Boldstar is a Filipino band, courageous enough to go against the flow. Despite retarded economy and the dismay experiencing by the local music scene, they dare to take the challenge and did paramount efforts to cross their music no matter what restrictions may be. Their tunes explain the influences they are in, from 60’s The Beatles to ‘90s indie artists as Bis, Juliana Hatfield and even the local Eraserheads.
Current members partake in the vocal responsibilities and play various instruments. An ex-Blast Ople Marie Jamoraplayed the drums where Jazz Nicholas of Itchyworms on bass duties and the guitarists Echo Singson and former Ciudad’s Justin Sunico on lead guitars.
Basically, the band was composed of Jazz and Justin where Justin supposed to be the lead vocalist. It started out mingling with friends during the Ateneo Musician’s Pool (AMP). It is also the band where Marie perceived to be on the bass, Jazz on drums and Echo assumed the rhythm guitars.
Depending upon the gig, the band sometimes called Wookie Spooky or Spooky Wookie and somehow, hyphen was involved. They used to play songs back ‘60s from the likes of The Zombies. Everybody knows that they have one of the most horrible band names.
Jazz and Marie have their other band during the time, Dexter Calliope and Tito Gil Twins respectively. Eventually broke up, Marie and Jazz to switch band position and re-named the band. Here comes another problem: the finding of a new name suitable for these four bold-spirited individuals.
From Appledore to Dinuguan Babes, they were dull and irksome. However, while Wookie Spooky members having dinner in a Mexican-themed meal, Scoot Garceau, a writer and brother-in-law incidentally mentioned ”Boldstar”. It’s a common Filipino word yet did not exist in English dictionary. Boldstar is a unique word really and a good name for a band of brave souls.
Though local music scene was stuck in depression due to economic slowdown, they have recorded their debut album successfully. The album was oddly named as You Must Have Been A Beautiful Something, What Are You Really?. The album spawned 19 tracks, released independently and was distributed without the support of a major label. Buddy Zabala of E-heads produced the album with couple of tracks by Raimund Marasigan. Boldstar also gained support from an indie-friendly Sound Creation headed by engineer Shinji Tanaka.
The band was backed-up with their excellent tracks which cannot be easily discouraged. They believed their band is young yet their writing and arranging skills reflects certain level of maturity usual of a veteran group.
All 19 songs are so captivating as they echoed in your mind after the final track has been played. The lacking luster, common for an indie production was not evident but the considerable achievement for the band and the producer. This relatively new band breathes new life into a dwindling Philippine music scene effortlessly.
Boldstar’s debut album was tagged by its members as “double-album”. Their courageous approach is worth the triumph for the local scene that we all should be proud at.
No comments:
Post a Comment