After fronting rock and roll bands during her teens, Lolita Carbon met Cesar “Saro” Bañares Jr., Mike Pillora Jr., and Pendong Aban Jr. in Kola House, a folk rock club, and then decided to form their own musical group, naming it Salt of the Earth.
They had signed a major record label and renamed their band to Asin after a record producer was searching for a “female” Freddie Aguilar, taking advantage of the Filipino folk rock boom during the late 1970s. Their eponymous 1978 debut album includes a cover of Freddie Aguilar’s “Anak” and the rest are all original works.
Some of their popular songs include the environmental song “Masdan Mo Ang Kapaligiran”, “Ang Bayan Kong Sinilangan”, “Pagbabalik” and “Balita.” According to Pendong Aban Jr. who grew up in Agusan del Norte, most of their songs were based on the experiences in Mindanao. Because of too much illegal logging and violence in their homeland, they wrote lyrics that hoped for peace and a better environment in Mindanao. They sometimes use kulintang and other traditional instruments of the southern Philippines to give their music a more indigenous spirit.
In 1993, Saro Bañares Jr. was murdered in a bar brawl in Cotabato, causing the group’s members to part ways. Aban had his band Ang Grupong Pendong, while Carbon went solo. Later in 2000, they decided to reunite but Pillora backed out later, although Pillora gave his blessings to the new album that Carbon and Aban would release. The record album Pag-ibig, Pagbabago, Pagpapatuloy, the first Asin album after 12 years, features unreleased materials of the late Bañares. |
