HERE’S a quick pop quiz for you: Name three famous brother-and-sister musical acts.
Answer: Richard and Karen Carpenter, Donnie and Marie Osmond and Jack and Meg White of the White Stripes.
Okay, the White Stripes aren’t really related, but how about Nicole and Carlo David?
They may not be quite as famous as the first two – not yet, anyway – but they’ve managed to generate a pretty healthy buzz since they hit the local live music scene with their jazz and R & B-tinged pop (or is it pop-tinged jazz and R & B?) barely a couple of years ago.
Although they play clubs and music lounges mostly, the siblings made quite a splash in last month’s “Jam for Japan,” winning the crowd over with their medley of “Rainbow Connection” and “Over the Rainbow” as well as their strong stage presence.
Fans have also been uploading video clips of their performances on YouTube, which has helped spread the word.
Part of the buzz about Nicole and Carlo admittedly has to do with their famous father, veteran jazz singer Mon David.
Though never quite a commercial entity, David was widely respected in local musical circles as a “singer’s singer.” He capped his decades-long career by winning the grand prize in the London International Jazz Competition in 2006, before deciding to migrate to the US with his family not long after.
But while they acknowledge their father’s heavy influence both as a musician and “life coach,” the David siblings take pains to make it known that they follow the beat of a different drum.
It didn’t take long for the David siblings to announce that they were striking out on their own, not in the States but back home.
“It helps that we’re thousands of miles away,” admits Nicole, at 24 two years older than brother Carlo.
“One of the advantages of moving back here is being able to follow our own direction,” she adds. “For us it’s not a compromise to do both pop and jazz. We like the idea of being able to entertain a broader audience.”
Indeed, a glance at Nicole and Carlo’s set list reveals an eclectic mix, everything from Charlie Parker to Justin Bieber, with plenty of crowd pleasers in between, from covers of John Mayer and Jason Mraz to Jobim. They perform standards (Dean Martin’s “Sway”), swing (Benny Goodman and Jon Hendricks numbers), radio hits (Seals and Crofts’ “Summer Breeze”) and, increasingly, their own original compositions.
There’s something for everyone in a Nicole and Carlo set, which might explain the devoted following they’ve managed to build in such a short time.
“We like to balance being malalim [deep] and entertaining,” says Carlo, whose vocal quality bears an uncanny similarity to his father’s, even if he applies it to very different material [Carlo makes no secret of being a big John Mayer fan].
“We’ll play something when we feel the audience will appreciate it. For instance, when we saw that there were a lot of kids in the audience, we decided to do that Justin Bieber number.”
Nicole and Carlo grew up listening to jazz from the cradle, as it were.
“I remember long car trips where my dad would be playing a Keith Jarrett tape,” recalls Nicole. “I’d fall asleep and when I woke up, Keith Jarrett pa rin. We didn’t know it was jazz then, we thought it was just normal.”
“Normal” for a musician’s family, anyway.
“What our parents did was, they didn’t buy us toys or video games,” continues Nicole. “Instead they bought us musical instruments.”
That was how Carlo became a drummer, until his John Mayer fixation made him switch to guitar.
Nicole enrolled at the Ateneo de Manila University as a Communication Arts major, though much of her time was still consumed by music as a member of the choir and the Ateneo Glee Club. It was with the glee club that she got bit by the performing bug.
For his part, Carlo began playing in rock bands, before deciding to pursue music full time, enrolling at the University of the Philippines College of Music as a Composition major.
Their time in the US was a brief interlude, during which the two began to hatch their scheme to form their own band. For the most part, they kept it between the two of them, not letting their parents hear them until they had gelled as a musical unit. But the game plan had always been to go back to the Philippines.
“I was the one who really wanted to go back,” says Nicole. “We wanted the support system of friends, the comfort of being able to perform Filipino songs.”
Since her parents wouldn’t let her come back alone, Carlo volunteered to come with her. But first, they got the “are you sure this is what you want to do with your lives?” lecture from their father.
“He said, ‘It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be a long hard journey. But it will be worth it,’” recalls Carlo.
Though their stage name implies that they are a duo, Nicole and Carlo take pains to explain that they are a band, together with drummer Gabby Abes, bassist Kozo Lapuz and lead guitar Tim Cada.
Since coming back in 2009, they have been paying their dues, making the rounds of the local club circuit, sometimes hitting paydirt, as in “Jam for Japan,” sometimes playing for an audience no bigger than the band itself.
In keeping with the “new generation” theme, they are being managed by Anton Dans of Thirdline, whose father Butch Dans managed Mon David throughout most of his career.
The two have also been working on their own songs, with Nicole writing most of the lyrics and Carlo doing the melodies and arrangements. They hope to launch their first album sometime this year.
In the meantime, they’re keeping their father’s life lessons to heart.
“One of the things he likes to say is, ‘keep on keepin’ on’,” says Nicole. •