Pop band Lola Amour is stepping into unfamiliar ground. The grand seven-piece has carved out their name with a steady stream of hits such as “Raining in Manila,” “Pwede Ba,” and “Fallen,” while racking up awards, international collabs, Wish Bus appearances, and a sold-out show at Circuit Makati exactly a year ago. Now, they’re extending the streak with their latest single, “Dance With My Mistakes.”
This time, the band brings in heavyweight collaborators, including South Korea’s Hyuk Shin and Malaysia’s cuurley, who help shape the song’s crisp bubblegum city pop feel. With “Dance With My Mistakes,” Lola Amour are expanding their sound and tightening the screws on emotional weight. It marks a shift in polish and perspective, with a noticeable confidence among each band member to reach deeper and make space for contradiction. On one hand, they’re covering Linkin Park. On the other, they’re writing songs that take that angst and refashion it into something stranger but more honest.
“Wala, enjoy talaga namin ‘yong genre,” frontman Pio Dumayas tells Rolling Stone Philippines. “I guess to break the image when you’re always playing this music na you can appreciate other forms of music.”
“Like yung sa Linkin Park [cover]. We had a shoot last year. It was so long, the whole day. So I kept singing, ‘I tried so hard, I tried so hard. In the end, I tried so hard.’ ” guitarist Zoe Gonzales adds, laughing as he recalls looping what he calls a “mall emo” anthem to get through the downtime. “Then a few weeks ago, I was like, ‘Hey Pio, let’s make content.’”
The Art of Regret
That goofy detour wasn’t the only moment of vulnerability. Last August, the band joined a songwriting camp that demanded they finish a song each day. That’s where they met Shin and cuurley, and this is where things unexpectedly cracked open to reveal something more raw.
“[The producers] asked us to share a story and no one was willing to share,” says pianist David Yuhico. “Everyone was still shy. So I said, ‘Okay, I’ll just share. What if we talk about regrets?’ And then naging group therapy session siya. The producers were asking me these very deep questions. So I had to reveal what I was regretting. Tapos naka-hot seat ako.”
Lola Amour has always framed music as catharsis, but this was something else. The camp peeled things back in a way that stuck. Dumayas, for one, says he still replays footage of last year’s album launch when he needs a jolt of motivation. It’s a reminder that this band — however far they’ve come — still thrives on momentum, even when things get out of control.
Hurt in City Pop
“With the lyrics, at least, the themes that we got from city pop, which is usually a really happy or fun melody to sing, [there’s] a lot of hurt behind the words and very genuine feelings, melodramatic at times,” Dumayas says. “At least ako ‘pag nagsasulat ako ng lyrics, that’s how I like to treat a very fun emotion. You add a layer of hurt and it feels different.”
Yuhico later explains that his songwriting dynamic with Dumayas is part contrast, part chemistry. He describes Dumayas’ lyrics as deeply sad, while his own instincts pull toward a more tempered approach. But on this single, they’ve found a balance that works and hinted that this genre isn’t just a one-off.
“We just happen to enjoy the genre and we have a few songs that are influenced by them,” Yuhico says. “But it’s something we enjoy. It’s not something that we are.”
Growth in A Big Band
Still, the band’s growth doesn’t just live in the songs. Gonzales, Dumayas, and Yuhico talk about how their internal setup has evolved too from managing everything on their own to now being able to delegate and focus on the music. It’s the kind of shift that keeps bands alive when the novelty wears off.
“Ever since [taking] the initiative to really step up, it was a wake-up call to see just how much we could achieve in our music career,” Dumayas says. “So it pushed us to dream bigger and to contribute more, make more effort, and then you can see a more distant future than before for the band.”
Years of pressure and success can break a group. But if anything, Lola Amour has leaned into their mistakes, and that alone made them part of the rhythm. The missteps don’t define them, but they don’t hide them either. There will always be growth involved for the band.
“Because of how big the band got, we had this [awareness] of visibility,” Yuhico says. “That pushed us to upgrade our equipment, so that we can move freely on stage. We started taking lessons. We’re improving our own musicality, making sure that people come to watch us. We’re making sure we’re worth it.”
