I am Lance Oliver Balila, but you can call me by my very sui generis nickname, Lans. Hehe. I am a senior who is based in Metro Manila, Philippines. Ever since I was a child, I have been really inclined to listen to pop music genres in general. What can I say, the years around 2012 have been the peak of pop. I don’t know, but for me, I really try to listen to bubbly and light-hearted music because I have a presentiment in me that whatever mood the music elicits manifests my current mood as well. So as someone who tries to keep up a jolly front every time, pop music helps me maintain this trait of mine and keep that smile on my face regardless of circumstance. 

To be exact, I mostly listen to Western pop/pop rock music. My ride-or-die artists would probably be Rita Ora, Little Mix, and 5SOS. However, since the pandemic started, I have emerged from listening to KPOP where MAMAMOO has become my biggest artist of all time—was actually glad that I got to attend their concert last February of 2023. Amidst not really going into much of PPOP, BINI has been catching my attention, as most Filipinos have lately. But in earlier years, I have been listening to songs outside of my genre and some artists that I look forward to with their craft are HONNE, Denise Julia, Laufey, Clairo, Lyn Lapid, Luke Chang, and the list goes on. 

Moving on, I haven’t been really watching stuff lately, but I like to watch animes, action/supernatural ones to be exact, such as Naruto, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Charlotte, because I like the sound of different battle scenes, which are pretty cool in my opinion. As for the games, I like purchasing skins in Valorant because every skin has its own sound pack that goes well with the visuals of the game. Not to mention, the voice lines and in-game sounds that the agents make are insufferably funny.  

Before working with MMS 172, I had little to no expertise in the technicalities of audio; however, finishing the course opened me to a new perspective, and progressively found interest in it. While I can still humbly say that I'm still up for its mastery, I learned the overall rundown of understanding the process behind working with audio, and not just blindly bullseyeing concepts, figuratively, and buttons in my DAW, literally. Now, learning about photography in MMS 173 is where it's at, as this completely ties up the MMS learning experience.