Singer Geoff Mabasa is making his comeback to the music scene with the goal of representing more for the LGBTQ+ community.
He will be releasing the song “Paramdam” on July 26, calling it an open love letter to the straight boy he used to have a crush on in college.
“If you’re in a silly situationship with someone giving you mixed signals, or maybe just feeling like delulu is the solulu because you’re already wearing your heart on your sleeve for this crush, Paramdam is the perfect song to dedicate to this person,” said Mabasa.
Geoff Mabasa (Contributed photos)
Geoff shared his personal journey in the music industry and how he struggled in writing music as someone who is part of the LGBTQ+ community in his teenage years as a songwriter:
“Noong college (back in college), in our songwriting courses, I would write music addressed to a ‘her’, even though I had a boy in mind when I wrote these songs. It affected the way I wrote, I was always reserved, and I was afraid of slipping, that people might find out I’m singing songs for boys, I always felt like it would not help me professionally if I wanted people to listen to me,” he said.
Mabasa added, “It was only very recently that I decided to revisit the songs I wrote back then and change everything from the perspective of a gay man liking another boy.. And even though right now I’ve decided to start again, I can say that I am much happier, prouder, and excited to hear people sing my songs, using the pronouns I prefer to use. People are easy to dismiss others with pronouns, but you don’t know how much these ‘small things’ impact other people’s lives.”
Geoff also mentioned what he thinks about representation of queer artists in the Filipino music scene has evolved over the years
“The Filipino music scene is still in its early stages in representation but still more progressive than our neighbors, I know the Philippines is quite open with LGBTQ+ artists, however, I still feel like there’s an expectation to act a particular way when you’re an LGBT artist in this country,” he explained.
He pointed out that queer musicians are still a bit restricted when it comes to expressing themselves, but he’s pretty happy with the growth of queer OPM artists who are breaking through the music scene like himself and would love to see more in the future and would love to collaborate with a few artists in mind.
For “Paramdam,” Geoff assembled a world-class team for the song, working with members of Southborder as well as one of the best young engineers in the country.