Former Sponge Cola Drummer Chris Cantada To Release Second Single On August 25, Open To Doing Full Album In The Future
Singer, songwriter, and content creator Chris Cantada is releasing his second single "Always" – a follow-up to his recently released track "Dragon Fly" – on August 25 on music streaming sites.
Another type of release of any emotion
Cantada, who hasn't been in the music scene since 2011, released his first single "Dragon Fly" a few months ago. The song was his tribute to the late actor Jason David Frank – famous for playing Tommy Oliver/Green Ranger in the 90's hit TV series Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers – tragically passed away in 2022.
"So, when my friend Jason David Frank the Power Ranger, when he passed away, that's when I started to kind of felt I wanted to have another type of release of any of emotion. And for the longest time, my creative juices came from that, came out through skits," he explained. "But I felt like, I just wanted to write the song bigla – like having all that emotion in mind for my friend that passed. And that's how a dragon fly came about.
'Now they know that I do music'
The former Sponge Cola drummer, now a full-time content creator, has many followers on YouTube and social media. Since the release of his first single, the reception from his fans/followers have been positive and they've been looking forward to his second single "Always," which is coming out on August 25.
"Since the song is coming out [on] August 25, I'm just trying to, you know, promote it as much as I can. And because my followers have now learned that I've had a musical past, "Cantada said. "With "Dragon Fly," now they know that I do music. I guess most of them are looking forward to the new single, just to see what else I can come up with."
Still in good terms
Chris Cantada left Sponge Cola in 2010 due to health problems thus couldn't join the band's grueling tour dates at the time. Despite that, he parted in good terms with the band and he's still in touch with them to this day. He even jammed with them during the band's recent album launch on August 13.
Cantada also revealed that Sponge Cola's Erwin "Armo" Armovit did the guitar solo for his second single "Always".
"I'm very good friends with my former bandmates. We did not part naman on bad terms eh. The reason why I left was, at that time, I was very sickly and I got sick a lot and that was the time where the band explosion of the late 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008 – it was crazy," he shared. "The band scene just blew up at the time and I couldn't handle the schedule and that's why I decided to leave. So, we didn't part on bad blood. So, ever since, I've always been very close – still very close with them."
"And every time they have a gig in Metro Manila, I try to pass by and then they had an album launch, which I attended and then I got to jam with them at some of the songs at the latter part of the set. And of course the 20th anniversary concert last year which I played half of the concert. So yeah our relationship has always been very good and Armo [Armovit], The guitarist is even playing the guitar solo for always," he added.
'Like a seed planted in me and then it just grew from there'
Online streaming service Netflix recently aired the Power Rangers' 30th anniversary special of dubbed as "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Once & Always." The one hour television film featured some of the original cast from the 90's TV series and the introduction of newcomer Charlie Kersh as Mihn, daughter of Trini Kwan the original Yellow Ranger, played by the late Thuy Trang.
The Netflix exclusive featurette was the inspiration behind Cantada's second single "Always".
"So, I wrote this song after watching the recent Netflix special – the 30th anniversary special of Power Rangers – which is "Power Rangers: Once & Always". I loved it so much. It was such a great. It was such a great special for adult fans, like me and also, it just opened the doors for younger fans and new fans in general to kind of remember, what the OG's were like, and to get them into it again and with Power Rangers," bared Cantada. "Kasi there are a lot of great lessons to be learned. And I sort of wrote the song trying to be in the head space of some of the characters. But basically, the whole song is just an inspiration of the feelings I had when I was watching, like the imagery – it's not very literal talaga, in a sense. But the special was like a seed planted in me and then it just grew from there."
'I wouldn't say never naman'
With his first single "Dragon Fly" still available on music streaming sites and his soon-to-be-released track "Always" is coming out on August 25, he's very much open to producing a full album in the future.
For now, he's satisfied on releasing singles as it's currently the trend in the music industry and being a full-time content creator on YouTube has been keeping him quite busy at the moment.
"Oh, an album, you know what? I'm also still full-time with content creation, with YouTube, with skits. So, what I like about singles is that I can just put them out one at a time. That's what I learned from when I released my first album in 2011, 'Heartbeat'," he said. "Parang, I kind of rushed a lot of those songs. I think there were ten songs just to meet the deadline. But with the times now, where singles are very much uso [the trend], it's actually a perfect time for me to come in and doing this. I can just do this when I have a song or when I'm inspired to write something, I can just release it and I have no pressure to really take months out of my time to concentrate on one whole album. But you know, who knows, I wouldn't say never naman. But currently, I like releasing singles eh."