Pin-Up Girls Power

The Pin-up Girls are Mondo Castro, Ryan Nachura, Jeng Tan, Pam Aquino, and Noel Garcia. They are not all girls, obviously. Noel is the senior citizen of the band who, according to our sources, has love-life woes. He denies this has anything to do with his corny jokes. Pam is the band bitch who wields her sandal like a deadly weapon. She also collects Hello Kitty. Jeng, for reasons that currently escape the others, is the happiest member. But she can be a bitch as well. Ryan seems quiet but is really the class clown. In his beautiful mind, he is Bobba Fett. Mondo spills the beans on his bandmates.

Young Star: When did you form the current lineup of the band?

Mondo Castro: Four or five years ago. About the same time as Sandwich and Imago formed. There weren’t any gigs available so Jing Garcia got Sundays from Mayric’s. That’s "Sunday Grabe Sunday." So there. We used to practice at Jing’s house. Sandwich, with them.

Is that where you met?

Who, Raimund Marasigan?

No, I meant the other members.

I’ve known Diego Castillo, Myrene Academia and Mike Dizon from Club Dredd, but it was the first time I met Marc Abaya.

No, not Sandwich. I meant your band.

Ah. Pam, Jeng, and I—we’re friends ‘cause I used to hang out with Celt’s Cross.

Is that the name of their former band?

Yeah, Celt’s Cross—Jeng and Pam. Ryan came in accidentally. We were auditioning a guitarist, and then he came in to fetch Jeng at Powerchords. And, then, we just asked him to jam. Mali-mali pa nga chords n’ya but—psssh—ayos na. Noel came from…well, he was sessioning for the Eraserheads at that time. He’s a drummer. He played keyboards for the Heads. In the ’80s, he played with bands like Scavengers, Pagan Away, Ethnic Faces. He’s old. Oo, chong ‘yon, chong na chong (laughs).

So, the band formed in late ’97, right?

Well, take it a bit further back. Five years ago, a year before we really formed Pin-up Girls, we went through a lot of member changes. Even John Carpio of Tame the Tikbalang played for us. And, Yam dela Torre of Mass Carnage. Dami eh. We used to practice at John’s place in Marikina. We couldn’t get it going. Something was wrong.

With some members of the band?

Yeah, that narrows it. I think it was the dedication of John and Yam. Not that, you know…we’ve had musicians and they…it was different eh. The three of us—Jeng, Pam, and I—wanted to take it really far like record an album, gig, and stuff. The two others were kinda iffy about it.

Was that because they already had bands?

Sila, oo. They just wanted to jam.

What were the earlier names of the band?

Ebeneezer. Aw, man, embarrassing. Blue Juice. ‘Cause we had nothing else to name our band. What else? Mushroom, even. It’s from a joke. We were talking about circumcision (laughs). The name Pin-up Girls came about at the time we were practicing under Jing’s roof with Sandwich. The next day, we were rehearsing for the first "…Grabe Sunday" a day before, and we didn’t have a name. And, then, Jeng came in with a really great Betty Page T-shirt from the ’60s. We decided to name ourselves Pin-up Girls.

It was also anti-rock, you know, like Wolfgang. There’s nothing wrong with Wolfgang but, you know masyadong…like Razorback. We wanted a name to maybe confuse the people na rin. Of course, when you hear the name Pin-up Girls, "Ano ‘yan, Spice Girls? Ano sila lahat, puro girls?"

What stuff did you play at the time?

We covered tunes from The Mighty Lemon Drops like Inside Out, Echo and the Bunnymen’s The Killing Moon, and Ian McCulloch’s Proud the Fall.

Do all of the band members listen to the same stuff?

Yeah. New wave, American indie — basically, the same stuff. Stone Roses—Ryan and I love the Stone Roses. Jeng, Pam, and I—and Ryan—we all listen to Lush, Throwing Muses, stuff like that.

Is the band’s sound defined by these influences?

Yeah, at least the two ones—Stone Roses and Lush.

Did you ever play any dream pop stuff?

We listen to that but...

It doesn’t represent the band’s sound.

Yes, well, ‘cause I couldn’t really sing, you know (laughs). Not like Czandro Pollack of Sugar Hiccup. He can do dream pop.

When we started out, it was more of we wanted new wave, indie — Mutant Baby, something like that. But, it wasn’t premeditated just like, "Okay, you are our influences." We just, you know, played certain songs and whatever came out came out.

At that time, were you writing songs already?

Yeah, so some of the songs nga on the album are, like, five years old.

How does the band come up with songs?

Well, usually the lyrics come first. When I started out, I only wrote lyrics, and then I gradually…yan na, melodies na ako, then chords. Pam came up with songs of her own; Jeng also. Then, I’d collaborate with them; you know, make my own songs. Most of the songs in the album—actually all are either me, Pam, or Jeng’s.

Ryan’s guitar playing is very essential. Jeng, Pam, and I all sing. But Ryan’s guitar, I mean, for us acts like a fourth vocalist. He’s really good.

How different is a multi-gender band from all-boy bands?

It’s different in a way. I don’t want to sound sexist, but you know, girls have temperaments. Tan-da-da-dah! Yeah, they do that. Sometimes, when we’re practicing bigla na lang magbi-bitchy pa, "O, o gusto ko ‘to!" Ooo-kay, just give and take.

I don’t know. In High School, I played with multi-gendered bands, yeah, so I don’t know how it is with all-boy bands. It’s not really a hassle, it’s actually fun. Sometimes when you drink, you know, together you forget they’re girls and you talk about boy stuff. They talk about their girl stuff so it’s alright.

Have there been any clashes among band members?

Well, every band goes through that, but, nothing major. About—no, it’s more of the attitude outside the band than with songwriting. ‘Cause I think I feel, with Noel and Ryan, they respect the three of us when it comes to songwriting. Like, if you present a song well, basically, they just follow. The ego is not included in the song-writing process. It’s more of, you know, basic tampuhan, "K*pal ka kanina," or "You’re bitchy." Nothing really major.

Let’s talk about the album. When did you start doing it?

After the major record labels rejected us. Not really rejected us…you know how they work, di ba? (does an impression of a record label executive) "Okay, submit a demo. We’ll listen to it. Okay, I think, you know, just wait muna. We’ll think about it." It’s like saying, "We want to wait for the proper atmosphere to, whatever, sign the band." We don’t want to do that. We don’t want to wait. We don’t want to sit on our asses doing nothing.

So, it was hard, but Pam sort of nudged us, "Let’s just record, you know, for ourselves. Let’s just give it away to our friends, just for self-fulfilment." Then, we worried about the money. Bahala na. Let’s just, you know…piecemeal na lang from our own pockets.

We’d go over to Shinji Tanaka of Sound Creation. We’d incur utang, but we’d pay him off. Talagang ano s’ya, punk. Talaga kami we’d go over worrying about paying…

Were all your compositions complete by this time?

Yeah. Well, of course, Raimund helped us. He always has helped with the earlier demos. Si Jeng din, she helped us a lot. So, basically, just to record the album, just to record the songs, you know, parang secondary objective na lang yung trying to release it commercially. We’ll just release it, find a way to release it. It’s there anyway.

To what extent did you guys go produce your own album?

Oh, we had two garage sales at Mayric’s. I didn’t think it would really work, but brainchild ng girls ‘yan eh. What f*cking garage sale, diba? (Points to us, manly interviewers, and asks rhetorically) You wouldn’t think of that? But, it was a success. We earned, like P10,000 each. That’s pretty good.

How long did it take to record the album?

We started recording December 2000. We didn’t really record every…kasi nga we didn’t have funds. Siyempre wala kaming major company pressure to finish this. We could’ve finished it in two weeks or a week, recording time. We finished around May or June 2001.

We asked our friends to help us out. I borrowed money from a friend for the mass production of the master CD. We asked Leinil Yu—of X-Men fame—to do the cover. Pam’s friend, Ronald de Asis of AudioPost Studios, mastered the album. If it weren’t for the people around us helping us out, even those people who bought things from the garage sale...

What is the record label of the "Hello Pain" album?

Broken Records.

Is that your own label?

We had to come out with a name, yeah. So, it was hard, but it was fun at the same time. ‘Cause, you know, people came to support us for that garage sale, just to buy stuff. We don’t want to call them fans. They’re friends. They were always at the gigs. They just bought stuff just to help us out. It’s pretty good.

Would you have preferred going the major record label way instead of the independent way?

That’s a hard question to answer ‘cause when we were...there was a lot of hardship eh, you know, recording. Then, after that, distributing the CDs, we had to register at the DTI and all that sh*t. It’s really hard. Siyempre when you go to Music One and Tower Records usually lalakihan nila ang cut nila. (does an impersonation of a retail store executive) "Kasi indie naman kayo." Sino ba kami? It’s pretty hard, but at the same time, I believe it would have taken us a longer time to achieve a certain kind of respect if we went the major label way. ‘Cause we’ve always been side-tracked by me being a former showbiz…you know, Ang TV (laughs).

Talaga?

Yeah, siyempre parang, "Are you guys serious?" And, then, you have two girls in the band who look good. I mean, they don’t look ugly. We always get jeered for being too cute.

During performances?

Off and on stage, "Ah, Pin-up Girls? Boy-Girl group ‘yan. Wala namang instruments." Parang gano’n, you hear stuff like that. But, now, wala nang masyadong gano’n. Ah, I’m not sure. But, people, you know, come up to us, like, "Hey, you’re from the Pin-up Girls, right?" It feels good, in a way, going through the hardship.

Yes, to avoid the hardship, I would have gone the major label way, but getting a certain amount of respect, no matter how small, I’d go the indie way. I think this is more fulfilling, but I’d rather not go through the difficulty.

You don’t like the "cute" image at all?

I don’t care.

If it had actually helped, would you still have minded?

Well, if you put it that way, it did help us. It actually did. Of course, the music suffered. I mean, people like this girl I met in Makati, "Ah, you’re from the Pin-up Girls. I heard you guys are cute" (laughs).

People check you out because of your image, not because of the music. But, okay na rin, diba? If they go there and like the music, it serves its purpose.

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