#underculture

The energetic performers of Under Culture are; Michael Turk - Vocals, Jon Popin - 1st Guitar, Wendell Ypil - 2nd Guitar and Keyboards, Junio Rodriguez - Bass Guitar and Andres Marin - Drums. All five men eagerly performed their hearts out to the delight of fans  who trooped the venue despite the cold weather. People were definitely amazed with the performance they saw and conversations continued until they excited the venue.

Jon Popin, speaking for the group,  intimated that every band and all music is unique. “All music comes from the songwriter or the songwriting team's spirit, which is individual and independent.  This is what makes music so important as an art form.  It is a physical representation of people's spirit and soul. While I cannot speak for all other bands, one thing I can say about Under Culture is that our music is genuine.  It is written from the core and comes from a place of honesty.”  

Jon also narrated that his music comes out of inspiration.  “When I experience vivid emotions, be they sadness, elation, wonder, joy, pain, I feel these emotions in the form of music.  Generally, I am struck with a "hook" in the midst of whatever I am experiencing that I typically record into my I-phone.  Later, I go back and write the verses, bridge, intro, outro etc out of the hook.  I generally have an immediate sense about lyric content, as it comes out of a particular feeling or experience.  Once the music is written, I go back and draw out the lyrics.  The last thing I typically do is to write the lead solo portion.” 

Asked if there were any interesting things that happened during their performances, Jon had this to say- “I am not sure it was so interesting, but I remember one time we were performing in a club in Manhattan and it was very hot.  I also had a bad cold and wasnt feel well.  In the past, we have ended our set with a song called "The Nile".  It calls for me to do a deep knee bend and get low to the floor while jamming on my guitar at one point.  When I stood up quickly, I became overwhelmed with dizziness and felt for sure like I would pass out.  Instinctively, I dropped down to my knees and played the conclusion of the song leaning back while on the ground.  Afterwards, everyone came up to me and said that I looked like a rock n roll acrobat with that "amazing" move.  Little did anyone know that I was trying to keep from fainting from dehydration and being sick.

It is also interesting to note that the band’s newest member, Wendell Ypil, used to be a member of Sony BMG’s ManoMano, a Cebu based band, which penetrated the Manila (they were discovered by former Eraserheads manager Ann Angala) music scene and eventually followed the footsteps of several Visayan bands which became popular during the resurgence of performing bands during mid 2000′s. 

Wendell believes that there is not really a big difference between performing in the Philippines and New York. “ It's almost the same when it comes to musicality.. I mean, we Filipinos also have a good taste of music and basically we're also influenced by western music, so there's no big difference at all.. If there's one thing, maybe these guys are more good looking than me!” he enthused. 

(ManoMano (SonyBMG2006)