MANILA, Philippines?After five years and three studio albums, members of the local band Hale think it?s about time they channel their patriotic sensibilities into an ?all-Filipino? album.

Aptly titled "Kundiman," Hale?s new album contains eight songs, all written in Filipino.

"We want to pay tribute to our language, culture and heritage. That's the least we could do as musicians,? said front man Champ Lui-Pio.

?As such, we have the power to influence and I think we're doing a good thing here, showing people we can write good songs with our language.?

?Bahay Kubo?, the album's first single is about two people lost in the middle of nowhere, searching for each other and finding each other in the end in a bahay-kubo (or nipa hut).

Hale shot an accompanying music video, starring Heart Evangelista and jointly directed by Nani Naguit and Lui-Pio?s girlfriend Bianca King.

Lui-Pio, the band?s chief songwriter, wrote seven of eight songs, with guitarist Roll Martinez putting lyrics to a song titled ?Yakap?

It should be a welcome development for fans of Hale, whose popularity began with their breakout song ?Broken Sonnet?, followed by ?The Day You Said Goodnight? that became arguably their signature song.

"Surprisingly, it was not difficult to write songs in Filipino this time. With the past albums, our music was melodramatic and when we write in Filipino, the songs are a little cheesy, making us avoid a lot of things," added Lui-Pio.

The band is also involved in the album's musical arrangements, sound engineering and even in the conceptualization of music videos.

Kundiman is a prequel to another album scheduled for release early next year and promises to keep the natural Hale sound.

Hale is composed of Lui-Pio on vocals, Martinez on guitars, Sheldon Gellada on bass, and drummer Pao Santiago, who joined the band late last year.