The Vowels They Orbit New Release Launch Event

The indie pop group looks back on eight years of friendship, growth, and the sound of remembering.

The walls of Sunny16Lab in Quezon City felt unusually intimate that afternoon… a dim, soft glow washing over a small stage dressed only with cables, amps, and quiet anticipation. The audience wasn’t large, but it didn’t have to be. When the band walked in, laughing and carrying their guitars, it already felt like the start of something remembered rather than performed.

This was the press launch and advanced listening session for “gusto ko lang maalala,” the band’s third EP, ahead of its digital release on November 7 under Sony Music Philippines.

A phrase that roughly translates to “I just want to remember,” the title already hinted at where they were emotionally… not nostalgic for nostalgia’s sake, but reflective, calm, maybe even grateful.

Indie beginning

Frontwoman Nikka Melchor, joined by Hannah dela Cruz (keys, vocals), Gene Santiago (guitar), and Patch Javier (bass), described the record as nostalgic and introspective. It’s a natural evolution for a band that began in the flurry of the 2010s indie scene, when every weekend was a gig and every release a promise. “We were formed in our early 20s,” Nikka shared during the launch. “We met while writing songs. That was around 2015, when indie music was so hot in the Philippines. We wanted to sound like the bands we watched.”

Eight years later, that restlessness has softened into something confident. “At this point, we know what we want. We know who we are,” Nikka said, smiling between takes. “We want to be that dream-pop band in the OPM scene.”

The afternoon unfolded like a conversation. Between jokes about eating ice cream after rehearsals and stories about late-night bonding, the band performed a few of their tracks: “para bago,” “Selos,” and “basta.” Both songs shimmered with the warm melancholy that has become their trademark: wistful chords, fluttery harmonies, and the kind of songwriting that makes you look out the window and think of something—or someone—you can’t quite name.

On and on and on

Their growth has been steady, almost quiet, but deliberate. The band’s debut EP in 2020 came out during the pandemic, which meant their earliest songs lived mostly online. “We couldn’t perform them,” Nikka recalled. “When we finally could, it took us a while to feel ready. But we were determined to continue… that’s why our second EP was called “Tuloy, Tuloy, Tuloy.” We just want to keep going.”

And now, they have. “gusto ko lang maalala” feels like the sound of a band returning to itself… stripped of pretense, confident in simplicity. The new songs echo their early influences, but they’re written with the kind of maturity that only comes from living through it.

As the session wrapped and the lights dimmed again, there was a rare stillness in the room… not silence, but the kind that lingers when music has done its job. Eight years, three EPs, and countless Uncle John’s fried chickens later, The Vowels They Orbit have found what they were looking for: not perfection, but presence.

And if “gusto ko lang maalala” is about remembering, then maybe this era of the band isn’t about chasing what they once were… but realizing they’ve finally become what they’ve always wanted to be.