02/02/2025
Rey Valera is a celebrated Filipino singer, songwriter, and composer known for his significant contributions to Original Pilipino Music (OPM).
He gained fame for his heartfelt ballads and romantic songs, many of which have become timeless classics in the Philippines.
In this Halloween story from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Valera talked about the solace he found in cemeteries and how it inspired him to write some of his biggest hits.
Below are some excerpts from the story "Making Music in the Cemetery, where Rey Valera Found His Niche," written by Volt Contreras and photographed by Jim Guiao Punzalan, published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on October 30, 2005:
The multi-awarded singer-songwriter produced his break-out hits in the late 1970s in the most unlikely of creative sanctums: The town cemetery of his native Meycauayan, Bulacan.
The melody and lyrics of about half of Valera's enduring repertoire sprang to life during his teenage days — and nights — spent alone in the graveyard, guitar in hand and notebook and tape recorder at the ready for that elusive chord or turn of phrase.
Between 1975 and 1977, the then "nerdy" accounting student and struggling composer made his sessions among the tombs an after-class routine.
He found his needed place of solitude after moving to an aunt's home, which had a sementeryo for a neighbor.
"Nagkataon lang (It was only by chance). I went to the cemetery because I had no money and nowhere else to go," he said, as soft-spoken as when he was singing.
"There's no radio or TV to distract you. There, you can daydream and have deep thoughts: Sisikat kaya ako (Will I make it big)?"
After class and almost daily, usually, from 4 pm to 8 pm, he would be out of his aunt's house and somewhere in the cemetery composing "Superman" and other easy-playing mellow tunes.
"At sunset, how beautiful the colors changed from where I sat, he recalled, providing a glimpse of that prolific period that produced such hits as "Malayo pa ang Umaga," "Naalala Ka," Maging Sino ka Man," Kahit Maputi na ang Buhok ko," "Kumusta Ka," "Ayoko na Sa 'Yo," and "Sorry, Pwede ba?"
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