…Experimental Folk Artist Bullet Dumas to Hold Major Concert This June 2024

Words by Joey Dizon
Photos by Genevieve Reyes

“Everything just fell into place.”

Singer-songwriter and performer Bullet Dumas shared his sentiments in a recent press conference held at the Astbury in Makati. The occasion? A formal announcement of his first major concert in five years, entitled Nananatili, to be held at the famed Music Museum next month.

Dumas, an award-winning experimental folk artist, was excited to unveil his first venture in concert co-production with GNN (Gabi Na Naman) Productions, who presented the idea of bringing his visions to the big stage.

“The working concept of the show and the ideas for the music is the last day of a funeral – where all the stories about the deceased are revealed and shared among the grieving, thus giving people a better idea of what kind of a person the deceased was when he or she was alive,” reveals Dumas. “All these short anecdotes and memories from different people sort of form this one big idea and story about the person, it’s fascinating.”

In short, it’s an elegy, eulogy, and funeral drama rolled into one. Happening June 8th, 2024, tickets have already been made available via bit.ly/nananatili. The highly anticipated show marks Dumas’ first solo concert since 2018’s Usisa, but as the songwriter shares, he’s actually been very busy since then.

“Since my 2018 show, we released a music video directed by Jerrold Tarog, and I performed a few solo and 3D shows with Ebe Dancel and Johnoy Danao until the pandemic happened,” revealed Dumas in an interview post-presscon. “And in the middle of the pandemic, I released a music video for WLKN, then came theater. I became Andres Bonifacio for Arete and Tanghalang Ateneo in November 2021, and a few months later, writer Khavn de la Cruz called me to be part of his surrealist stage/film musical called Semi-Macho Anti-Kristo! or SMAK! We had a few shows in Berlin from March to May 2022.”

Dumas also shared that he joined the corporate workforce as a music curator for a restaurant owned by a friend and tried his hand in theater, joining the Full House Theatre Company’s production of Ang Huling El Bimbo, playing the older version of one of the characters, Emman. Of course, despite the valuable opportunities and doors opened, Dumas ended up missing what he does best.

“I watched all these gigs this past year and just felt the urge of making music again. I mean, I never stopped writing anyway, I just didn’t have time to play gigs because if I had free days from doing theater, I just rested,” he says. “But I didn’t want to just go back and gig. I needed to make new material. Luckily, Gabi Na Naman Productions invited me to do a show. Thus, Nananatili; the new material encapsulates my music, my experience in theater, and my journey in film. I really can’t tell you the details, but my music is best experienced live anyway, so this is the perfect way for everyone to do so.” PULP

For more information, follow Bullet Dumas on Facebook and Instagram.