Don Calma hail from Batangas (Philippines), which is famous for their Barako Coffee and the hometown of former President Jose P. Laurel. Aside from those random facts, no one has put Batangas on the map until now. This indie pop rock band was formed in 2006 but back then, their name was ‘No More Lies’. According to Guitarist Lester, they’ve recently changed their name because they had a major line-up change. Don Calma is actually the name of their bassist Carlo Don Calma. They thought it sounded cool and the rest is history. Another reasoning behind the name was Don is Filipino for ‘Sir’ and Calma is Spanish for ‘Calm or Cool’.
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Pala is the second studio album from St Albans natives Friendly Fires and is to be released in the UK on the 16th May and 24th May in the US. According to lead singer Ed Macfarlane, Pala is heavily influenced by 1980s and 1990s chart music like ‘N Sync, Missy Elliott and Bobby Brown (8ball, 2011). He’s happy to alienate himself from the rest of the indie genre; a bold move from these lads considering most indie bands would never associate their music to “mainstream” and chart-topping artists.
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