing the newly recorded material, Wawi said the song “Lackadaisical” is like most of the band’s songs, “strongly attached to a certain mood.”
“And this song is a good example. I went with what the word meant—slow, languid movement—and captured it in words and in how I sang it,” she shared.
Wawi added that “K.S.D. (D.T.F.W)” is “part of the game we play with our listeners not to reveal the meaning of the letters.”
“Let’s just say it’s a song about being very pissed with what is happening in the world.”
“Isabel The Damaged” was inspired by a short story written by writer and InterAksyon contributor Karl de Mesa. “It would be great if you can read the story and listen to the song,” Wawi quipped.
Allan’s song, “Outside of Time,” is “a tribute to those young people who died in an open air festival a couple of years ago, reportedly by overdosing on ecstacy.”
“It just didn’t make sense for them to die so young, and I wanted to write a song that somehow showed that they weren’t in pain when they died. I guess it’s a sendoff song to them,” Allan mused.
As for the title track, Wawi said Allan wrote the music back in 2006, when he was immersed in the movies of Wong Kar Wai, especially “In The Mood For Love” and “2046.”
“So he created this Oriental fantasy of a song. I then wrote the words, imagining a poem about memory and love and the passage of time,” she further recalled.
At a time when EDM, hip-hop and K-Pop are dominating the music playlists of most millennials, The Late Isabel’s brand of art rock comes as a breath of fresh air and a much-needed shot in the arm.
Recently previewed during a listening party and a subsequent live performance by the band at the 20:20 bar in Makati, “Imperial” is now available in digital format via Spotify, iTunes, Amazon and Deezer. The album is also scheduled to be released on vinyl and CD in 2018.
