One Click Straight Wants You to Know You Can Use Them Freely and Forever

When you look at the landscape of the music scene today, there are live gigs being produced almost every week. After over two years of hibernation and self-quarantine for artists, the world is starting to gig again. Nearly every venue and bar has unfreezed and started to welcome back gig-goers and live band performers

That includes pop-rock band One Click Straight, a four-piece that personifies the image of broken beer bottles at theme parks, amen breaks in the andromeda, and visuals of Fred Durst virtually flipping the bird at the YouTube thumbnail. Consisting of Toffer Marquez on bass and keys; Sam Marquez on lead guitars, Tim Marquez on drums, and Joel Cartera on rhythm guitars, One Click Straight were all set to achieve rock n’ roll supremacy, until the world put a halt into their momentum. Esquire Philippines caught up with the band during a headlining show at 123Block, in Mandala Park, Mandaluyong City.

The band’s Self-Titled album is loaded with copious amounts of rock energy, generously driven to make an industrial music fan go bonkers for jungle-infused indie rock. You have “Untitled 01” and its delicately plucked strings woven in the midst of a rave outbreak; the platform-rumbling yet wholesome atmosphere of a love story in “MRT;” and the New Order dance instrumental at a frantic pace in “Dahan-Dahan.”

From releasing their debut album “The Midnight Emotion” in 2018 to releasing the “Harana Coma” EP just a month before the pandemic hit, and then “S.S.H” months after in the same year, the band has certainly gone through drastic changes creatively. Then of course there’s the masterfully crafted self-titled sophomore album. The bubblegum, guitar lick-driven pop beginnings yielded a harder, much more potent, pushing-the-envelope type of music. As Tim verbalized it, they were a “hungry band.”

Just before the headlining show

It’s 6:30 in the evening and there are tents stationed by the bar. A mugshot wall spells out the band’s tracks from their eponymous sophomore album. There are also DIY booths: tables filled with knick-knacks and trinkets and styling booths, both tattoo and piercings sitting a couple steps away from the stage and the pit. The band, like in their music videos, are decked out in uniforms, all conforming to a singular identity. They’re a different band now than they were four or five years ago, and it’s about time they got to share who they really are in front of thousands of their “friends.” 

We sat down with the band just before the headlining performance. The interview was held in a crossfit gym that was converted into a temporary holding area–it was fitting for a headliner whose members have all worked on building themselves up, carrying heavy tons of nu-metal and industrial influences: Nine Inch Nails and Ruthless Agression-era visuals and a heckton of left-turns found in their latest album. 

“Man, I've been nervous for days,” says Sam Marquez.  “I’ve been nervous for years,” Cartera shoots back. 

“As of this moment, for the first time, I'm more excited than nervous,” Tim Marquez says. “Everybody that knows me knows that I'm the most anxious man you’ll ever meet. But this time I'm just really grateful and thankful that everybody came, so I'm excited.” The drummer and singer made reassurances about what’s going to happen in the next couple of hours."

The band has spoken up about their evolution and the nitty gritty process they had to endure not only as individuals but as a collective as well. From sound selection to carefully curating the best songs that are tailored for a giant moshpit, One Click Straight aren’t the type to compromise and focus on what’s hip or what’s trendy. 

“I think aside from the time, we also went through experiences, some major ups and downs during the pandemic that really shaped how we feel,” Cartera explains. “It’s more of how we really feel internally that is reflected and transposed externally which results in everything that you see from visuals and audio-wise. It's not like ‘oh, let’s change something about us.’ It’s more of like, ‘This is what we feel, this is what will naturally come out.’” 

“Those are facts,” Sam Marquez inserts in the conversation. “It wasn’t a conscious thing like “Yo, we have to sound like this” or “Your idols sound like this.’ It was just the natural aging or experiences that got us together.

“I think that has a big effect on how we craft our sound,” he adds. “There’re no more bridges eh.  We’re all in the same plank right now. And because of that, in a way, there’s healthy glorious tension going on in that raft. Doon yung nanggaling nag-bounce off yung sound. It really was just a small raft with just the four of us.”

Photo by OCS.

Not celebrities 

While the band had to take their own time paying dues and productively change what was needed throughout the last few years prior to the sophomore album launch, Sam confidently explains the need to release more music, or rather, highlight the importance of exercise in recording and releasing music in their own spare time. 

“Yung background ng OCS, we’re not celebrities, di’ kami nanggaling from anything,” he says. “And it’s not like we have the privilege to do this everyday. We have to go through jobs, we have to do everything to support what we want to do in life. And I think that one obsession is the one thing that keeps us going. Kase at the end of the day, we just want to make that sound, man. That OCS sound. We’ve been doing our thing since 2014 or even before that. And after doing the album, two more EPs, I think those were the best stepping stones because we got to find what we really wanted to say as well.” 

Although with their rugged sound seamlessly bending rock n’ roll space and time, Sam’s knack for releasing silly promotional visuals (a la The Rock raising his eyebrows comically) has paid off all too well with the band’s roots injected in the ingenious marketing material. 

“We always had that because that was our roots: Wrestling, punk rock and heavy metal,” Sam says. “When we were doing The Midnight Emotion, that was the first time we were doing something as a band eh. You will kind of be left in your own devices, like ‘Yo we have this thing we call a band’ that we can do free art with. Why not express it the way we really want to express it completely. Like no walls nga eh. Why not make something that us four can appreciate ourselves. And this album is the best way to describe na lumalabas na yung true colors. Kasi siyempre when you are young, you watch bands and you want to imitate them. There’s a difference when you’re starting out. And when you get to the industry and when you do art long enough, you look towards yourself: ‘I want to do things the way I want to do them.’ So it’s basically like a freestyle rap where it’s no-holds-barred man, kaya it’s so freeing and liberating. 

“That’s why we had the guts to say na let’s release an album, let’s call it “Self-Titled.” Let’s make launches, let’s do tours, kase for the first time we’re really confident in our own skin.”

Tim Marquez also made sure to insert and perform different kinds of industrial and rave music-like breaks in the sophomore album’s tracks as well.

“Honestly, as I grew up as a “producer,” I got more and more conscious or like OC in each frequency that’s happening, like whenever I hear a certain sound where it perfectly aligns with the structure of the song or where it feels the best,” he says.

Sam followed through in the conversation, emphasizing their creative freedom in the album. 

“We studied on our own,” he says. “We’ve given ourselves this amount of skill that we can produce anything, any sound eh. So in a way, the whole ‘sky’s the limit’ kind of (attitude) came into the picture. And that’s a blessing and a curse sometimes because, when the sky’s the limit, it can become unstoppable. But then again that’s where it goes to a part as artists, like “Okay, we know the sky’s the limit, we can create any sound, but what song will fit?”

Adding to the creative process, there was one project in the One Click Straight catalog that managed to stand out on its own prior to the string of singles released throughout 2021. “S.S.H” housed the self-titled track that acted as a catalyst of their sound; the holy stepping stone the band was able to set their foot on. 

“We just felt like yung S.S.H, that was the one that started the spirit and the sound actually,” Sam says. “That was kind of what opened the doors where, hey wait a minute, it’s kind of fun being myself, let’s do it again but let’s put steroids on it and be the best we can with this thing. It was its thing already. But we all know by the end of the day, that’s why we still play it live, because it feels like it’s part of the album in a way. Because it feels like it’s a different painting, but you all go back to that because it has the same spirit as the latest album. That’s why we kind of end our shows with that because those are the lines that we champion.” 

Sam adds that knowing which part was written in each of their songs became less important. With ideas and roles overflowing through one another, the band members eventually didn’t bother retracing their steps on who came up with a guitar line or a drum break. Nobody in the band had to throw a fit on which part fits just because it sticks with their own individual identity. It was always a collaborative effort for One Click Straight.  

“One of our strengths as a band is that we don’t have ego with each other,” he says, “There’s nobody saying ‘eto dapat yung riff kase eto ako eh,’ or ‘dapat ganon sound kase eto ako eh.’ There’s no individualism when it comes to the four of us. Some of the riffs, si Tim nagsulat, some of the drums ako yung ang nagsulat, the four-piece kind of look it happens on live. That’s why we restudy our parts. And because it’s so buried in this ball of art, after the song is done, we kind of break it down and we study “what is this?” and we kind of forget who came up with that.” 

Just before the band jumps up onstage for the big show, the boys manage to share an important message to their listeners. 

“Just be genuine,” Carters says. “Find out what you love, find out who you are and focus on that. Just dig deep and block off all the noise around you and after you find out that’s where you start to bloom.”

“Your voice matters, man,” Sam adds. “So if we could temporarily be the voice that you could use to scream out your pain, your love and whatever energy you have inside, go ahead. You can use us freely forever and ever and thank you for coming to our shows.”  

“To everybody who believes in what we do, honestly you give us hope,” Tim says. “In times where we were hopeless and times where nothing matters, every comment and every message and every DM, when we read those things, it does mean a lot to us. Thank you for constantly supporting us that we’re doing. Whatever this music thing is, it's not easy but seeing you guys out there, it tells us that we’re doing something right. We’re doing something that people appreciate. I don't know man, I would tear up right now pero baka yung eyeliner ko mabura.”  

Listen to One Click Straight’s latest album here