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‘We were never close, we were never friends,’ Ely Buendia says of Eraserheads band mates

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<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/life/01/24/ely-buendia.jpg"/><figcaption>Jose Miguel L. Dumaual Music icon Ely Buendia.<em> FILE/Instagram: @elybumbilya</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA — “Minsan,” the nostalgic Eraserheads tune about friendship, written by vocalist Ely Buendia, was never about his band mates, but his actual friends outside the group, he has revealed.</p><p>A candid Buendia went as far as saying his fellow Eraserheads members were “never” his friends, in a recent episode of the Spotify podcast “Wake Up with Jim &amp; Saab.”</p><p>The musician couple, Jim Bacarro and Saab Magalona, were enumerating memorable Eraserheads songs which Buendia would then dissect, or share trivia about.</p><p>When “Minsan” was brought up, Buendia said: “It’s one of those songs… There are some songs, when you mature as a songwriter, [you hear] lyrics na medyo cringe-worthy. It’s not a specific line, but the whole sentimentality of it.”</p><p>“Minsan” is one of the tracks from Eraserheads’ second studio album “Circus,” released in 1994.</p><p>“Baka I can explain why I feel that way. May pinanggagalingan ‘yun, e,” Buendia said, when Bacarro and Magalona expressed surprise with his answer.</p><p>“It’s about fans… I was kind of sick of fans saying, when the Eheads broke up, ‘You’re friends, you shouldn’t have [broken] up. You made us feel bad.’ I was sick of that. I think everything points to that song. That’s what they reference all the time.”</p><p>The original Eraserheads disbanded in 2002 with Buendia’s departure, after 13 years.</p><p>Despite over a decade spent together, Buendia recalled that he never formed close relationships with his band mates Buddy Zabala, Marcus Adoro, and Raimund Marasigan.</p><p>“What fans didn’t know, what the public didn’t know [is] we were never — okay, I don’t want to break any hearts again… We were never close, we were never friends, as in tight friends. That’s why we broke up,” he said.</p><p>“We weren’t Itchyworms, we weren’t Parokya ni Edgar,” Buendia said, referring to Eraserheads’ contemporaries.</p><div><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameBorder="0" height="232" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/34G4uJ6sE22l8DREKZxVmt" width="100%"></iframe></div><p>Buendia did acknowledge that Eraserheads’ run “was good while it lasted,” in terms of the members’ compatibility.</p><p>“We had a very, very good working relationship. It’s just that I don’t like it when people say that it was the wrong way to go, ‘yung dynamics within the band,” he said.</p><p>When Bacarro recounted that Buendia had once told him the four Eraserheads members never shared a round of drinks for leisure, Buendia said, “Never.”</p><p>“But then, you know, it’s another one of those things na I can’t really seem to set straight. It’s another myth. I’ve given up trying to correct those myths,” he added.</p><p>Over the years since the release of “Minsan,” fans have long regarded the song as a sentimental recollection of how the band was formed at Kalayaan Residence Hall in University of the Philippine Diliman, during the members’ college days.</p><p>But for Buendia, who penned the song, “Minsan” was never about the friendship that birthed the band.</p><p>“That song is actually about my actual friends, the friends that were with me during my stay at Kalayaan. It wasn’t about the Eraserheads; it was about my friends,” he said.</p><p>As Buendia’s statements about “Minsan” circulated on social media on Thursday, the singer took to Twitter to address the “hate” he has been receiving, supposedly from fans of Eraserheads.</p><p>“Big deal, still? Why hate on people who want to tell the truth? I didn’t ask to be interviewed, nanahimik na nga ko dito eh living a happy life kayo yung makulit about the eheads. The music is all that matters, have you forgotten about that, and who wrote most of it? Just sayin,” he wrote.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Big deal, still? Why hate on people who want to tell the truth? I didn’t ask to be interviewed, nanahimik na nga ko dito eh living a happy life kayo yung makulit about the eheads. The music is all that matters, have you forgotten about that, and who wrote most of it?😎just sayin.</p>— Ely Buendia (@elybuendia9001) <a href="https://twitter.com/elybuendia9001/status/1397797034388647937?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2021</a></blockquote><div><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charSet="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script></div><div><strong>Related videos:</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6F1_nVN9gaQ?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rIX79rezZUo?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1532747" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>“Minsan,” the nostalgic Eraserheads tune about friendship, written by vocalist Ely Buendia, was never about his band mates, but his actual friends outside the group, he has revealed.</p>

“Minsan,” the nostalgic Eraserheads tune about friendship, written by vocalist Ely Buendia, was never about his band mates, but his actual friends outside the group, he has revealed.