“HILING” hitmaker Mark Carpio is the most recent addition to Viva Records’ growing slate of singers and songwriters, coming shortly after announcements that KPop star Minzy and R&B singer Daryl Ong also joined the recording company.

His transfer from Warner Music Philippines to Viva Records had been a year in the making, according to Mr. Carpio, and the reason for the switch is because “he wanted to go mainstream,” he told reporters during a digital conference on Jan. 13 via Zoom.

This means that Mr. Carpio’s songs will be used by Viva Films as theme songs for its movies. To date, he has two songs ready although the production of the movies the songs will be used for were affected by the pandemic. A third song is in the works.

Mr. Carpio gained popularity on the local music scene in 2016 for the ballad “Hiling,” which earned him two nominations — Best Ballad Recording and Best Performance from a New Male Recording Artist — at the 2017 Awit Awards.

To date, Mr. Carpio has released a handful of songs including what he called his “best song,” “Kay Tagal,” a rock ballad released in the same year as “Hiling.”

Beyond being a singer and songwriter, Mr. Carpio also works as executive vice-president at Grand Monaco Estate Developers, Inc., a business his father Reynaldo Carpio put up.

The younger Mr. Carpio said that his involvement in the family business makes him approach his music career “with business sense,” and that since he is not “here for the money” he is also not here for the short term.

He explained that while he does write songs in other genres, the moment “Hiling” became a hit, he “became a balladeer” and started writing ballads.

“[I focused on] what people like instead of only what I liked… the reason why my songs sound like that is that I want it to be timeless,” he said. — Zsarlene B. Chua

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