The Itchyworms | From Band to Family | OG
How old is The Itchyworms? Were they already friends before they became bandmates? How did they get their name? What’s the story behind their OPM hits like “Beer” and “Penge Naman Ako N’yan". Find out the answers to these questions and more in this deep dive on one of the most enduring and tightly-knit OPM bands of our generation. Jazz Nicolas, Jugs Jugueta, Kelvin Yu and Chino Singson walk us through the highs and lows of The Itchyworms, their origin story, songwriting secrets and how they’ve stayed at the top of Pinoy music for a quarter of a century.
25 Years of The Itchyworms is the debut episode of a new series from OG, Summit Media’s video-first brand. Something good is coming every Friday at 8 p.m. Click here to subscribe to the channel and come and be an OG with us.
#Itchyworms #OPM #OG
Click here to subscribe to OG:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIj3xiW-RIO2cpr5LBvokRg/?sub_confirmation=1
About OG
Using the power of video to tell one good story at a time... ONLY GOOD... OG.
OG is Summit Media's video first brand. And like all Summit Media brands, OG is anchored on top-notch storytelling to delight, inspire, and connect with our audiences.
We are deliberate in creating content that spread positivity, inspiration, and good vibes. Expect only good here at OG. Subscribe and be part of the community!
How old is The Itchyworms? Were they already friends before they became bandmates? How did they get their name? What’s the story behind their OPM hits like “Beer” and “Penge Naman Ako N’yan". Find out the answers to these questions and more in this deep dive on one of the most enduring and tightly-knit OPM bands of our generation. Jazz Nicolas, Jugs Jugueta, Kelvin Yu and Chino Singson walk us through the highs and lows of The Itchyworms, their origin story, songwriting secrets and how they’ve stayed at the top of Pinoy music for a quarter of a century.
25 Years of The Itchyworms is the debut episode of a new series from OG, Summit Media’s video-first brand. Something good is coming every Friday at 8 p.m. Click here to subscribe to the channel and come and be an OG with us.
#Itchyworms #OPM #OG
Click here to subscribe to OG:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIj3xiW-RIO2cpr5LBvokRg/?sub_confirmation=1
About OG
Using the power of video to tell one good story at a time... ONLY GOOD... OG.
OG is Summit Media's video first brand. And like all Summit Media brands, OG is anchored on top-notch storytelling to delight, inspire, and connect with our audiences.
We are deliberate in creating content that spread positivity, inspiration, and good vibes. Expect only good here at OG. Subscribe and be part of the community!
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Their songs are too complicated.
00:02 They can't be sung by a mass.
00:04 You should be able to sing a song
00:07 by a group of people who are good at singing.
00:10 If you can do that,
00:11 you'll be famous.
00:13 We wanted it to be a hit.
00:14 That song literally made us.
00:16 We were thinking, "Why?"
00:17 "You're famous, Jolson."
00:18 We realized,
00:20 "Oh, because it's sad."
00:21 For me, that's what I take pride in,
00:23 actually more than the music that we make.
00:26 My bandmates are my true friends.
00:31 Seriously, I forgot about that.
00:33 But okay.
00:35 How do I say this?
00:36 We were never really friends.
00:37 No, I'm just kidding.
00:39 We were really friends first,
00:40 before being bandmates.
00:42 [music]
00:57 Recording.
00:58 Hi, we're Itchy Wires.
01:00 The four of us were just lucky
01:02 that we've become really good friends.
01:04 We met in 1996.
01:07 We started in an atelier.
01:08 I was 17.
01:11 We were freshmen.
01:13 Me, Kel, and Juggz were batchmates.
01:16 And Chino, our teacher, was a joke.
01:18 Actually, I was the last member
01:21 who joined Itchy Wires in this lineup.
01:23 [music]
01:28 We were in the same org,
01:30 in the same school.
01:31 We joined an organization called AMP,
01:34 Ateneo Musician School.
01:36 Of course, Jazz, Juggz, and Kelvin
01:40 were all part of the org.
01:43 That's when we met,
01:44 that's when we all met.
01:47 We were really tight as a college,
01:48 I think because of Ateneo Musician School.
01:50 There were a lot of Ateneo musicians,
01:53 actually, like Jason Caballa,
01:55 and Maria Mora.
01:56 Hello, this is your event.
01:58 And how do you feel?
02:00 And how happy are you?
02:02 And your hair is nice,
02:03 but you need to raise it,
02:04 not lower it.
02:06 Juggz introduced me to jazz,
02:08 and Kelvin one day in the AMP room.
02:10 And I remember,
02:12 they were making jokes,
02:14 and I just kept laughing
02:15 because they're funny.
02:17 But they never met anybody
02:18 who would laugh at their jokes.
02:20 So they said,
02:21 "Let's be friends with her,
02:22 she likes our humor."
02:24 [music]
02:31 We formed a band
02:32 because we wanted to perform
02:34 at Orson's night,
02:35 freshman night.
02:36 Itchy Worms played the Orsem,
02:39 the orientation seminar of Ateneo,
02:40 and they played that thing you did,
02:43 that cover from that movie.
02:45 [music]
02:51 The next year,
02:52 Chino joined us.
02:54 When I met them,
02:55 they were a trio,
02:56 three of them in the band,
02:57 so jazz, gal, and juggz.
02:59 That's why we bonded,
03:00 actually, with Worms,
03:01 when we were in college.
03:02 Because we both love The Beatles.
03:04 Kindred Spirits,
03:05 and we were looking for
03:06 a Kapwa Beatles fan
03:07 during that age.
03:09 [music]
03:11 That's it.
03:12 The four of us,
03:13 we're all Beatles fans.
03:16 That's the common influence
03:18 that's why we bonded,
03:19 because that's what we really like
03:21 and what we really want to play.
03:22 I saw that they really like
03:24 playing The Beatles.
03:25 And then,
03:26 because I also like it,
03:27 I said, "Hey, let me jam
03:28 on one of your shows, if you can."
03:31 So they had me jam on one show,
03:33 and then later on,
03:35 the manager of the band
03:36 got me to do a session.
03:37 [music]
03:45 We did a soundtrack together,
03:46 and we watched movies,
03:48 documentaries about The Beatles.
03:50 [music]
03:53 I asked them,
03:54 "Are we married?"
03:56 [music]
04:00 [singing]
04:08 The itchy worms is a great excuse
04:11 to hang out with my friends.
04:13 Yuck, it's an itchy worm.
04:14 I think it's a joke
04:15 of the saviors who got conio.
04:17 I don't know what conio is.
04:18 So this is it,
04:19 there are a lot of hiccups.
04:20 There was a time
04:21 when I got hiccups.
04:22 In our school,
04:23 there are a lot of Akasha,
04:24 so there are a lot of hiccups
04:25 and I was told
04:26 that there's a spider web.
04:27 I was able to hold my knee,
04:28 and then I was brought to the clinic
04:30 because my hand was itchy.
04:32 And then when I got home,
04:33 my whole body was covered in pantal.
04:36 Literally, our name is just a joke
04:38 because at that time,
04:39 we never thought
04:40 that we'd be together for 25 years.
04:43 We've been together for 25 years,
04:44 so we've been together
04:45 for a longer time
04:46 than we've never been together.
04:47 [Music]
05:08 Little Monsters Under Your Bed
05:10 The first album,
05:11 we didn't get famous right away.
05:12 We were still very young then,
05:14 newly grads.
05:17 We didn't know anything about life then.
05:19 We didn't know anything about the industry.
05:21 [Music]
05:26 It's a collection of songs
05:28 that we already have.
05:30 We were able to play them live.
05:33 It's like a college life.
05:34 All of our albums are our lives.
05:36 We did it under Viva Records in 2001.
05:40 Buddy and Ellie helped us
05:43 to record the demos.
05:45 Actually, when I listen to that album,
05:47 it's like a bit chop suey.
05:49 And there's a lot of English.
05:51 At that time,
05:52 it was hard for us to make Tagalog songs.
05:54 [Music]
06:02 Moon Time Show was in 2005.
06:04 We wanted a concept album
06:07 that was commercially viable.
06:10 So that's when we experienced
06:11 our first commercial success.
06:14 Aking Ka Na Lang,
06:15 Be Your Love, and Moon.
06:16 [Music]
06:32 One of my dad's advice to me was,
06:35 "Your songs are too complicated.
06:39 You can't sing in a mass.
06:41 You should be able to sing
06:44 in a group of people."
06:46 "If you can do that,
06:48 you'll be famous."
06:49 [Music]
06:55 He's happy about the "my way"
06:57 of the Philippines.
06:58 When the songs are "my way,"
07:00 people fight.
07:01 "You need to sing in a group of people."
07:04 [Music]
07:25 We were asked,
07:26 "Did you get tired of playing 'Be Your Love'?"
07:28 I said, "No."
07:29 "Because that song literally made us."
07:32 That's the measure
07:34 if you can reach the most people
07:36 and if they accept your songs
07:38 when they sing at karaoke.
07:40 There are times when I don't need to sing
07:43 because everyone knows me.
07:45 That's so fun.
07:46 [Music]
07:53 I don't drink beer
07:54 because I don't like the taste of beer.
07:56 [Music]
08:14 What do you always ask for when you're a kid?
08:16 Food?
08:17 [Laughs]
08:18 I don't know.
08:20 To buy snacks
08:22 at the store.
08:23 [Laughs]
08:24 We had a reason for making that song.
08:27 At that time,
08:28 we were looking for a song
08:31 that could be used by any company
08:33 for their products.
08:34 We wanted the beer song
08:36 to be a beer commercial song.
08:38 But it never happened.
08:39 We thought, "Why?"
08:40 "It's a popular song."
08:41 We realized,
08:42 "It's sad."
08:44 So we thought,
08:46 "Let's make a happy drinking song."
08:48 So that's what we wanted to do.
08:50 [Music]
09:04 We wanted it to be a hit.
09:06 It was the first single.
09:08 I guess we can come up with catchy things.
09:11 Catchy melodies.
09:12 Something you can sing.
09:14 Like an LSS factor.
09:16 Very conversational.
09:18 What's the title of the song?
09:19 "Penge Naman Ako Nyan."
09:20 What's the chorus?
09:21 "Penge Naman Ako Nyan."
09:23 [Music]
09:25 It was directed by Quark Henares.
09:27 "Penge" was not an easy video to shoot
09:30 because it's a narrative.
09:31 We were friends in college.
09:33 We had a sense of humor.
09:34 We let each other handle it.
09:35 "You handle it."
09:36 Someone who's a fan
09:38 and someone who's a friend.
09:40 I've never been really a collaborator
09:42 with the Itchy Worms themselves.
09:44 So when they sent me "Penge,"
09:46 I was super excited.
09:48 I remember we had a lot of really cool ideas.
09:52 It's funny that he told me,
09:54 "Your concept here is like Rocky training montage."
09:58 My favorite movie is Rocky.
10:00 The Rocky series.
10:02 That's why I wanted to be the boss of the movie.
10:04 The music video when we did the makeover.
10:07 This was like the foggy rock move.
10:09 So that was "Kyushen," that was "Hail,"
10:11 that was "Sponge Cola."
10:12 In the beginning, the record executives said,
10:14 "Hey, you're too fat."
10:16 "You're too crappy."
10:18 "You're too chubby and cute."
10:20 "You're too dark."
10:21 "You're too dark."
10:23 "You're too itchy."
10:25 "You're too itchy."
10:27 "You're too pretty boy."
10:30 "And you, you look too pretty boy."
10:33 And what I love about Itchy Worms
10:35 and Shudad and all the other bands at the time,
10:38 Sugar Free,
10:39 they really looked like a group.
10:41 These are people you can drink at Mary's with.
10:44 These are people that you can, you know.
10:46 It was kind of like a satire or a parody
10:49 of them undergoing a transformation,
10:52 them working out, them, you know.
10:54 And then in the end,
10:55 kind of just being replaced by a foggy boy.
10:58 Shot at my mom's house, I remember.
11:00 Because I'm a Polish.
11:02 We had, you know, we had Jazz trying to do pole dancing.
11:05 You know, of course, we had Jazz running
11:07 along the, you know, the village.
11:09 Of course, we were caught by the village guards.
11:12 And then I think we even went to Belo
11:14 to shoot, you know, Juggs undergoing cosmetic surgery.
11:18 So, but I imagine you,
11:19 you're basically shooting a music video
11:21 that's pretty hard to shoot in a day.
11:25 Considering all the locations,
11:27 considering all the, you know.
11:29 And then you have to shoot another music video after.
11:31 We shot that, we did another video.
11:35 So, like a 16-hour day,
11:36 we shot two videos,
11:38 that and the Freak Out Baby.
11:41 ♪ Freak out, freak out, baby ♪
11:44 ♪ What come up, freak out, baby ♪
11:48 I remember Kelvin telling me,
11:50 "Can you believe we shot two music videos in one day?"
11:57 I don't think they'd ever done that.
11:59 And then after that, I was like,
12:01 "Okay, that's it. We're not gonna do this again."
12:04 [laughs]
12:05 Woo!
12:06 Yeah!
12:07 ♪
12:28 We were friends in the beginning.
12:30 I was in a band,
12:31 and we became friends until our friendship grew.
12:34 I think because of that, we didn't have a lot of problems.
12:38 That's the foundation of friendship,
12:40 before we became friends.
12:42 So, we don't see each other like professional workmates.
12:47 ♪
12:55 The four of us, we're just lucky that
12:57 we've become really good friends.
12:59 Those three, they were all my firstborns,
13:02 and I was raised by my firstborn, Jaz.
13:05 So, it's not just friendship.
13:07 You know, it's like a family.
13:10 ♪
13:14 Friendship is really important.
13:17 Especially in the first few years of touring,
13:20 you can't tour with someone you're mad at.
13:24 The company, from making the songs to performing,
13:27 the song, going to gigs,
13:29 going out of the country, going out of town.
13:31 It makes it much, much more bearable
13:34 if you're with friends, if you're just hanging out.
13:36 The sound is just a bonus,
13:38 but the hangout is fun.
13:41 I met my wife just shortly before I met them.
13:46 So, those are my two longest relationships,
13:49 my wife and the H-Horns.
13:51 So, if it's not family, I don't know.
13:54 That's what I take pride in,
13:55 actually more than the music that we make.
13:59 I think my bandmates are my true friends.
14:04 That's why I feel like we've been together for so long.
14:07 I didn't know we've been together for 25 years.
14:10 Is it really 25 years?
14:11 Not only that they could stand each other for 25 years,
14:14 but it's also that they can make each other laugh
14:18 for 25 years.
14:19 'Cause it's like, a band is like a marriage.
14:22 And the fact that they've, you know,
14:23 they tour with each other, they've made albums,
14:25 they've spent hours, hundreds of hours together,
14:28 but at the same time, they're not sick of each other,
14:30 and I think it's because they can make each other laugh.
14:32 The Horns really do have a very good,
14:37 almost perfect,
14:40 I think, relationship.
14:41 I think it's really important for us to be able to do that.
14:44 And I think that's what we've been doing,
14:46 and I think that's what we've been doing.
14:48 And I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
14:50 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
14:52 And I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
14:54 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
14:56 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
14:58 And I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:00 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:02 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:04 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:06 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:08 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:10 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:12 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:14 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:16 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:18 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:20 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:22 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:24 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:26 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:28 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:30 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:32 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:34 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:36 I think that's why we're so proud of each other.
15:38 [Music]
16:06 Hi guys, it's Juggs from the Itchy Rooms.
16:08 Don't forget to like and subscribe.
16:10 [Clap]
16:12 [Clap]
16:14 [BLANK_AUDIO]
16:24 [BLANK_AUDIO]