Jugz Jugueta, Jazz Nicolas, Chino Singson, Kelvin Yu

The Itchyworms are releasing “Armageddon Blues” and “The Silence” under Sony Music Philippines. The songs are from “Waiting for the End to Start,” the upcoming album of the band, which consists of Jugz Jugueta, Jazz Nicolas, Chino Singson and Kelvin Yu.

“Waiting for the End to Start” is The Itchyworms’ second album to be released under Sony Music Philippines. After Jugueta, Nicolas, Singson and Yu’s groundbreaking major label opus “Self-Titled,” which made an impact in the local music scene at the tail end of 2008, the band was forced to go indie after the label’s short-lived hiatus handling domestic releases.

“Aside from the fact that we felt a sense of familiarity with Roslyn Pineda of Sony Music Philippines, as we’ve known her since our college days, we believed that Sony, being an international record company, could help us reach a wider audience,” Jugueta said. “We want to reach new and foreign audiences because our music is universal and capable of touching several hearts here and abroad.”

Singson had nothing but praises for Sony Music Philippines. Roslyn Pineda is the general manager of the label.

“I feel that Sony is a good place to be for an artist,” Singson said. “Their team is small but they work hard and have their artists’ interests at heart.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAdHumMDpcd/

“Waiting For The End To Start” was conceptualized and recorded while the members of The Itchyworms were confined in their homes due to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Jugueta, Nicolas, Singson and Yu were connected digitally by their resounding shared experiences.

“Expect it to be unpolished and imperfect,” Nicolas said of the album. “Maybe a little lo-fi. It’s not necessarily all about COVID-19 but this is the result of what we feel during this time so there’s restlessness, loneliness, boredom, delirium, fear, uncertainty and all that jazz.”

Singson puts into perspective the concept behind the eight-track release, which will most likely drop sometime in July 2020. He described “Waiting For The End To Start” as “a record of its time” like any collection of music and “a snapshot of the artist’s reaction to his or her circumstances.

“But it’s a concept album in that our aim was to create art in the midst of a pandemic, to capture our emotions in the music we record even with the limited recording gear we have at home so you’ll hear amp buzz and imperfect vocals but for me that’s part of the spirit of true rock,” Singson said. Watch the lyric video of “Armageddon Blues” here: