Filipino American musician Kurt Tijamo believes that music artists should pay it forward, which is why when he got the chance to visit the Philippines for the first time in September, he immediately took the opportunity to perform in a benefit concert for Child Haus, a shelter for children stricken with cancer and other dreaded diseases.
“I believe that the ultimate goal of every musician is to be able to help people with their music,” Kurt told Manila Standard Entertainment in an exclusive interview.
He was in town to promote his original single “U & Me” in collaboration with Curve Entertainment.
“It’s a song I wrote during the pandemic when I was stuck in my room. It was a terrible experience. After a couple of weeks of being stuck in my room, I was thinking of scenarios of being on the beach, with the summer breeze, or being somewhere with a special person like just cuddling on the couch. That’s why I came up with what my perfect date be. That’s the inspiration for the song,” the classically-trained musician shared.
And rediscovering his native roots is also a given. Besides, it took him 29 years to finally visit his mother’s native land, which he now describes as “one happy, chaotic place.”
“It’s my first time in the Philippines. When I was young, both my parents were working full-time and we were working-class people, so we didn’t have enough money to come here. For a long time, we were just getting by,” Kurt admitted saying they were poor that’s why he’s glad that they have “comfortable money now that it’s easier for him to visit the Philippines.”
He was in Manila for two weeks with his younger brother, Sean, as well as his parents, John and Edith Winterhalter.
Growing up in the United States, Kurt already knew that being a Filipino American is a different experience.
“In school, there would be white kids’ groups and I don’t get them because I grew up truly Fil-Am,” said the San Francisco-based musician.
Although he grew up not speaking Tagalog “because nobody talked to me in Tagalog when I was young,” and he looks more like a white guy than a Filipino, Kurt associates himself more with the Fil-Am community where he feels more comfortable and feels more at home.
“It’s so hard to fit in, to be honest. Being a biracial person has unique challenges. The plight of every biracial person is trying to figure out where they belong and knowing who they really are,” he confessed.
Like being “mixed,” Kurt considers his music “kind of eclectic,” given that the two songs he has already released are “too different from each other.”
But he wanted to be known as a musician whose music talks to people.
“I try to be a storyteller through my music,” he said.Part of his visit to the country is to expand his artist profile by putting out more music. It’s a dream that he’s been trying to build since 15 when he started listening to the likes of John Mayer, Norah Jones, and Gabe Bondoc.
