Love is an art, and singer Rob Deniel has mastered it

February 16 ------ Offstage, Rob Deniel is soft-spoken but carries with him an air of assurance. It’s something that might take you by surprise after you listen to his music. Take “Miss Miss,” for example. You get a song that starts tame and mellow, and then it gradually progresses into a high-note-laden track that conveys a deep longing you can almost feel through the speakers.

It all seems to come effortlessly for the 22-year-old artist, so it wouldn’t be unusual for one to assume that he’d bring the same kind of power to his normal life. But there could only be one thing driving the paradox of his strong demeanor behind the mic and his more reserved nature without it: love.

From the classroom to the big stage

Rob grew up surrounded by love — from his family, his friends, and now, his fans. This was how love became so central to his music in the first place. “I grew up sa family na mafi-feel mo talaga ‘yung love, so malaking bahagi siya ng buhay ko. “’Yun lagi ‘yung laman sa isip ko at sa puso ko tuwing nagsusulat ng songs: expressing love,” he told Rappler.

The “RomCom” singer was just in high school when he thought of trying his hand at music. In the classroom, when students aren’t preoccupied with their subjects, their crushes are all they seem to think about. “Uso ‘yung happy crush,“ Rob recalled of his high school days. “Effective talaga ‘yung haharanahin mo siya, kakantahan mo siya ng something.“

And when you have a talent for singing and an acoustic guitar in tow, you’re practically all set to win your special person over. Think of a teenage boy confidently making his way to the classroom of the girl he likes, and he starts singing to her despite the stares he might get from her curious classmates. It’s a silly trope every Filipino is familiar with, but it’s become an unlikely catalyst for Rob’s creative process. When he’s cooking up a new single, he asks himself, “P’wede ba siyang ikanta for someone? Or bagay ba siyang ipangsuyo for someone?”

A yearner in the making

Rob is truly a yearner at heart. We all do it differently — but as Filipinos, perhaps we can all agree that longing for the person you love is best done with the right music playing in the background. Rob’s music happened to be just that for millions of listeners.

As someone whose shyness often got the best of them when they were younger, Rob used music as a vessel to put out into the world his deepest thoughts that the use of words alone can’t convey. “Sa music ko nae-express ‘yung nararamdaman ko. Doon ko na-e-express ‘yung mga hangad ko sa pag-ibig, and siguro nakaka-relate ‘yung tao,” Rob said, reacting to the idea that he’s become one of the faces of yearning in the local music scene. But despite the craze for it on social media, yearning isn’t a new thing to Filipinos, and Rob will be the first to attest that it runs deep in our culture.

Source: rappler.com