For poet-singer Toni Panagu, art begins as ideas you gamble on

Multi-disciplinary creative Toni Panagu approaches art with a trusty guitar and a way with words that translates beautifully in rhythm and rhyme. 

Poetry had been in Panagu’s life for as long as he could remember. In school, whenever the lectures were starting to get boring, he would busy himself with writing poems at the back of his notebook instead of drifting off to sleep. For a time, these lines would never really escape these bound sheets of paper, until a friend suggested that he start posting them on Facebook. 

Eventually, he would join an organization, Linangan sa Imahen, Retorik, at Anyo (LIRA), where he would learn the conventions of traditional poetry. Soon after, he would start pursuing his craft on his own terms, and before long, would start writing his own lyrics, too.  

“’Yung tatay ko, binilhan ako ng murang gitara sa Surplus (My father bought me a cheap guitar from Surplus),” he said as he pointed out his father seated a few rows away from us in the auditorium where he had just finished performing. 

With his own guitar and a pirated CD of The Beatles’ greatest hits, Panagu would then teach himself how to play these songs strum by strum, and chord by chord. 

“[May] gitara tapos ang dami kong mga words. Pinagsama ko na. Ginawa ko nang kanta ‘yung tula,” he shared. 

(I had a guitar and a lot of words to say. I just put them together. I turned my poems into songs.) 

While all this was happening, though, Panagu shared he didn’t know how to sing yet. “I’m serious!” he said in Filipino when I told him I found that hard to believe. 

Panagu would cringe at the sound of his own voice before he finally found the confidence to start releasing his original music in 2022. But he attests that the cringe was absolutely necessary for him to test the bounds of his vocals — and define his own sonic profile as we know it today. 

But it’s Panagu’s range as a songwriter that’s most fascinating. The one thing that drives it all? Curiosity. 

Curiosity fuels the artist

Inspiration is everywhere if you just know how to look. For Panagu, much of it comes from other mediums of art — in the films he watches, the music he listens to, and the paintings he comes across. He is a firm believer in the literary concept of ekphrasis, where an artist is compelled to produce their own art in response to an already existing piece of art. He had once even written a poem inspired by Clairo’s song “Juna” from her 2024 record Charm. 

But it’s the human condition that often shapes the music Panagu makes. He has a whole catalogue of love songs on Spotify, but also has several political anthems under his belt.

“Ideas come to me as often as I wake up,” Panagu said when asked how his best ideas come to him. “Hindi naman lahat ng idea nagiging art pero araw-araw may naiisip tayo. So kailangan lang natin isugal ‘yung idea na ‘yun para maging art siya.” 

(Not all ideas become art but we think of things every day. We just need to gamble on that idea to turn it into art.) 

What may be Panagu’s most noteworthy piece of work yet, however, is the song he performed at the 2026 FILSCAP Songwriters’ Night Select.

When it came time for the poet-singer to finally do his big number, he had almost immediately strode around from one part of the stage to the next as he sang a fast-paced track about attachment issues and the ills of modern dating. It’s upbeat, and its lyrics come to you faster than you can realize that he’s basically trying to say that sometimes, you’re not actually in love. You’re just attached.

The song is entitled “Breadcrumbs,” and it plays around with the buzzwords “love bomb” and “trauma dump” to get the point across. Panagu had finished his big number by fake collapsing on the wooden stage as the lights dimmed — earning loud cheers and several standing ovations from the audience. 

Yet the process for creating “Breadcrumbs” wasn’t as glamorous as you might think. We often picture the conception of art as this sacred ritual where the singer has to shut themselves into a quiet room to harness the crucial details that will make up the whole song. While it may be true for some artists, things happened a little differently for Panagu. 

“Akala natin na sobrang entertaining process ‘yung paggawa pero minsan boring lang siya na nakaupo ka, may gitara ka, tapos talagang kukutkutin mo lang. Bagay ba tong salita na ‘to? Bagay ba ‘tong chord na ‘to? Uupuan mo talaga siya. Minsan kapag hindi mo pa madugtungan, hayaan mo muna. Medyo ganun ‘yung nangyari sa akin sa ‘Breadcrumbs,’” Panagu shared.

(We think creation is such an entertaining process but sometimes it’s boring. You’re just seated, you have a guitar, and you’re there to pick the song apart. Does this word fit? Does this chord fit? You really have to sit on it. Sometimes when you can’t complete the song, you just have to let it be. That’s kind of what happened to me with “Breadcrumbs.”)

The initial puzzle pieces of “Breadcrumbs” emerged while Panagu was in line to pay off the next installment for his motorcycle. He was able to finish the first part of the chorus right then and there, but these waves of creativity can sometimes go as quickly as they come. 

It had taken him another week to complete the first verse, and two weeks later, he had the second verse. A little bit later, he thought of adding the bridge, too. All it took was a little patience for everything to slowly come together — until it finally reached the FILSCAP stage.

Blank pages

Panagu is an artist through and through. Nobody is in tune with his own craft more than he is, and it allows him to create a distinction between the many forms of art he puts out into the world. 

But they all start the same way. Whether you’re writing poetry or songs, it’s always the blank page you have to contend with first.

“Kapag nagsusulat ka, iba ‘yung approach mo sa language. Kasi ‘pag poetry, oo syempre, hahabulin mo ‘yung cadence, hahabulin mo ‘yung rhymes. Depende rin anong form ng poetry. Pero somehow ‘yung songs, may element siya ng pitch. So kailangan mong mag-assign ng mga nota doon sa mga salita. Ibang klaseng pag-iisip di siya.” he explained. 

(When you write, you have a different approach to language. Because when it comes to poetry, of course, you’re after the cadence and rhymes. It depends on the form of poetry, too. But somehow, with songs, there’s an element of pitch. So you need to assign specific notes to specific words. It requires a different kind of thinking.)

Panagu’s almost relentless urge to keep creating has brought him to the right set of readers and the right set of listeners, and he couldn’t be happier. 

Even then, he remains as grounded as ever. He’s made it clear that he doesn’t do what he does for public approval. Art requires a different kind of motivation to keep doing, and for Panagu, it’s life in general that sustains his craft.

For as long as he lives, then, Panagu will continue to create. – Rappler.com