By Pat Villaceran — Founder & Composer, Volume 1
In every generation, there are cultural moments we can point to and say:
“This changed something.”
For the Philippines in 2025, that moment is Hinabi Privé.
Not an event. Not a dinner. Not a performance. 
But a living, breathing six-senses cultural experience where food, music, cocktails, ancestry, memory, and Filipino identity are woven into a single night that will never be repeated — and therefore, never forgotten.
At the centre of Hinabi Privé: Manila ARC is something unprecedented for an immersive cultural experience: a full, original OPM soundtrack composed by Hinabi Privé founder Pat Villaceran, marking her bold entry into Filipino music at a scale both intimate and historic.
Volume 1 is a seven-track emotional map of a nation.
A love letter.
A prayer.
A remembrance.
A healing.
And as Villaceran shares:
“Hinabi is not an event. It is a frequency.
The music needed to reflect the Filipino soul”
This is the story of how that music found its way into the Manila ARC VOLUME 1.
THE NECESSITY FOR OPM TO BE TOLD ANEW
Why a cultural experience needed its own sound
Hinabi Privé began as a co-creation between Villaceran and James Harris, a British musician whose storytelling instincts and genre-fluid artistry served as the emotional foundation for Hinabi’s earliest prototypes. It was Harris who first weaved the idea that Hinabi should not simply use music — it should speak through it.
“Well, I co-created the concept of Hinabi with my friend, James, and he’s a wonderful musician. I am, absolutely, always inspired by his music. It’s so beautiful. I believe that the way he has crafted and co-created the themes is one of the most defining things about Hinabi. He was very instrumental in making sure music was integral as a part of the experience.”
As the concepts deepened in Volume 1 and the evenings evolved, heritage, ancestry, and identity became central threads of the Manila ARC. Something shifted internally for Villaceran:
OPM wasn’t optional.
OPM was essential.
“When we talk about Filipino heritage, we can’t treat it just as a theme.
We needed a sound that carried memory, pain, joy, hope, hunger, resilience — all of it.”
But the OPM she envisioned wasn’t traditional.
It wasn’t confined to kundiman, folk, pop, ballad, or choir.
“You know, when we talk about Filipino heritage, and I’ve never really seen being Filipino as restricting. I’m very influenced by different styles of music.”
“And so I really was wholly inspired not only by my team, but with the movement of the storytelling for Hinabi. I am reimagining and rediscovering the beauty of the heroes of the Philippines.”
It was new.
Fluid.
Borderless.
Modern and ancestral at the same time.
The first volume, Villaceran says, was influenced by every sound she has loved — international, contemporary, classical, cinematic — all filtered through the lens of being Filipino.
“Filipino identity isn’t one thing.
Our music shouldn’t be either.”
THE HEART OF HINABI Privé
A cultural experience shaped by sound
Music in Hinabi Privé is not background ambience.
It is not a playlist.
It is not an accent.
It is the emotional spine.
“I believe, when we talk about Filipino heritage, I’ve never really seen being Filipino as something to be boxed in. And so I feel like there has, there is, I’m very kind of influenced by multiple different styles of music. And so I tried to incorporate that in this first volume because I see that the messaging around Filipino heritage doesn’t have to be hemmed into one specific genre of music.
Each night has its own story, its own menu, its own cocktail suite, its own rhythm — and therefore, requires its own soundscape.
No evening will ever carry the same songs.
No moment will echo twice.
This was the creative challenge and the spiritual reason why this specific songwriting style became necessary:
“If we want every night to be a core memory, then the music must be made for that moment — not borrowed.”
With encouragement and inspiration from Harris — whose compositions shaped the early DNA — Villaceran stepped into a role she had never publicly claimed before: composer.
“[James] was a driving force when it comes to making sure that Hinabi as a Sixth Sense’s cultural experience is something that is grounded and cocooned into a musical standpoint too. And, music not in a way that it’s just a background kind of thing, but music that really shapes the emotions and feelings of every attendee and everyone who is part of all of the Hinabi’s.”
It was unexpected, but not surprising.
In truth, it was just a matter of time.
THE ROOT OF HER MUSIC: A CHILDHOOD IN THE TRENCHES
Social inequality, brilliance, and the Filipino soul
To understand Villaceran’s music, you must know where she comes from.
She grew up in a simple household.
A family that did not have economic abundance — but had an overflowing wealth of love, connection, and memory.
Food shared.
Siblings close.
Parents who gave everything they could.
But as the eldest child, she saw the reality beneath the warmth.
Hunger.
Exhaustion.
The quiet heartbreak of watching your parents carry the entire world on their backs.
The confusion of seeing inequality everywhere despite living in a country known for its rich natural resources.
“I grew up asking why.
Why is poverty normal in a place full of abundance? Why was no one doing something?”
That question — persistent, painful, formative — is the invisible ink behind every line she writes.
Her identity is the dichotomy of two worlds:
– The gifted scholar who excelled academically.
– And the young girl who saw strength and courage up close.
This dual lens — empathy paired with analytical brilliance — is what shaped her artistry.
Her music, like her work in innovation, is an attempt to reconcile the contradictions of being Filipino.
TRACK 1: “500 YEARS, MY COUSIN DEAR”
A Letter Across Time: From Ancestors to the Present
“500 Years” is the flagship of Volume 1 — a sweeping, cinematic tribute to every Filipino who fought, survived, persevered, and hoped.
It is not a history lesson.
It is a conversation.
A dialogue between past and present.
A message from a descendant to the people who fought without knowing whether their sacrifices would matter.
Villaceran describes it as a “love song to courage.”
She speaks about her cousins with affection — they inspired the warmth of the title — but the song is truly addressed to the wider Filipino lineage:
“We are small people physically, but spiritually? In our heart and our resilience… We are giants.”
The most striking line:
“Our blackened hair, our browned eyes.”
It is a reclamation.
A reminder.
An acknowledgement of Filipino excellence — from the global artists like H.E.R., Nicole Scherzinger, Darren Criss and Jokoy to the everyday worker who carries the nation on their shoulders.
“I also am inspired by a lot of like international Filipinos who are representing our blackened hair, our browned eyes, Jokoy, Darren Criss, Nicole Scherzinger, everyone who is very, very proud of their Filipino heritage. They were an inspiration for this, for this song.”
And in this song, another powerful image:
“The blood you spilt on mango trees.”
Pain.
Sacrifice.
Victory.
Legacy.
It is a line that holds centuries.
“500 Years” ends not with mourning — but with gratitude.
“They fought without seeing the future.
We are the proof that their hope was right.”
TRACK 2: “Pusong Matatag”
A Mother’s Song, A Nation’s Heartbeat
If “500 Years” is wide and historical, “Pusong Matatag” is tender and immediate.
It is a song you feel in the body. A rhythm and texture that’s recognizably OPM in this mark.
“Pusong Matatag’ is a hymn to Filipino mothers and a reflection of the small, everyday domestic battles that define a family.
Villaceran writes from a place both daughter and mother:
Filipinos’ love for our mothers is innate.
It is born from our souls.”
The imagery is intimate, beautifully focused, unplugged acoustic. The quiet dream of simply wanting your mother to live an easier life.
The chorus is not just melody — it is memory:
“Ang pusong matatag…
Ang ilas at liwanag…
Ay galing sa iyong mukha…”
The song captures the essence of Filipino resilience—not the loud, heroic kind, but the soft, steady strength that keeps families alive.
It is a song that will make many in Hinabi Privé cry.
Because it is not about perfection, it is about love.
TRACK 3: “Ako Ay Naririto Para Sa’yo”
An Oath to Mother Nature, A Prayer for Stewardship
The third track shifts from ancestry and motherhood to the land itself.
“Ako Ay Naririto Para Sa’yo” is an ecological love letter — a commitment to the Earth at a moment when the world needs it most.
Villaceran, whose work in The Greats’ deeply engages with sustainability, regenerative farming, and circular economy systems, writes this as a promise from humanity back to nature:
Naririto ako
(I’m here for you)
Nabubuo dahil sa’yo
(I’m whole because of you)
Dahil parte ako ng mundo
(I am part of you, Mother Earth)
At ako at tagapagwari nito
(And I’m its very own steward)
The writing is celebratory, like an anthem. Grateful. And, almost childlike in its honesty.
It evokes imagery familiar to every Filipino:
Maya birds.
Stray dogs.
Clouds carrying blessings.
Rivers form identity.
The final stanza is a vow:
“Dahil parte ako ng mundo
At ako ang katiwala,
Ang kayamanan,
At ang nagmamahal sa’yo.”It sounds like a sunrise.
A reminder that environmental healing is not policy—it is a relationship between us and nature.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS: NOT CHOSEN, BUT CALLED
How the songs arrived
The writing of Volume 1 was not planned.
It was not a scheduled task on a production board.
It came through her in an unexpected surge and blessed timing of focused creativity.
Often, she was holding the emotional weight of the entire Hinabi team, but she credits her core team — Mackenzie, Joanne, Gerard, Syd (Dave Sy), and others — for inspiring each line:
Naririto ako
Nabubuo dahil sa’yo
Dahil parte ako ng mundo
At ako at tagapagwari nito
“They absolutely had just become an inspiration during the songwriting process, and the heart of every single person helping us, the communities we serve, have been instrumental in creating this first volume.”
The multilingual nature of the tracks — English, Filipino, occasional Spanish influences — came naturally.
“It’s not about deciding on the language for the songs. But the first volume is really not a genre-fixed collection. It is moving from one genre to another, but it’s just about making sure that when the lyrics and the songwriting hit, it is the right language.
“As someone who is multilingual, it gives me so much pleasure to tell the story in these beautiful, different languages.
THE FUTURE OF HINABI’S MUSIC
As the ARC travels the world
Hinabi Privé will expand globally — London, Singapore, Dubai, and beyond.
And with every ARC, the music will evolve.
Some compositions will remain deeply Filipino.
Others will integrate shared histories — the Philippines and the UK, the Philippines and the Middle East, the Philippines and Southeast Asia.
But the core will never change:
Music as healing.
Music as reconnection.
Music as cultural memory.
WHY VOLUME 1 MATTERS
Healing as a collective experience
When asked what she wants the Manila ARC to be remembered by, Villaceran answers in one word:
Healing.
The songs are not meant to entertain.
They are meant to ground.
To soothe.
To remind us of who we are.
“There is already so much trauma, fear, and confusion.
I want the music to remind Filipinos that we have always found our way through.
We are a nation built on light and hope.”
Volume 1 is the emotional blueprint of Hinabi Privé Manila ARC.
And like the evenings themselves, the music is not fleeting — but unforgettable.
It doesn’t ask you to remember the lyrics.
It asks you to remember the feeling.
A core memory.
An internal shift.
A moment of return.
Because Hinabi Privé is not merely a night out.
It is a homecoming.
A place where the past, the present, and the future sit at the same table.
And through its music, the Manila ARC whispers:
Come home.
Let yourself be held by history.
Let yourself be softened by hope.
And let this one night heal something in you.
Manila ARC: Volume 1 is now available on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and other streaming platforms.
Hinabi Privé is an invitation-only phenomenon. Send your request for an invite today.
