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Indie artist Mikee Colet marches to the beat of her own drum

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Leah C. Salterio

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style="display:flex;flex-direction:column;flex-grow:1;justify-content:center;margin-bottom:24px"><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:4px;flex-grow:0;height:14px;margin-bottom:6px;width:224px"> </div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:4px;flex-grow:0;height:14px;width:144px"> </div></div><div style="color:#c9c8cd;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:17px;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:8px;overflow:hidden;padding:8px 0 7px;text-align:center;text-overflow:ellipsis;white-space:nowrap"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CrCfvNiL2a9/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style="color:#c9c8cd;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:17px;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">A post shared by mikee (@mikeecolet)</a></div></div></blockquote><div><script async="" src="https://www.instagram.com/embed.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div><p>Not too many girls are into playing drums. Not that being a drummer is strictly a man’s profession. But playing drums is not usually assigned to women.</p><p>Freelance independent artist Mikee Colet went all the way to Boston, Massachusetts to professionalize her being a drummer and musician.</p><p>“If you think about it, there are not too many girls from Manila who have gone to be part of something so far away,” Colet told ABS-CBN News. “When we think of Filipino musicians, it’s often the artists. That’s something that’s easy to see. I didn’t really grow up with much exposure to a lot of drummers at all.</p><p>“If I really know of a drummer, he is already part of a band. What I’ve been doing is working with different artists in different settings.</p><p>“I play drums for several different artists at the same time, but also work in production, work in engineering. I kind of love to combine those things.”</p><p>Born and raised in Manila, Colet first came to the US in 2018, the same year she finished her undergraduate studies at the Ateneo de Manila University, where she took up Interdisciplinary Studies, minor in English Literature.</p><p>She uprooted to Boston, where she enrolled at the prestigious Berklee College of Music.</p><p>“I auditioned for Berklee in my last semester at Ateneo,” Colet shared. “I heard back from them before my college graduation so after that, I went straight to Berklee.</p><p>“The school is a really good environment for musicians who want to be professionals. I did dual majors at Berklee – production engineering and film scoring – but at the same time, I was doing a lot of drums.”</p><p>Colet grew up in Manila and spent her whole childhood listening to music and discovered playing music. </p><p>“When I first expressed I wanted to play drums, I think I was only two,” Colet recalled.</p><p>She tinkered with mere pots, pans and buckets until she was 13, when she got her own drum set.</p><p>“At the same time, I was also playing guitar,” she said.</p><p>The middle child in a brood of three girls. Colet played a lot of classical guitar growing up. She also played a lot of drums on her own.</p><p>She took some classical guitar classes outside school when she was young. “I did some extension classes at the UP College of Music,” she said. “I really wanted to do something with it and become a musician. </p><p>“The best option for me was to look for where I could find a really motivated and strong network of people who were like-minded and wanted to do the same thing.</p><p>“Playing is my favorite thing in the world to do. I’m always really excited for what’s next.”</p><p>Convincing her parents to allow her to live in Boston happened slowly for Colet. “I think it became clear to them that this is what I wanted,” she shared.</p><p>“It was something very special for me, something that I could see myself pursuing for the rest of my life. So far, it has been really good for me.”</p><p>In 2020, Colet spent most of the first pandemic year in Manila and only returned to the US the following year. At that time, she was not yet finished with her studies.</p><p>While in Boston, Colet worked as production specialist or producer and an engineer. When she graduated magna cum laude in Berklee 2022, she moved to Los Angeles. </p><p>Her first few years in the US were spent with this “amazing” producer and composer, Will Wells.</p><p>“I worked as production specialist and engineer for him at the ESPN Sports Humanitarian Awards in New York in 2021,” Colet said. “At that time, I was shuttling between Boston and New York. It was just a four-hour train ride. Not so bad.</p><p>“We were in the studio for three days recording the music as Will Wells was writing it and we were sending it to the ESPN producers and checking how was the sound.”</p><p>The second project Colet did with Wells was when she worked as production specialist on Cynthia Erivo’s first album. </p><p>“After that project, Cynthia got cast as Elphaba for ‘Wicked,’ the live musical movie, where she will work with Ariana Grande,” Colet said. </p><p>“We worked with Cynthia’s own music for her debut album. She wrote and composed her own music. Will Wells was the executive producer.</p><p>“My work with him was to basically prepare for all the live shows that was going to happen later that year. There was ‘The Today Show,’ The Tonight Show, ‘The Kelly Clarkson Show.’</p><p>“Cynthia performed at the Hollywood Bowl that year. My work with Will was apart from that. That was really, really cool.”</p><p>The most challenging thing for Colet working with a lot of artists and composers? “It depends because there were times when I was working with a lot of people at the same time,” she said.</p><p>“A lot of that needed time management and communicating with people, remembering the music, learning it fast, showing up and doing really well.</p><p>“There was a time I was working with more than six artists at the same time. That’s a lot, but super rewarding.</p><p>Another challenging thing was planning ahead when you’re working with people who have different projects at the same time.</p><p>A lot of people Colet works with are based in Boston. “The year after I worked with Will, I got to work in festivals,” Colet said.</p><p>“I worked with one artist, Charley [Tiernan], based in Boston and we did a country festival called ‘Faster Horses’ in Michigan. It was in the middle of a Speedway, where the stages were set up.</p><p>“At that time, I had two roles. So, I was playing drums for Charley and also a production specialist, so I was tasked in heading the production, overseeing all the equipment, coordinating with the sound engineers.”</p><p>Two weeks after that, Colet did the production side for artist Brandon Harris and Osheaga Music and Arts Festival in Montreal, Canada.</p><p>In October and November 2022, Colet did her first tour across the US and wrapped up 17 shows. </p><p>“The tour was definitely a different landscape,” Colet said. “When we did ‘Faster Horses,’ there were 40,000 people every day, but we only played one day.</p><p>“When I did the tour with Genevieve Stokes, it was different because we were driving across the US in different states, doing the shows.”</p><p>Colet did another tour early this year. “It was definitely more fact paced,” she described. She played drums for Lindsey Lomes and they did 25 shows across North America.</p><p>Colet was thrilled that she got to perform in really iconic and historical venues, like The Fillmore in San Francisco, The Wiltern in Los Angeles, The Hammerstein Ballroom in New York.</p><p>“The latter was the biggest venue in the tour, with more than 3,500 people,” Colet said. “It was so different and so nice.”</p><p>Colet lamented she didn’t watch many concerts in Manila while she was growing up.</p><p>“It feels really different being on the other side,” she said. “From the stage it was a very surreal experience seeing the audience in front of you.</p><p>“The audience was in multiple levels and they had their flashlights with them. I’ve never been in such a big room.”<br/> </p>

Freelance independent artist Mikee Colet went all the way to Boston, Massachusetts to professionalize her being a drummer and musician.