Chicosci ready to tell a new story

MANILA, Philippines - After nearly a decade of continually proving that heavy music can co-exist alongside the most pop of artists and groups, Chicosci — led by frontman Miggy Chavez, guitarist Mong Alcaraz, bassist Carlos Calderon and now joined by newbie drummer Macoy Estacio and guitarist Ariel Lumanlan — definitely did not arrive at its current status without having to go through the proverbial meat-grinder first. A few years after the nu metal explosion of the millennium which was harkened by the likes of now-seminal acts like Greyhoundz and Cheese, Chico Science (as it was then known) began mainly as a group of young music fans trying out the road many were taking at the time. After scoring a hit with Method of Breathing via the anthemic Paris, the same group of kids was suddenly catapulted into the realities of both success as a band and life after college. Though Chicosi was well on its way to becoming a big band, it was also going through various rough spots. It was audibly evident on its first independent outing Icarus; the same musicians and the music was there, but it seemed like the band was lost a bit, and headed in different directions.

Yet it was the band’s self-titled major label return three years ago that finally solidified the way things were going to be. Though three key members had to leave the group, the material was great: Smash single after smash single, including the likes of Seven Black Roses, A Promise and Chicosci Vampire Social Club, and the boys once again found greatness in the grim and grime life threw in all directions.

“Three members left for greener pastures, we’ve had a multitude of gigs including one outside the country, we have new members in the band, we’ve lost a parent but one of the members of the band is going to be a parent, and what else… we’ve won an international award. A lot has happened in three years,” laughs guitarist Mong Alcaraz.

Three years after, Chicosci is ready to tell a new story via Fly Black Hearts. The new album has taken the confidence and courage the new lineup has mustered up in between releases and seems to meet the birth head-on in full force. In other words, Chicosci seems to be dead-set in having fun again, and is no longer bound by second-guesses or pressure to recreate mainstream hits.

And the new disc, as the members of the band say, has all the best elements the collective members have been learning to hone in on through their years of playing: The same energy, the same twisted yet catchy melodies and various experiments and tricks they’ve gotten together, the same urgency the new disc has to be heard by countless rock fans.

MCA Music’s president and CEO Ricky Ilacad expressed his excitement: “There’s been a lot of things happening to the band, and though it did take three years in the making, but once the process took place and once they started putting things together, I could really see and hear it was different.”