Manila (CNN Philippines Life) — At some point, the members of the indie rock band Oh, Flamingo! all had day jobs. They would wake up early everyday to go to work, while at night, they would remove their neckties and sling on their guitars to play their music to a crowd of fifty. There’s that “inevitable dread,” as their guitarist Pappu De Leon calls it, because of the rigid, desensitizing routine that comes with corporate life as we know it, and the schizophrenic body clock that gigging musicians often struggle with.
In Oh, Flamingo!’s newest music video for their single, “Inconsistencies,” there is an unnamed protagonist, and he suffers the same fate. In the video, he sends letters everyday from a small post office set in Bataan. His daily routine involves waking up after 6:30 a.m., brushing his teeth, putting on his uniform, eating breakfast, walking to work where he stamps and sorts letter after letter everyday, over and over again. While the video encapsulates this exhaustion for conformity, it also shows how routine can act as a “safety net,” in the words of the band’s frontman, Howard Luistro, and the little “inconsistencies” that come into life’s play.
No routine is ever rigid and perfectly constant. The man in the video wakes up at 6:35 one day, and 6:37 the next, wears his uniform in different colors every morning, and eats a variety of breakfast meals. His days are made by his regular customer, a kind old lady who comes everyday to send a letter, giving color to the monotony of his job. In the same way, music becomes the light in the lives of Oh, Flamingo!’s members, the spontaneity of gigging life kicking them out of ennui. “I can never escape doing music,” says Luistro.
For a lot of other indie musicians who play shows, music serves as the escape from the dullness of life. The energy of the crowd, the power of alcohol, and the catharsis of live performance fuel their drive for creating. And it’s the only world where they can coexist in collective dissatisfaction with boredom, therefore the musician’s pursuit for more lucrative things to fund her or his passion.
“It’s always been my dream and long-term goal to be involved in music full-time. While that still isn’t possible, a separate day job allows me to meet my daily needs and support this dream,” says Luistro, who is responsible for the lyrics of “Inconsistencies.” The song is about “indecision and confusion” and sudden doubts about things that were once clear. “Conflicting thoughts and feelings exist, and the song is a vague confession about that weakness,” he says.
At the end of the clip, the kind old lady fails to show up one day, and the man loses his job the next. Using her letters, the man goes on a search for the old lady, executed in scenic shots, transforming the adventure into the archetypal quest to find meaning.
The last single of their self-titled EP, “Inconsistencies” caps off the band’s album cycle, signalling a chance to grow and continue their musical journey, to find that meaning for themselves. And for Oh, Flamingo!, meaning can only go in the direction of where their music does.
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Listen to Oh, Flamingo! on Spotify and Soundcloud. Visit the band’s Facebook page for gig schedules and more details.
