On October 21, Grammy-Nominated producer Luigie “Lugo” Gonzalez recalled how Asia’s Soul Supreme KZ Tandingan wowed him during their recording of her international single, 11:59.
During the media conference for 11:59, Gonzalez described Tandingan’s voice as “legendary.”
“KZ’s performance on this track was, it was amazing. It’s legendary. It’s something that from the moment she opened her mouth from the studio, me and my co-producer Dante Idris, we were like completely astonished. We were like, ‘Oh my God, where is this voice coming from?’ You know we had no idea.”
He also lauded Tandingan’s humility despite being so talented.
“KZ is an artist with an amazing future. You know she’s got a very, very bright future. Not only she’s amazing as a vocal artist, she’s got a great image and at the same time, she’s super humble. And that is something that in this industry can take you very, very far, especially in today’s industry. Somebody that is that talented and that humble, you know, it’s something that you don’t really find all the time.”
Gonzalez admitted that they had difficulty in finding an artist who could record the song, but according to him, Tandingan “went in and destroyed it.”
“I personally had doubts because some other artists already performed the song and they had their styles and they did amazing things with the song as well, but KZ was able to capture the original idea, the sentiment of the song, and why the song was written. And what was the song about.
“She just went in and destroyed it. It was amazing– four takes. Four takes is what it took to you know, to do the whole thing. And, each take was amazing. It was very difficult to figure out what we were going to use because everything that we had recorded was so good that we wanted to use it all.”
Tandingan expressed gratitude toward Gonzalez’s praises about her.
“I’m grateful na naririnig ko from him na ‘yung hinahanap nila doon sa interpretation nung kanta na sinulat nila ay nakuha nila sa performance ko. And I’m just super proud na sa dinamidami ng artists na they could’ve chosen to sing the song, ako ‘yung pinili nila. A Filipina, a tiny Filipina. Sobrang masaya ako.”
The team-up of Grammy-Nominated producer Luigie “Lugo” Gonzalez, Paulino Lorenzo, and Idrise Ward-El brought life to Tandingan’s first international single.
Tandingan’s 11:59 is under Tarsier Records and was released October 22 with its own music video, directed and conceptualized by Dominic Bekaert of Zoopraxi Studios.
11:59 is available on music streaming platforms worldwide starting October 22, while its music video is on Tarsier Records’ YouTube channel.
