DMV Music

03/10/2026

22 YEARS LATER.

Okay… this one really got me. ❤️

A few days ago, I received a message from Joseph Solis Jabol , someone I had never met—or at least, didn't remember meeting.

He told me he saw me perform sometime around 2004–2006, when I was playing in a three-piece with Empi Martinez on bass and Hershey Fremista on drums.

He initially remembered the gig as 2004, although as we talked and pieced together the old days, we figured it was probably closer to 2006.

But when Joseph posted about our reconnection, he wrote:

“After 22 years, reconnecting with my very first PINOY GUITAR GOD.”

😂

And honestly… I had to sit with that one.

I've never thought of myself as a guitar god.

I've never really thought of myself as a rock star either.

Back then, we were just this relatively unknown three-piece trying to make good music. I had my Ibanez Artcore, my Line 6 POD XT, and two ridiculously talented musicians beside me who made everything sound so much better than it had any right to.

But Joseph remembered all of it.

The guitar.

The POD XT.

The three-piece.

The way we performed.

The little details.

And he told me that he was so blown away by that performance that he went home thinking:

“Someday, gusto ko maging ganun.”

And apparently, he eventually did.

Joseph was actually a percussion student at CEU throughout college. But that performance stuck with him. He wanted to become a frontman, so he started learning guitar, songwriting, arranging and everything else that came with it.

And then came the part that completely floored me.

His first salary went toward buying a guitar.

He went to three different audiophiles trying to figure out what it was about my Artcore that made it feel and sound the way it did.

When he finally put one on, he said:

“Ahhh… kaya pala.”

He's been playing that guitar for 16 years.

My Artcore and his are apparently brothers now. 😂

And then he said something else that made me stop.

He told me that back in those days, he and his friends considered me, Empi and Herson “gold finds.”

He compared us to bands and musicians he was looking for at the time, including Eternal Now and Fuseboxx.

And THIS is where I really have trouble processing what he's saying.

Because these are not names I take lightly.

These are musicians I have personally admired for years.

Roger Alcantara is an incredible bassist who has played and sessioned with artists like Ebe Dancel and so many other amazing musicians most notably Wickermoss who played in a production I managed Best Kept Secret.

Eternal Now is a cult favorite in the progressive scene, and Roger and Loubert Vidal have both actually played on my own music at different points—stepping in for Empi and Herson for a GMA Seven gig also in 2006.

fuseboxx is another progressive powerhouse, a band I am a superfan of and believed in so much that I was able to help them connect with and get a distribution deal with Octoarts for their debut CD.

Abby Clutario, the lead vocalist, keyboardist and now stickman player for the group is an extraordinary singer, arranger, keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist whose versatility allows her to move from progressive rock to pop and so many other genres seemingly at will.

Mico Ong is one of the most technically incredible guitarists I've ever admired, taking over guitar duties in Fuseboxx after Albert Chris Montinola, another guitarist I've always looked up to. Mico is also a respected luthier and now plays with the prog-rock supergroup Jaggadah with Kibo Head , another powerhouse drummer I admire.

These are musicians who have spent decades proving themselves in the indie, progressive and rock communities.

And then here's Joseph…

casually putting me, Empi and Herson in that same conversation (Well Empi and Herson definitely have the credentials that's for sure...).

And calling me his FIRST PINOY GUITAR GOD.

😂😂😂

Bro.

There are easily dozens—probably hundreds—of guitarists in this country who are technically more proficient than I am.

So I cannot exactly walk around saying, “Yes, I am a guitar god.”

😂

But…

Maybe I was actually pretty damn good. 😜

I can never say that out loud without laughing.

What I can say is that I'm incredibly proud of the work that went into finding my own sound.

I listened to everything.

Prog.

Jazz.

Fusion.

Alternative rock.

Grunge and Metal.

Acoustic and folk artists.

Dream Theater and Petrucci.

Pat Metheny.

Acoustic Alchemy.

Nuno Bettencourt.

Greg Howe.

Paul Gilbert.

And so many others.

I took things I loved, experimented with them, and tried to make them serve the song rather than simply trying to make the guitar sound impressive.

The chords.

The voicings.

The melodies.

The arrangements.

The way the guitar, voice and rhythm section work together.

For me, the music always had to have a purpose.

It had to tell a story.

And maybe that's what Joseph was actually hearing all those years ago.

Not just guitar playing.

Intent.

Passion.

Hard work.

A very specific way of approaching music.

And that's probably the part of his message that means the most to me.

Because I don't need to believe I was some legendary guitar hero in 2006.

I'm just incredibly grateful that whatever I was doing back then was good enough, honest enough and passionate enough to make another musician think:

“Someday, I want to do that.”

And then he actually did.

That's the part that gets me.

We spend so much time wondering whether anybody is listening.

Whether anybody remembers.

Whether the songs matter.

And sometimes you don't find out until twenty-something years later.

A performance becomes a memory.

A memory becomes inspiration.

Inspiration becomes somebody else's music.

And eventually…

that person finds you again.

Joseph, thank you, brother.

Thank you for remembering the music.

Thank you for remembering the gear.

Thank you for remembering the performance.

And most of all, thank you for coming back to tell me.

You reminded me that we don't always get to see what our music leaves behind.

Sometimes, somebody else carries the story for us.

For 22 years.

❤️

And yes…

I'm STILL trying to get used to “Pinoy Guitar God.” 😂

Stories. Songs. Truth.

Read the full story here:

"22 Years Later: The Guitar God Who Never Knew He Was One"

https://storiessongstruth.wordpress.com/2026/10/03/22-years-later-the-guitar-god-who-never-knew-he-was-one/

Check out Joseph and his band SEP here:

https://linktr.ee/sep_pilipinas



MMich Gee Tan Dee Johann WiLe LiLe Noel Mendez Marco de Leon Marc Nadela Enrique Hidalgo Darrell Joseph Uy Villanueva Gboy Munsayac Sam Codilla Rodney Vidanes Gash Garret Pesodas Eric Martin Villadelgado Erickson Tubon Randel Ty Lloyd Escario

16/09/2026

DAY 10 — BRIDGING THE GAP 🎸🌙

This might be one of the strangest songs I've ever written.

And looking back, I realize something:

For about five minutes, I was basically an AI music generator. 😂

Except… I was the one generating it.

Back in 2006, my band Solace had just gone through a recording session with OctoArts for a few demo songs we wanted them to consider for an album. We had six songs.

Then came the question:

“Do you have any more songs?”

“YES!”

We didn't. 😂

So on the way home, we stopped at a Shell station along Commonwealth Avenue, across from what is now UP Technohub.

It was around 8 or 9 at night.

Cold.

Dark.

And strangely empty.

I stepped away from everyone, sat on a curb with my guitar, and looked out into this enormous open space around the UP campus.

And something happened.

I didn't think:

“Okay, I need to write a song.”

I didn't think about syllables.

I didn't count beats.

I wasn't looking for rhymes.

I wasn't trying to write something that would fit a radio formula.

I just imagined a person standing in front of someone they had lost…

Someone they still had so much to say to…

Someone they never really had closure with.

And suddenly, I could almost hear the conversation.

“Sing about the songs we used to hear…”

“Talk about the times we used to fear…”

“I never said I wanted to leave…”

“I'm asking for one last reprieve…”

The song wasn't autobiographical.

The characters weren't real.

But for those few minutes, the conversation felt real.

And I think that's one of the most important things I've learned about songwriting.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the mechanics of writing a song—

Does the lyric fit the melody?

Is the syllabication right?

Does it rhyme?

Does it have the right number of beats?

Does it sound clever?

—all the things we're taught to think about when we're trying to make lyrics work…

that we forget something much simpler:

What if you just stood in front of the person… and talked to them?

What would you actually say?

What would you wish you could say?

What would you be afraid to say?

And what would you still say if you knew you might never get another chance?

That's where Bridging the Gap came from.

The “gap” wasn't a physical place.

It was the enormous space between two people.

Between what was said and what was left unsaid.

Between memory and regret.

Between wanting someone back…

and simply wanting to understand what happened.

And maybe that's why I still love this song.

Because I didn't write it trying to make a song.

I imagined a conversation.

And somehow, that conversation became a song.

About ten minutes later, I had the first structure, the lyrics and the chords and sang it to the band.

I wrote a few more songs and we went back to OctoArts, recorded them live in one take, and suddenly we had enough material for an album.

Funny how that works.

Sometimes the most authentic songs aren't the ones you carefully construct.

They're the ones where, for a few minutes, you forget you're writing…

and simply feel like you're telling the truth.

🎧 BRIDGING THE GAP — Dale Ibay

If this kind of story behind a song speaks to you, follow Dale Ibay Music. ❤️

I'm sharing the story behind all 43 songs in the Storytelling Songs trilogy — one song at a time.

🎧 Listen to Bridging the Gap on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/track/0FXE5CU4JWoMEhQgnlfzsf?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Day 10 of 43 — Stories. Songs. Truth.



MMich Gee WiLe LiLe Tan Dee Johann Hershey Fremista Sam Codilla Rodney Vidanes Empi Martinez Marc Nadela Randel Ty Gash Garret Pesodas Lloyd Escario Roy D. Ibay Darrell Joseph Uy Villanueva Gboy Munsayac Mony Romana Rey Lecciones Marco de Leon Eric Martin Villadelgado

14/09/2026

Okay… Daddy is officially blown away. ❤️

After receiving the clarification from Sing Galing that only song covers may be accepted for the competition, we decided to record an acoustic version of Rion’s original song so that his voice could be heard clearly without all the production.

We gave my 8-year-old son a quick refresher practice.

Then he did this.

**ONE TAKE.** 😭❤️

No elaborate production.
No layers.
Just Rion, his voice, and his song.

This is **“You Are Who You Are,”** the original song I wrote, composed, arranged, and produced with my son.

Rion originally recorded it for his Sing Galing audition when he was 7 years old.

And the song itself started with a simple question:

**“If you were on stage, what would you want to tell your classmates?”**

His answer?

**“I want to inspire them.”**

Eight years old now, and somehow this little guy just keeps making Daddy prouder. ❤️

For those who want to hear the difference between the stripped-down acoustic performance and the original production, I’ve also included the original one-take studio performance and the finished recording below:

🎤 **Rion — You Are Who You Are | Acoustic One-Take Performance**
https://youtu.be/TcOgJPqWwf4

🎵 **Spotify — You Are Who You Are**
https://open.spotify.com/track/17tm9Ay0wjOLWCn27A92pB?si=1a7f000bfc8a4c89

🎙️ **Original Studio Performance — Rion singing the song in one take**
https://youtu.be/_XVCYY-foMk?si=cNjYJgZ3SmdyWWeA

Whatever happens with Sing Galing from here, this is already something I’ll treasure forever.

**You are who you are, Rion. ❤️**



MMich Gee Angela C. S. Ibay Noel Ibay Rufino G Ibay Jr

https://youtu.be/TcOgJPqWwf4

A simple acoustic, one-take performance of **“You Are Who You Are”*...

13/09/2026

BA’T ’DI MO MASABI — DAY 8 OF 16

Why can't you say it?

That's the question behind this song.

I originally wrote Ba’t ’Di Mo Masabi as an acoustic piece around 2012, when we opened Buffet Asia and I was excited to perform some of my original songs again. It eventually became one of my 2017 album demos, but I never got to perform it with a full band.

When I recreated it for Miracle Aria, the arrangement finally found its home — syncopated like crazy, with scale changes, riffs between the verses and those big bagsakan moments where the bass, drums and guitar all hit together.

But the music is only half the story.

The song is about that horrible middle ground in a relationship where both people know something is wrong.

Someone keeps thinking:

“This is it. I'm done.”

But nobody actually says:

“We're over.”

Because words have power.

Once you say something out loud, it becomes real.

And sometimes we're terrified of making the ending final.

But here's where the song takes a turn.

After all the arguments, all the hurt, all the frustration...

What if instead of fighting each other, we started fighting for the relationship?

For the good times.

For the moments when we understood each other.

For the love that once made us believe we'd make it to the end.

Maybe something isn't over just because it's difficult.

Maybe it's wounded.

Maybe what needs to change isn't the relationship...

but the expectations we placed on it.

And sometimes, before we say:

“It's over.”

We need to ask:

“Is it really?”

🎵 Day 8 of 16 — Ba’t ’Di Mo Masabi

"Listen to “Ba’t ’Di Mo Masabi” on Spotify"

https://open.spotify.com/track/0KLnM0cjdLTfsaLNE2JHpR?si=n7Jq7LumSFufRlPvXHEfYw&

Read the story. Listen to the song.



MMich Gee Tan Dee Johann Roy D. Ibay

12/09/2026

TAKIPSILIM NG ATING PAGMAMAHAL — DAY 7 OF 16 🌅

The enemy of love isn't always hate.

Sometimes...

It's indifference.

When I wrote Takipsilim ng Ating Pagmamahal in 2018, I was actually trying to write a single.

I had written Nagbabakasakali way back in 2006, and I always felt that it was one of the most accessible, pop-oriented songs from my comeback album with Cookies for Kids.

So when we were working toward the second album in 2018, I wanted to try to capture some of that accessibility again.

And Takipsilim felt like it could be that song.

But the reason I believed in it wasn't just the melody.

It was the sincerity of the question.

“Kailan mo ba ako uunawain?

Nandito na tayo sa takipsilim
ng ating pagmamahal…”

When will you understand me?

We're already at the twilight of our love.

I had been observing stories from couples everywhere — social media groups, talk shows, movies, teleseryes, romantic dramas, even the stories people tell about their own relationships.

And I kept noticing something.

The honeymoon phase eventually ends.

The excitement becomes routine.

The relationship becomes comfortable.

And somewhere along the way, sometimes without either person noticing, something begins to disappear.

Not necessarily because somebody cheated.

Not necessarily because somebody stopped loving the other person.

Sometimes...

they simply stopped paying attention.

“ Nalilibang ka na lang ba
Sa ating pagmamahal?

Kailan ka ba bababa?

Ayaw mo lang bang mag-isa?”

Are you simply passing the time in this relationship?

When will you come down?

Are you just afraid of being alone?

That was the heart of the song for me.

Because there are people who feel their relationship slipping away while the person beside them seems completely unaware.

And that's a terrifying place to be.

You can fight hatred.

You can confront anger.

But how do you fight someone who simply doesn't seem to care?

**The enemy of love isn't always hate.

Sometimes it's indifference.**

Musically, I wanted the song to carry that feeling too.

It's written in 6/8, which gives it this gentle, swaying quality.

Almost like a lullaby.

But there's something unsettling about that comfort.

Because sometimes comfort is exactly what allows us to become complacent.

We keep moving.

We keep doing the same things.

We tell ourselves everything is fine.

And meanwhile...

the love is slowly approaching its twilight.

There's also a little piece of my songwriting DNA in the opening guitar.

That melody was my attempt to make the guitar itself sound like a cry for help.

It was inspired by the acoustic guitar melody that opens As the Sun Comes Up from Carpe Diem... Someday, another song where I used a recurring melodic idea as part of the song's identity.

I loved that melody so much that even Empi, our brilliant fusion bassist and a conservatory music graduate, once spontaneously tried playing it on bass.

That made me ridiculously proud.

😂❤️

For Takipsilim, I wanted that same kind of melodic fingerprint — except this time, the guitar isn't simply introducing the song.

It's almost pleading.

And then Mich enters.

This is probably my favorite arrangement detail in the entire song.

During the first part of the chorus, she doesn't actually answer me with words.

She answers me with a counterpoint melody.

I sing:

“Nalilibang ka na lang ba
Sa ating pagmamahal?”

And Mich sings another melody underneath it.

It's almost like two people having a conversation where one person is asking a painful question...

and the other person has no words.

Just a melody.

Then, in the final part of the chorus, she finally sings words:

“Mawawala ka ba sa akin?
May pag-asa pa ba ang ating…”

And then she doesn't sing the final word.

The word that should come next is:

“Pagmamahal.”

But I intentionally left it out.

Because I wanted the listener to feel the question hanging in the air.

What exactly is missing?

What are we losing?

What is disappearing?

Pagmamahal.

That little omission might be one of my favorite pieces of storytelling in the song.

I rerecorded Takipsilim during the pandemic in 2020, along with I Am Who I Am, Up on the Rebound, and Cheesy Song.

And now, years later, it has finally found its home in Storytelling Songs Part 3: Miracle Aria.

I still hope it works as a single.

I hope someone can simply put on their headphones, enjoy the melody, sway with the 6/8 groove, hear that guitar, hear Mich's haunting counterpoint, and think:

Man... I like this song.

But I also hope that if you listen a little closer...

you hear the people underneath it.

The people who are afraid their relationship is dying a slow death.

The people who are still asking questions.

The people who desperately want their partner to notice.

The people who aren't asking for perfection.

They're asking:

“Do you still care?”

Because sometimes love doesn't disappear all at once.

Sometimes it disappears slowly.

Quietly.

While two people are still sitting right beside each other.

And sometimes...

all it takes to save it is for someone to finally notice.

🌅 Day 7 of 16 — Takipsilim ng Ating Pagmamahal

Read the story. Listen to the song.

"Listen to “Takipsilim ng Ating Pagmamahal” on Spotify"

https://open.spotify.com/track/6Ui4wSG3f3uxuqOC1jcFne?si=oP_-1wgJRTiDSOACJjlCpw

08/09/2026

BEHIND THE SONG #4: BABY, I COULD WAIT ❤️

What does it really mean to wait for someone?

I think I started understanding that question when I remembered a play called Waiting for Godot.

I’ve always found something beautiful about the idea behind that play: two people waiting for something they cannot control, not knowing exactly when—or even if—it will come.

And recently, I watched the renewed conversation around Waiting for Godot, with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter—the two actors who once played Bill and Ted—taking on the roles of Vladimir and Estragon.

It got me thinking about something I had already learned, years ago:

Waiting IS the journey.

We often talk about waiting as though it is something that happens before life begins.

We wait for the job.

We wait for the opportunity.

We wait for the right person.

We wait for the circumstances to change.

And while we're waiting, we complain.

Why is this taking so long?

Why do I have to wait?

When is my life finally going to begin?

But the truth is…

life is happening while we're waiting.

And we get to choose what we do with that time.

When I met Mich, I knew I wanted to spend my life with her.

But there were circumstances we had to wait for.

She was finishing law school.

And I wanted to wait for the time when her parents could accept me and when we could make the commitment to each other that we both wanted.

So I told her:

Baby, I could wait.

And I meant it.

It wasn't a cheesy promise.

It wasn't me saying, “I'll suffer through this until things finally get better.”

I was saying:

I'm willing to take this journey with you, however long the journey takes.

Because I understood something about commitment even before I ever stood at an altar.

Having only been in one serious relationship before Mich, I didn't have years of relationship experience to draw from.

But I knew what a promise meant to me.

When I said I would wait, I knew that waiting would change us.

Because nobody really waits in a vacuum.

Waiting changes people.

Sometimes for the worse.

Sometimes for the better.

Sometimes it tests us.

Sometimes it teaches us.

Sometimes it gives us the space to become the people we need to become.

And we choose how we approach it.

That's what I was really promising Mich.

Not simply:

“I'll wait until we're finally together.”

But:

“I'll keep building this relationship with you while we're waiting.”

And that's why this line has always meant so much to me:

«“Heaven knows if I'm the guy for you,
But if I could only make you see,
There aren't many guys just like me…”»

Because I knew what it meant to commit.

So I knew what it meant when I said:

Baby, I could wait.

I could wait for destiny to come true.

For me and you.

❤️

There is another part of this story that belongs to another song.

Mich's parents never got to see us tie the knot.

Her dad passed away from throat and lung cancer in 2007, only a year after we met.

Her mom followed in 2009 from leukemia.

But her mom gave us her blessing.

And during the time I spent helping care for her dad through his radiation treatments and final days, he told me that he enjoyed being with me.

Those memories deserve their own story.

So for now, I'll simply say this:

I wasn't waiting for my life with Mich to begin.

I was already building that life.

I was just waiting for the circumstances to catch up with the commitment I had already made in my heart.

And maybe that's the deeper meaning of Baby, I Could Wait.

Sometimes love isn't about knowing exactly where the road will take you.

Sometimes it's about saying:

“Wherever this road goes… I'm willing to walk it with you.”

❤️

Day 4 of 16: Miracle Aria — The Stories Behind the Songs

🎧 Listen to “Baby, I Could Wait” on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2cNEgRneIw5eEqGdiqO7AH

Read the story.

Listen to the song.

And maybe the next time you find yourself waiting for something…

ask yourself:

What if the waiting isn't keeping me from the journey?

What if the waiting IS the journey?

— Dale Ibay ❤️🎸

07/09/2026

BEHIND THE SONG #3: ARE YOU GOING MY WAY ❤️

Sometimes you meet someone and almost immediately realize:

“I want to know where this could go.”

Before I met Mich, I had only really been in one relationship.

And if I'm completely honest, I wasn't really thinking about forever yet.

I was in my twenties. Life was happening. I was figuring myself out.

But somewhere around 27, I started asking myself a different question:

Who do I actually want to spend the rest of my life with?

Then I met Mich.

And on that first night, something felt different.

It wasn't that I suddenly knew exactly what our future would look like.

I didn't.

I just knew that she was someone I wanted to walk through that future with.

And that's where Are You Going My Way came from.

I wrote it that night while she was sleeping.

Then the next morning, I sang it to her.

The question in the song isn't really:

Are you going my way tonight?

It's much bigger than that.

It's:

Are you going my way for the rest of this journey?

Because when you choose someone to love, you're not choosing an ending.

You're choosing to write a story together without knowing how the story ends.

That's why I wrote:

“Page by page we write our story
With an ending we don't know.”

And there was one thing I wanted to know:

Did she feel the same way?

❤️

What's interesting about Storytelling Songs is that these songs weren't written in chronological order.

Are You Going My Way was written way back in 2006—one of the oldest songs on Miracle Aria.

And yet here it sits after By Love, a song written more than a decade later about wondering whether lasting love even exists.

One song asks:

“Will I ever find love?”

The next asks:

“Are you willing to walk this road with me?”

Maybe that's what happens when a question finally meets an answer.

❤️ Day 3 of 16: Miracle Aria — The Stories Behind the Songs

🎧 Listen to “Are You Going My Way” on Spotify:
"Are You Going My Way — Spotify"
https://open.spotify.com/track/6FXfrUgG17hlImBBKqGzb0?si=P8AP0oKbQFGcrbeq6ajRBQ&utm_source=copy-link

Read the story. Listen to the song.

And maybe think about the person you chose to walk with...

before you ever knew where the road would lead.

— Dale Ibay ❤️🎸

06/09/2026

BEHIND THE SONG #2: BY LOVE ❤️

Sometimes a song begins with a question you don't really know how to answer.

By Love was written around 2018–2019, and it came from thinking about people who reach their 40s or 50s still wondering whether they'll ever find the kind of love they can spend the rest of their lives with.

But loneliness isn't always about being alone.

Sometimes it's wondering whether there's a hole inside you that you're hoping another person will fill.

The song asks:

“Is there a hole in my heart
Waiting to be filled by the wonder of a brand new start?”

But there's another question underneath it:

Am I actually looking for love... or am I just looking for the feeling of being wanted?

Maybe it's infatuation.

Maybe it's dopamine.

Maybe I'm chasing a feeling that eventually disappears.

Maybe lasting, committed love really does exist.

Or maybe I'm simply not built for it.

I wanted that uncertainty to exist not only in the lyrics, but in the music itself.

When I first wrote the song, I imagined it as something much more subdued—a kind of jazz-inflected interlude.

At the time, Baby Gil of Philstar had encouraged me to explore my jazz sensibilities more, especially after hearing some of the acoustic material on Carpe Diem Someday that had been influenced by Acoustic Alchemy.

So the original demo had this whole jazz guitar section with a clean Strat sound, almost with a Joe Pass-style approach.

But when I revisited the song for Miracle Aria, something changed.

The bridge builds toward:

“Is my life an endless wait...
Can I be a better man
To be ready when I can...
When I find love...”

And then:

“When I find love...
BYE LOVE!”

😂

Suddenly, it didn't feel like a quiet jazz interlude anymore.

It felt like an explosion.

So instead of bringing the song back into the subdued jazz guitar section I had originally imagined, I let the guitar soar.

And then, after all that emotional release, it settles back onto that quiet cloud:

“Is there a hole in my heart
Waiting to be filled by the wonder of a brand new start?”

I absolutely love that ebb and flow.

Because it mirrors the person inside the song.

The doubt.

The hope.

The excitement.

The fear that maybe you're fooling yourself.

The possibility that maybe this time it could actually be real.

And then the quiet question that remains after all the noise:

What if I really could find love?

That's what makes By Love an important song in the larger Storytelling Songs journey.

It doesn't answer the question.

It sets the stage for the possibility of finding someone you believe might actually be the person you want to spend the rest of your life with.

And interestingly, the next two songs in the album—Are You Going My Way and Baby I Could Wait—are actually among the oldest songs on Miracle Aria, written way back in 2006.

So this isn't a chronological story.

It's a story assembled across almost two decades.

Different versions of me asking different questions about the same thing:

Love.

❤️ Day 2 of 16: Miracle Aria — The Stories Behind the Songs

🎧 Listen to “By Love” on Spotify:
"By Love — Spotify" https://open.spotify.com/track/5V5iDfelPdqE5zirpXDJ4a?si=BnqEgHDaQZCdHPDPrv67lQ&utm_source=copy-link

Read the story. Listen to the song.

And maybe listen for the moments where the music itself starts asking the same questions as the lyrics.

— Dale Ibay ❤️🎸