12 Years And Counting

Core Reset members Gary, Froilan and James are the music ministry band pioneers of a Couples for Christ (CFC) chapter in Better Living, Parañaque. The music ministry band was formed in 1996 with Gary as drummer, Froilan as lead guitarist, James as lead vocalist and Joel Mejino as bass guitarist. They were later joined by Jun Capistrano as keyboardist.  

Sometime in 1997, Joel was given another service in CFC and had to leave the band. Jun took over Joel’s role as bass guitarist. A few months later, Carlo Isip, a Singles for Christ (SFC) member, joined the band as the new keyboardist.

In 1998, Jun left for New Zealand and was replaced by another CFC member, Henry Cardasto as bass guitarist. This new line up eventually became the core members of Reset.

Since then, the band was invited in several CFC activities inside and outside Metro Manila like Baguio, Lucena, San Pablo, Romblon, Bulacan, Tagaytay, etc. They were also invited by CFC ministry members in Amkor Anam for several years to lead worship through music. They also served outside CFC when invited.

Occasionally, they were also invited on parties, weddings and anniversaries to play secular dance music and love songs. Because some songs require a good female vocalist, Carlo invited his friend Sarah to join the band in those events.

In 1999, Reset was formed. The story details can be found in the article Band Origin. It was only sad that after about more than a year since the band was formed, Gary had to leave for Singapore. Because of this, Henry took Gary’s role as drummer and Carlo took Henry’s role as bassist. James started playing the acoustic guitar to create a richer sound especially when there is no session keyboardist available.

This year marks the 12th year that the remaining core members of Reset − Froilan, James, Carlo and Henry − have been together as a band. Though Gary is no longer with the band, he still has constant communication with his bandmates especially when he is in Manila.

What keeps them together? There are two reasons. First, they are in the band with one common purpose and that is to serve God through the talents He has given them. Second, they do not treat each other as bandmates but as friends and brothers. In fact, most of them have been together even before the band was formed.

Someday, Reset will no longer be around. But let us all pray that when that time comes, they will still continue serving God in whatever way they can and that the friendship among them would still remain.