A Tale of Two Ibarras

In a departure from their usual historical musings, Carmina and Patch talk about two modern Filipino-American women who share a last name but are from different decades, backgrounds, and musical genres. Yet they share a singular love for their heritage and history undeniably reflected in their art. In this Filipino-American History Month, Carmina and Patch are proud to feature two Fil-Ams who are sure to contribute to our storied legacy for years to come.

Learn more: Vaccine scientist by day, rapper by night: How Ruby Ibarra is defying stereotypes, Ruby Ibarra - Bakunawa ft. Ouida, Han Han & June Millington (Live) Tiny Desk 2025 Winner, Ruby Ibarra - (Official Music Video), Ruby Ibarra Official Website, Rolling Stone: RUBY IBARRA IGNITES NPR’S ‘TINY DESK’ CONCERT: ‘THIS IMMIGRANT IS HERE’, Ruby Ibarra, 2025 Tiny Desk Contest Winner: Tiny Desk Concert, June Millington, [HIGHLIGHTS] Sky Islands by Susie Ibarra: World Premiere, 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Music: Sky Islands by Composer/Percussionist Susie Ibarra, Susie Ibarra's "Nest Box" performed in Ojai by the composer and Wu Wei, and Susie Ibarra Official Website.

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Transcript

Welcome to FilTrip, a podcast where we explore everything fun, weird and in between about the Philippines. 

Hi, Patch.

Hi, Carmina.

So this month, we're celebrating Philippine American History Month. History, not heritage.

Right.

For the reason why, check out last year's episode when we first talked about it. But we're kind of departing from our usual approach of talking about historical figures. We're going to be talking about two women who caught our attention this year, right?

Because of their notable achievements, both in music.

And coincidentally, they have the same last name too.

But they're from different generations. One was born in 1970, the other in 1988. One was born in California and raised in Houston, and the other was born in Tacloban in the Philippines and immigrated to the Bay Area when she was a child.

I came up with a title for this episode last night.

Oh, already? What was the title?

The Tale of Two Ibarras.

That's cute. Very catchy. They might think it's related to Nolly Matanjere.

Right. And speaking of related, I was like, are they related? But my Google search told me that they are not.

Okay. So maybe we'll start with Ruby. Ruby Ibarra, right?

She, as I discovered, led a double life.

Yes. I discovered that too.

She worked as a biotechnology scientist in a lab, and by night, she transformed into a rapper, a celebrated rapper at that.

One of the other fun facts I discovered was, she was a vaccine scientist and she was working on PCR testing, which became very familiar to all of us during the COVID pandemic.

She contributed to the COVID-19 vaccine research, while simultaneously creating the music that has resonated to so many immigrants, particularly Filipino-American immigrants, right?

Right.

She was born in the Philippines, and she migrated to the United States with her family during the 1990s, and they settled in the San Francisco Bay Area. This transition really profoundly shaped her identity and her world view. So in that phase in her life, she was introduced to rap very early.

She initially fell in love with hip hop because of Frances Magalona.

Yes, she was four years old, right? Right.

So cool. But she's from a family of musicians, apparently. Her uncles, cousins, et cetera, and she joked in one of her interviews.

She gravitated towards hip hop because of her love for it, one. But she said that between her and her sister, her sister was the one who actually could carry a tune.

Oh.

You mentioned that she came to the US when she was five. That was in 1991. And in fact was the subject of one of her first albums called Circa 91.

She went to UC Davis and while she was there, she performed with a spoken word collective called Six Pits. She credits that exposure for becoming more interested in the plight of the underrepresented all over the country. And of course, Filipinos definitely were and to a certain extent still underrepresented today, although people like her are breaking that barrier.

You mentioned Circa 91, one of the songs was talking about there's power in our accents and even our names. Through her art, she expresses a sense of pride and even sort of resistance to the things that are going on around us and what we deal with as immigrants.

Did you know about her before we started researching and before she won the Tiny Desk?

No.

My sister-in-law, who's also from the Bay Area, is a fan of hers. So she already had a following even before she became this household name. So now that I've mentioned it, let's talk about the NPR Tiny Desk contest.

One of the things that is really noteworthy about this win, not only were there about 7,000 submissions, the most apparently in the competition's 11-year history, but also her winning song Bakunawa stands out. It is the only entry performed in three different languages.

And also involved intergenerational Filipino artists. This is really a big deal because, as you mentioned, this contest has been going on for 11 years. And it's a way for unsigned artists to get national recognition.

And I don't know now, because of all of the polling of the federal funding, how it's going to work going forward, but NPR also sponsors a live tour. I think she was still able to go on tour this year. Actually, scratch that.

I know she was able to go on tour this year because my sister-in-law and my niece watched her live. Oh. And past winners have toured the world, joined Broadway, even won Grammys.

The other thing is the judging process for Tiny Desk is, they say, lengthy. But in each round of judging, she kept coming out on top. Why don't we talk about the song, the winning entry?

The title is Bakunawa. And it's a character from Philippine mythology and was inspired by the then pending birth of her first child. And as you mentioned, it involved three languages, Tagalog, Bisaya, and English.

Bakunawa is a dragon that swallows the moon and is subsequently banished and blamed for natural phenomena like earthquakes and eclipses and so on. Through this ancient story, Ruby Ibarra was able to use it as a metaphor for resistance and fighting against erasure, she said.

And to quote her, she said, That time in my life led to a moment of clarity as I thought about how I wanted to step into motherhood, breaking the generational trauma, celebrating and accepting all parts of myself and reclaiming my power, both old and new, all things that I want to pass on to my daughter through our private moments and through music.

And it makes me think about my own relationship with my daughter and what I want to pass on to her, also the kind of stories I want to tell her. So it's always heartwarming every time I encounter artists that have a deep connection to motherhood on a personal level.

And the last sentence of this quote, it says, this song for me is a statement that my daughter is my revolution and my hope that she will be liberated from the effects of our cultural history. I also read that at first she was very reluctant to embrace that word activism because she felt like she wasn't really like out there, you know, being very physically present in protests, etc. But then afterwards, she realized that activism doesn't just have one meaning.

And by her giving life to all of these struggles to her lyrics, she does now consider herself an activist.

Part of her activism is also creating opportunities for others. She also founded Pinay's Rising, a scholarship program supporting young Filipino women. She's showing how committed she is to encouraging Asian-American artists to share their experiences and ensure that their stories become part of the American narrative.

She also co-founded Bolo Music Group in 2023, which is an independent record label based in the Bay Area, and it highlights Filipino-American artists. And I just wanted to touch on this intergenerational aspect of Bakunawa. So, there were four artists, like I mentioned earlier, Ruby Ibarra.

The second one is June Millington. And June Millington is herself a pioneering Filipino-American woman because she was part of the all-female band from the 70s called Fanny. And Fanny was one of the first all-female rock bands to be signed to a major label.

And we're linking two versions of this song in our show notes. One, which was the entry that showed all four of them singing. And then the other one, where June Millington in the official music video was reciting a narration at the beginning of the song.

The third artist is Han Han. She's a singer and an MC. Her real name is Hanili Pabelo.

And then fourth is Ouida. She's also a vocalist from San Francisco. Her name is Sam Hyland.

And she also grew up in the Bay Area. Her dad is Irish-American, whose mother, basically her grandmother, is half Filipina. And her mom is full Filipina from Manila.

This is a bridging of eras, and it created such a powerful statement about continuity and visibility for Filipina artists. So the next person that we want to talk about is Susie Ibarra, because she won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her composition called Sky Islands. It's an eight-piece ensemble inspired by, as the title invokes, the Luzon Sky Islands.

It's interesting that they both won in the month of May this year.

What a coincidence. Also sharing a last name.

So yes, Susie Ibarra is a Filipino-American composer, percussionist and sound artist whose work crosses multiple disciplines. Her practice includes live performances, mobile sound mapping apps, multi-channel audio installations, recordings and documentaries. Did you listen to Sky Islands?

I did. It actually was so relaxing.

I listened to it and I thought, oh, this is so soothing. And what I actually did was I listened to it as I wanted to fall asleep. Yes.

I have something new to listen to now.

It's really relaxing. Could you hear, though? I think they were trying to kind of mimic the sound of bamboo, the unique sounds of the kulintang.

Very soothing. It was, I think, yeah, it will definitely be in my playlist for any time I want to relax.

Fall asleep. Well, you know, and this again is a big deal because the Pulitzer Prize for Music has been awarded since 1943. And it recognizes distinguished musical compositions by American artists that had its first performance or recording produced in the US during the year.

Traditionally, the Pulitzer Prize favors work that push boundaries, and definitely Sky Islands is an example of that. But it also brings more visibility to non-Western musical traditions in the mainstream because historically, especially within the American classical new music establishment, that's really uncommon. And the Pulitzer has historically centered on European or Western art music.

So by awarding Sky Islands with the Pulitzer, it hopefully is an acknowledgement that there is music that can be devoted to environmental concerns, that can be central to the music that people submit for this prize. So let's talk a little bit about Sky Islands and her process. I didn't know that there was an actual thing, Patch.

So I looked up the definition. Sky Islands referred to geographically isolated, high-altitude forest ecosystems, like the mountains of Luzon, or another example that was given was Mount Matalingahan on Palawan. And their main characteristic is that they are radically different from their surrounding lowland environments.

And because of this, they have a unique and biodiverse species because they're so isolated. So the organisms found in these places aren't found anywhere else. It kind of reminds me of the Galapagos a little bit with this.

So then I went down a rabbit hole.

Yes, tell me more.

What are these unique and biodiverse species that are not found anywhere else?

And what sounds do they make?

Here are some examples. So in Luzon, one is the giant cloud rats. They're large, slow moving nocturnal rodents.

And they're found in the northern part of the island. There's the bushy-tailed cloud rats. They're found in the Cordillera mountain range.

There's the Luzon tree mice, which are tiny reddish fur that live in the forest canopies.

Sorry, the reason why I laughed is so far you've mentioned rats and mice.

Well, there's one example that was a man-mouse. It's called the Luzon Bleeding Heart Pigeon, known for the striking red bleeding heart patch on its chest. And again, in the forests of Luzon.

I'm laughing about pigeon because aren't they considered also in New York City at least rats?

Yeah, I mean, of course, we know that they're not your, you know, like, city rodents, right, we know that.

In New York City, yeah, that's what they're called. Okay, so how about Palawan? So in Palawan, there's also a rat.

Okay, Palawan soft furred mountain rat, which was rediscovered in 2007 after not being seen for over 40 years.

Wow.

And this is only known to exist there.

I wonder what made them come out.

Maybe like, their habitat is being destroyed.

Disturbed.

Okay, so there's a pitcher plant, and this tropical pitcher plant is known only from that same mountain, Mount Matalingahan. There's a bird, it's called the Palawan striped babbler, also just restricted to that mountain. And then there's endemic species in Mindanao.

There's also Sky Islands there. The Philippine eagle. Now, we know this is critically endangered.

It's our national bird and it's one of the largest eagles and can be found in Mount Apo or Mount Ketanlad. Another rat. Mindanao hairy-tailed rat.

It's a relative of the cloud rats. And then there is, I wanna know the story more about this because it's named after an American it looks like. It's called the McGregor's Cuckoo Shrike.

Again, only endemic in Mount Madindang. Yeah, those are just some examples. I'm sure there's more.

The other significance of Sky Islands is also beyond the environmental. So this concept of these mountains and isolated places also reflects Philippine mythology because these Sky Islands typically are what we would describe as the home of deities, right? There's many indigenous myths regarding mountain peaks as sacred dwellings.

So just a little bit about her process that I found so fascinating. And the reason why I went down this rabbit hole about what Sky Islands are about, her research involves a lot of field recordings. So she listens to her environment, you know, sounds of water, birds, people, but not just nature.

She also does recordings of urban environments. She gave a talk at Harvard about her process, and she actually played the sounds that she recorded that became inspirations for some of her work. It was really fascinating.

We're going to link it in our show notes too. And just as an example, she researched birds in Ojai in California because she was invited there at their music festival, and she was asked to create a piece. And when you listen to that music, you can very clearly understand how her research informs her work.

The piece of music that she created for that music festival is called Nestbox. And if you listen to it, again, like it's really, really original. And one of the things that she really evokes in all of her works is that it's like you're in the music because of all of those sounds that she's trying to bring into it.

You're not just listening to it, you're immersed in it.

I think one of the reasons for that immersion, I think it obviously I am no expert in music, but because she is a percussionist, right? And personally, when I listen to music, the percussion for me is like a spine of the music because that's where the beat and the rhythm happens. And I really did feel that immersion when I was listening to Sky Islands.

So I get what you're saying about her music process.

She spent months in Mindanao recording the environment there. And she credits the Nongan Danny Kalanduyan.

The master musician in Kulintang, not only in the Philippines, but apparently in San Francisco as well, that has influenced her so much. She also formed Electric Kulintang, a project that she formed with her husband, Roberto Rodriguez, that combines traditional instruments with modern electronic dance rhythms. As we mentioned earlier, Susie was born in November 15, 1970 in Anaheim, California.

She actually grew up in Seabrook, Texas, which is apparently near Houston. Her parents were both doctors who immigrated from the Philippines in the 1950s. Like her siblings, she also took piano lessons as a child, though I think she was the only one who became a professional musician.

And she credits her father who plays piano by ear for her musical rhythm and her mother for her deep appreciation of music and art. So growing up in the 1980s, Susie was exposed to popular music, jazz, and traditional Filipino music. And she first became interested in drums after watching a local band perform outdoors.

An interesting little story that I came across. Her mother agreed to split the cost of a drum kit with her. Susie soon joined a punk band while continuing her piano studies and playing organ at church.

Could you imagine her in the punk band after listening to the work that she does now?

Yeah, that is so interesting to imagine.

And then after high school, she initially wanted to become a visual artist. She studied drawing and painting at art schools in Houston and in LA before enrolling in an art program called Sarah Lawrence College in New York.

Yeah, she simultaneously attended Manus College of Music, which is now called Manus School of Music, as part of the new school in New York City. And then as part of her studies in the Philippines, she also became affiliated with the University of the Philippines. So very educated in her field.

And you mentioned visual art. She really credits that too for her approach in music, which is probably why it's so unique. Those two disciplines you won't really think go together, right?

Right. But it kind of makes sense now listening to her music. You do kind of feel like we mentioned earlier, it's very immersive, but you do have this, the visuals.

And apparently as part of her process, she does draw. When she's composing, she draws shapes, she does layouts. And I don't know how this works in practice, but her percussion writing is spatially choreographed.

She's got performers placed around a room, and of course the sounds, right, move between these instruments, but they also create this physical quality to the music. And audiences often describe her performances as sculptural, because rather than watching in a single frontal stage, they're surrounded by the music, and you have to really look at people when they're playing their instruments. So Patch is kind of a departure for us, but I really, really enjoyed it.

I enjoyed learning more about these women, and introducing our listeners to modern-day icons that we can all look up to, because I think part of what makes these two women interconnected, even if they're, you know, as we said, they're not relatives, that doesn't seem like they even know each other. But they're both serving our culture and elevating it.

They both demonstrate multi-faceted approach to art, their own form of activism, and they've used their platform to educate, but in a way challenge norms through innovation in their art, celebrate their heritage, and build a supportive community.

I hope everybody enjoys this episode. I'm sure there's more people we can talk about in Philippine-American history months in the modern times.

Okay, so that's our episode. We hope you join us on our next trip.

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