Hilera

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Its always interesting to see how a group of young musicians can absorb diverse influences, filter them through their own creative vision, then deliver a fresh, exciting new sound that is uniquely their own. This is what we expect from EMI Philippines’ youngest three-piece act. Nescafe Soundskool intercollegiate band competion grand champion. Though they pay homage to rock icons like Metallica, Pantera, Sepultura or to any music from grind-core new school bands to old-school punk thrown in the mix, the band manages to forge its own identity with a hard-rocking self-titled debut set unlike anything else in OPM rock.
Nescafe Soundskool is an inter-collegiate band competition that toured over 100 top universities and colleges in the Metro Manila in search for music’s next big thing. And as the grand champion, Hilera was officially welcomed to the professional music industry with a contract with EMI Philippines. Hilera is composed of brothers Chris (vocalist) and Bobby (drums) Padilla and Ivan Garcia (bass).
Winning was already an honor for the young band and scoring a contract deal with EMI Phils. have definitely paved their way to join the roster of local rock titans such as Bamboo, Sugarfree, Hale, Sandwich, Slapshock and Urbandub. This could very well catapult the once unknown band from Kalayaan University to stardom.
Hilera cites as an inspiration a huge variety of musical influences—from the OPM sounds of Bamboo to the punk anthems of The Clash, Rancid and The Living End to the hard hitting metal of Sepultura and Slayer to J-pop sounds of Tokyo Jihen. During the finals night of the Nescafe Soundskool competition, Hilera rocked the stadium and won new fans with songs springing from their collective talents.
But winning became difficult for the band. They joined the first eliminations representing Kalayaan College and went home empty handed. For a band whose experiences are scarce, their hopes became radiant when they were asked to compete as the wild card. The show for the band goes on. Singing an original composition called “Sungrass” written by Chris, the vocalist himself, Hilera made it to the finals and impressed a crowd with their unique perk of punk-ish taste for young Filipinos at the Philippine Sports Commission in Pasig.
The band started December 2004, when Chris, 21, and Ivan, 20, have been playing together for over a year in different bands and finally decided to finally get serious to what they started as a hobby and form a band. But after a while, both had a hard time searching for a drummer who could stay and get serious with them too. And so Bobby-- only 17 then—entered the band even though he is still starting to become an expert of the craft. His bandmates guided him and worked on his skill all the way to the band’s feat for what they believe a
passion for music.
The band’s songs for their self-titled album are written mostly by Chris.
First single culled from the self-titled Hilera album is RHYME WITHOUT REASON. From the title itself, the song’s author Chris defines it as “It’s about being stuck for no reason…and you have to conform for no reason.”
Asked why the band’s name Hilera, Chris explained “We wanted a Filipino name to represent the band, and it was catchy at the same time. To relate the band’s name to the music, it’s like a command.”
Chris is taking up BS Psychology at Dominican College, Ivan Garcia taking up Business Management at Kalayaan College while Bobby Garcia is still on his fourth year Highschool at Community of Learners.
And for them, Hilera is a mindset that they bound next to our rock heroes, either they become famous or not…it really doesn’t matter at all.