Armi Millare

Armi Millare

Armi Olbes Millare (born January 2, 1984) is a Filipino singer best known as the lead vocalist/keyboardist of the award-winning Filipino rock band Up Dharma Down.

Life

Armi Millare was around five or six when a piano was first delivered to their house, she started tinkering with it. While other children were playing in the streets, the young Millare spent her afternoon playing the piano. At a young age she also explored other instruments like violin, guitar and then drums. She eventually learned to play other musical instruments like the traditional instrument of Filipinos " Kulintang" and the Japanese Koto, and has considered them a crucial part of her songwriting process.

Millare is from a middle class Filipino family and the household where she was born was not musical. Her parents wanted her to become a doctor because her mother was a nurse while her dad is into business. Music was only seen as a past time and because she loved music she went on to defy what her parents wanted. She was quoted saying, “I wasn’t going to come home pregnant. I just wanted to make music. I didn’t even drink or smoke".

When Up Dharma Down began to make waves in the local music scene, Millare made the decision to move out and pay for her own school tuition. Her parents have now come to terms with her choice to make music, according to Millare they have finally accepted her music after ten years.

“Stagnation is not welcome in this group,” Millare said in a news release by GMA Network. The aim according to her is to make something that listeners could grow old with, a bit of nostalgia much in the same way that the album reflects the music the band grew up with.

Discography

With Up Dharma Down

• Fragmented (2006, Terno Recordings)
• Bipolar (2008, Terno Recordings)
• Capacities (2012, Terno Recordings)

Solo

• "Waiting for a Sign"
• "Eyeliner"
• "Delubyo"
• "An Attempt to Measure Happiness" (Instrumental)
• "Yolanda"

Cover songs

• "Mad World" (Tears for Fears)

Art Exhibit

Armi Millare has also explored in the field of visual arts and was frequently seen with artist Kawayan De Guia in 2011 in Baguio City. She has joined in a visual art exhibit entitled ' In Transit' at CCP. She participated in the group exhibit that ran in September 20, 2015 at the Small Gallery of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Her work was featured together with musician artists like The Edralins, Kabunyan de Guia, Jazel Kristin, Kanna Magosaki and Geloy Concepcion among others.