coast2coast

Ask anyone about Louell Armas Lopez, and they’ll tell you a number of things — he was a visionary, stubborn at times, uncompromising with his art and politics. However, despite and in spite of everything, Lopez was, and is, loved.

This May 23rd marks the first anniversary of Lopez’s untimely passing. Weeks leading up to it, Cebu-based record label Pawn Records announced the release of Death of the Spirals, the band’s final record.

“It is without any exaggeration that making the album — which took about six years to complete, what with the complications of the pandemic and the band’s propensity for procrastination — was kind of stressful and taxing, but in a good way, if that’s even possible,” shares Patrick Gallito, the band’s guitarist, to Coast2Coast.

In those six years, Gallito, along with Ernest Dino, Neb Rosende, and Ian Intong, recalled that the process of putting the album together with Lopez was a “grueling process.”

“It’s like fighting with your siblings over the last piece of bread,” Intong jokes.

“There were a lot of times when we butted heads, when we debated about the direction of the music. Eventually we compromised, but in a way, it was too late because he died on us before finishing the album,” Dino says, adding that if he had known about Lopez’s passing, he would’ve been more understanding. “I wish we had more time.”

The upcoming album features six full tracks and four demos; Lopez’s final recordings with the group. While the group admits that this isn’t the version of the album that was planned, they felt that it was a “creative compromise that produced a complete piece.”

“The songs that are contained in the Death of the Spirals are all Louell-approved or, at the very least, a close approximation to his vision,” explains Gallito, while talking about how they reconciled Lopez’s original vision for the album and the final release. “I always made sure every time we finish a draft of a song, that the song was to his satisfaction.”

“He intimated in the past that there were songs that were released that were not what he intended them to be. That is why we took measures to make sure that the songs were how Louell wanted them to be.”

He goes on to share that it was very clear that Lopez always hated to be boxed-in, or forced to conform to certain sounds or genres. “He wanted to break free from the expectations of those who knew and heard from him in the earliest inception of his artistic or musical ‘career.’ I think it rubbed him the wrong way when people who heard songs from The Curse album said, ‘this is not The Spirals I know.’”

Despite Lopez’s uncompromising creative vision and the band’s frustrations, revisiting the album after Lopez’s passing proved to be melancholic.

“I missed Louell,” recalls Rosende. “Sometimes I get reminded of him even from just hearing some type of sound.”

Gallito adds, “Hearing the vocal tracks of Louell and even the demos bring back the gravity and the weight of his loss, so maybe that is one of the reasons that, for some time, none of us wanted to do anything with The Spirals. Eventually, we believe that we owe it to the guy to release his last works.”

Lopez’s work in Death of the Spirals are the final reminders of his unmatched talent for lyricism, and his headstrong defiance of fascism and tyranny. In “Dopamine Dealer,” the album’s lead single, you can hear his haunting voice as he says, “There is a fear of being discovered / A lightning bolt performance / But simultaneously / There is also this fear of not existing.”

“He was a stalwart, but he did not want the limelight,” says Dino, when talking about how he would describe Lopez’s impact on the local music community. “Everyone recognized the gravity of his art…I want the next generation to apply the distrust that [The] Spirals always had for authority.”

“The Spirals is a group that will never care about accolades or multiplying its listeners. Louell always said that we should not make songs that are musically-accessible, or sa Bisaya pa, pasakay. And I totally agree with him,” Gallito adds to close. “Create music that is not made to please people for the sake of pleasing people. Rather, create music that expresses your innermost thoughts and emotions.”

“I hope The Spirals will be remembered as a group that remained authentic until the bitter end.”

The Spirals’ Death of the Spirals is out now on physical formats, via PAWN Records.