Rest in Peace Givanne

I can’t believe Givanne Canuday is gone.

We had just seen each other a few days ago at SM Lanang and he asked me when he’d see me back onstage with AcidRadius and I jokingly said I was retired and focused on just working in the background as a music writer.

I then congratulated him about his new band Banayad Napkins and how I’d been posting their gigs on the site because I was amused by their name.

I didn’t know it would be the last time I’d ever get to speak with the guy.

Givanne might not be the most popular person outside of the underground music scene but within it, he is figuratively and literally a giant.

I mean the guy towers over most people with his imposing height and slightly chunky build. Good thing he always had a ready smile and a loud laugh that would immediately defuse his physically intimidating presence.

Givanne’s contribution to the local underground music scene is not just that of being a bass player for several bands but he is also what one could possibly consider as Gio’s Crib’s main booking manager.

A lot of Davao bands today owe their career to him scheduling them to play at Gio’s.

I recall my experience as me approaching Giovanni Gaite back in 2016? 2015? Asking him how I could get my band to play at Gio’s Crib.

It was after watching Three Fold Section onstage that I thought I wanted to play in that venue too.

Giovanni just told me to contact Givanne and ask for a slot.

So I did and it didn’t even take a week before my band was scheduled to play. Back then it was still AcidRadio and I’ve never had any issues getting a gig at Gio’s Crib because Givanne would always say yes if I asked to play.

Although he did ban me for a period of time because he didn’t like my drummer until I replaced him.

Yeah he could be vindictive.

And truth be told, although he was always ok with me playing onstage, we weren’t really friends. I mean I’m an outsider to the music scene. Still am.

And there was a time when he was so drunk and we got into a discussion about playing onstage as an artist and as a performer. Now we had a few differences because he was always going to represent the underground and I already had some showband experience.

But differences aside, we were friends.

Not close.

But friends.

I had nothing bad to say about him nor will I ever have because he really was just generally a good guy. A goofy good guy who was great to have in the local music scene and who had the drive to organize shows.

Davao’s local music scene lost a genuine treasure today because we lost Givanne. There are a lot of organizers but none with the same type of spirit or aura as Givanne.

I wish our brief ebncounter at SM Lanang could have stretched out a bit more. We could have talked a little bit more. I could have asked him a little bit more about his new band. I’ve been posting their gigs on the website and I really wanted to start doing interviews.

These are things I could’ve done but life pulled me in a different direction. We did share a brief laugh in that brief exchange but I wish, I wish, I wish…

It makes you look at your own mortality huh?

How finite our lives are.

And how what we do stays with the people we leave behind.

Givanne will be remembered as that guy who put a lot of Davao bands onstage thanks to Gio’s Crib. To other people that might sound insignificant but to the bands he helped put onstage, they will remember him. That cements his footprint in the local music scene.

Givanne the organizer.

Rest in Peace, Givanne.

You did your part and damn you did it well.

Hopefully, I was able to capture his spirit and energy in this short video…