Bobby Banduria

Bobby Banduria, “Shiny Silver Jeepney.” Click on the album cover to download it from iTunes.

Bobby Banduria, The Rudiments of Conversation, Volume 6. Click on the album cover to download it from iTunes.

Bobby Banduria (a/k/a Kevin Camia). Kevin is a musician/writer/stand-up comic who has performed all across the states including Chicago, Florida, southern California and New York City. He has been playing in bands ever since the 7th grade with styles ranging from rock, alternative, and funk. He picked up the banduria in the summer of ’92 during a family trip to the Philippines. He studied at the Paco Public Scool for a week to learn the basics. After returning home he put it down and picked it up again to perform music for the original production of “PerigriNasyon,” performed by Teatro ng Tanan [Theater for Everyone]. That was in 1994. He put it down and picked it up again in 1998 to do music for a play entitled, “Dirty Laundry,” also a TNT production. During rehearsals for that production, Bobby Banduria was born. Kevin is also a writer/performer with the beloved tongue in A mood experimental comedy/performing arts troupe who make their home at San Francisco’s Bindlestiff Studio. Other than theater, music and comedy, he is a featured actor in two independent films: “Up the Hill” and “247 Miles to Vegas.” He is also a devout ‘49er fan! Bobby Banduria is Camia’s attempt to combining everything he loves: music, comedy and theatre!

Bong Agung (a/k/a Ogie Gonzales). During the hardcore/punk underground era of the 80s and early 90s in Manila, Philippines, Ogie co-founded, played and recorded with punk band called V.O.D. (Valley of Death). A couple of V.O.D. songs were compiled with other bands in the album, “Where Do We Go From Here?”, produced by the now-defunct indepedent label, Twisted Red Cross. When he immigrated to the USA, he continued playing with his brother, Jing Gonzales. In 1995, he started volunteering for San Francisco’s Teatro ng Tanan [Theater for Everyone], where he performed and composed musical scores for the stage, using both western and Philippine indigenous instruments. Independently, he composed for “Babae,” a one-woman show by Lorna Aquino Chui. In 1997, he joined the experimental comedy troupe tongue in A mood, where he met and helped form Bobby Banduria. He has collaborated with numerous playwrights, poets and musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area Filipino American community. He also studies kulintang(an) under Danongan Sibay Kalanduyan. In 1998 Ogie, along with brother Jing Gonzales and tongue in A mood’s artistic director Allan Manalo, organized “piNoisepop,” a continuing bi-annual music festival to promote original Filipino American music. The festival makes its home at Bindlestiff Studio — an epicenter for Filipino American performing arts.

G (a/k/a Gayle Romasanta). Playing the violin and performing with orchestras since she was 9, Gayle took a five-year hiatus when she was 15; only to pick up where she left off to play for the San Francisco State University Orchestra in the spring of 1997. She later joined Teatro ng Tanan (Theater for Everyone), and experimental sketch comedy troupe Tongue in a Mood. Gayle helped found the Bindlestiff Pinay Collective (BPC), where she co-produced, co-wrote and co-directed last year’s “1 of 8”. She is a former host of KUOP 91.3 FM’s “Progressive Connection” , an alternative/punk radio show, and a KUOP 91.3 FM news broadcaster. Gayle has studied under Ellie Tatton of the Stockton Symphony and currently studies under violist/violinist Gay Currier of the Sacramento Symphony. A former law student, and founder of Kappa Psi Epsilon (the first Filipina American based sorority with chapters at University of California Davis, California State University, Long Beach, and San Francisco State University), Gayle is now organizing and co-writing the upcoming BPC Summer 2002 Show, “Holy Mary, Sweet Mother of Jesus”.

Dr. Boogie Nights (a/k/a Theo Gonzalves). Theo has written, arranged, performed and produced original musical soundtracks for independent film projects and documentaries. His other compositions have been featured at the Asian American Jazz Festival and concerts in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. He has collaborated with numerous poets and theater artists including Elsa E’der, Teatro ng Tanan [Theater for Everyone], as well as a host of PCN pit bands, comedy gigs, sporting events, weddings (Jewish and Christian), and receptions. Theo has performed with Jessica Hagedorn, Al Robles, Sugarpie Desanto, Melecio Magdaluyo, Joey Ayala, the Kalat Show Band, Jason Newstead of Metallica, the Unknown Giants, and with his own jazz ensembles. Theo served as Musical Director of the San Francisco-based experimental comedy and performing arts troupe, tongue in A mood. He lives and works in Honolulu.

Fernando Funk (a/k/a Raym Picardo). Raym studied classical music at the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music (Philippines) under a scholarship program. He also studied jazz music at Blue Bear School of American Music (San Francisco) and at Laney College (Oakland) for jazz ensemble and theory. He was awarded third prize for the National Song Writing Competition and third prize for the National Music Competition for Young Artist (flute category, both in the Philippines). He has written a musical score for a film about domestic workers in Japan. Raym has performed with the Community Music Center Symphony Orchestra as flutist and with Ed Kelly, Robert Stewart, Walter Savage, Kalil Hasheed, Urs Steiner, Allison Lovejoy, Flip Nuñez, Sugarpie Desanto, Melecio Magdaluyo, Joey Ayala, Kuh Ledesma, Basil Valex, Sasha Padilla, Christopher De Leon, Ethnic Faces, Sinag Lahi, Noel Cabagun, and Bernard Soler. He also freelances with different bands and musicians.