By Robbie Pangilinan
SURREY, CANADA - He is an international multi-genre, multilingual, multi-instrumentalist musician who has gone all around the world to share his music. He is a singer, a songwriter, an artist, a music professor, and a true musician. He is Filipino.
A true leader in the music industry, Raffy Ramiro is either the president, band leader, or founder of the following: City Rhythm Band, Heart and Soul Band, Scandal Band, Precious Metal, Messiah Band, Musart Band 2, Puzzles Band, Emmanuel Band and Swap Six Band. He founded “Be A Rockstar In 12 Hours” in Qingdao, China and was Professor, CEO and founder of Park 12 Entertainment Company Ltd. Raffy also held the following positions: professor and CEO of Swap Six Entertainment and Rhythm Rock n Roll, both entertainment companies.
More popularly known in the music industry as Raffy Swap One, he has toured Asian countries like Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and China and has performed in Las Vegas, Nevada, Chicago, Illinois, New Jersey City, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, California. He also performs regularly around Canada where he has been residing for a year and 8 months. He has taken his talent to Calgary, Toronto, Edmonton, and all the cities in British Columbia like Prince George, Kelowna, Vernon, and others. He goes on tour all around Canada with famous Filipino musicians like Banyuhay, Miriam Pantig, Lolita Carbon of Asin and Mike Hanopol.
Swap One recently did the guitars for the performance of Richard Gomez and Joey Albert at the 2016 Philippine Days Festival, a concert to celebrate the 118th Philippine Independence Day attended by 2,000 fans. He had been invited to perform in all Independence Day celebrations in Vancouver, Surrey, and North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
This July, he is the chosen performer for the Alion Baltic Music Festival in Estonia and Russia in Europe, representing Canada and the Philippines.
At 15, Raffy played in school programs and small bars in Lucena City, Quezon Province and played trombone in a marching band for town fiestas and Flores de May. He studied Bachelor of Science and Architecture at Enverga University in Lucena, but he knew his heart belongs to music.
Back in the Philippines, he used to play in all Cowboy Grill branches, Holiday Inn, Pan Pacific Hotel, Bistro RJ and toured with Vina Morales and other performers.
“That was 20 years ago, now it seems I don’t know anybody in the music business in the Philippines anymore. But I did play here in Canada with Lolita, Mike Hanopol, Heber Bartolome and the Banyuhay, Richard Gomez, Goldie of Retrospect and Joey Albert, and Miriam Pantig and even Rick Manrique Jr. in the United States,” says Raffy, who adds that given the chance, he would love to go home and perform in his own country.
At 31, he started his first outside country performance in Malaysia for 2 years, Singapore for 8 months, South Korea for 4 years, Japan for 5 years, Hong Kong for 6 months, and mainland China for 14 years!
Raffy put up the R’s Turf Hotel Pub in Surrey, BC, for the love of music and he believes that it will be one of the instruments to get what he wants in life.
“I made it different by putting live music and live karaoke everyday which is not usual in all the bars in Canada. Most bars here only have weekend live music,” shares Raffy. He is proud to say that his bar offers the best live music every day for every race, from classic rock to pop, dance music to blues, and soul to original music.
“Our specialty is to have a different kind of music to for every kind of people,” he says. Raffy also teaches music to children and adults.
In his life, Raffy has faced a lot of difficulties and challenges, but he has overcome them all by his confidence.
“Oh I’ve been through a lot, especially in traveling, survival just to build your dreams,
how to overcome worries and build confidence to get what you wanted. I guess the only thing I always do to overcome them is to believe in myself and what I can do, do what I love to do, reach my dreams and live the life I always wanted,” he says.
The proud Filipino still believes that “we are the most talented race for hard work, art and music industry.” Someday, he plans to retire in the Philippines.
“It is still my home, just trying hard here in America to follow my dreams and prove to myself the best I can do. The international music business is here in America, racial discrimination is everywhere, but somehow I believe, there is a price for hard work. I am just trying to put a dot in the huge area of the competitive music world,” he ends.
Retirement is still far, for now, Raffy will continue to be Swap One and bring the Filipino talent to the whole world.
