As much as we admire – or to a certain extent, idolize – our favorite rock stars for their creative genius, musical skills, and onstage charisma, we tend to overlook the fact that many of them went to school and completed degrees, some even more than one. In belated commemoration of the opening of a new schoolyear, DIGRadio.ph asked a dozen of prominent and/or independent musicians about the courses they took in college, what they were like in school, and if they’ve applied anything they learned in college to their musical and other careers. Some of their revelations might even surprise you.
Chino Singson (Itchyworms)
BS Chemistry with Computer Engineering, Ateneo de Manila University, 1999 and 2001
“The chemistry subjects themselves have had no practical application to my musical career nor to my I.T. (information technology) career. I guess the exposure to computers in college gave me an edge in exploiting I.T. to the band's advantage. I was a nerd. (Laughs) If I wasn't in the AMP (Ateneo Musicians’ Pool – ADMU’s music org) room, I was in Faura (Hall), or the Chemistry Building, or the library.”
Joey Santos (Halik Ni Gringo/engineer, Love One Another Studios)
BA Humanities, University of Asia and The Pacific, 2005
“What my degree taught me was that every single experience can be distilled into something that would be relevant to your future career. Some folks dismiss Humanities/Interdisciplinary Studies as a course that's too broad, but in my case it was the perfect foundation for the different roles I play in my recording studio business and music career. What's more important is to choose a degree you'll enjoy pursuing, then put it to good use by doing something you love! I still feel like I'm college, like every day is a chance to learn something new.”
Audry Dionisio (General Luna)
BS Marketing and Advertising, Asia Pacific College, 2009
“I was supposed to take up Biology in UST. I wanted to be a surgeon, then realized I didn't want to spend my life studying. I worked in Nestlé for a bit so I was able to apply my course, but I quit my day job for the band. Although, some aspects of marketing the band required a little bit of the knowledge I learned from college. I lived five minutes away from school, so what I would do for our 8:00am class is to call my classmates to find out if the prof was there or not so I wouldn’t waste time getting out of bed. I did pretty well in school; I got good grades and I didn’t go out much. I didn’t have much of a social life; it was mostly house parties and whatnot. No crazy shenanigans.”
Jeje Santos (Giniling Festival)
Fine Arts (Visual Communication), University of the Philippines Diliman, 2004
“When I went to college, I was not thinking of a career. I just wanted to learn things. I took some subjects na hindi offered sa course ko. Gusto ko lang talaga magbanda. I enrolled in a Studio Recording class when I was in second year. Lahat ng ‘cool’ sinubukan ko. Yuck. Natigil lang ako sa pagiging espongha n’ung nagbanda ako. Pero nag-enjoy naman ako. Sobrang nagustuhan ko ‘yung diversity sa UP.”
Aaron Gonzales (Hidden Nikki/Sikatuna/engineer, Point Bee Multimedia production house)
AB Communication Arts, Ateneo De Manila University, 2007
“I've been making amateur films since college. (My course) offered classes in cinematography, photography and a few audio-related classes. Unfortunately, I was not able to get all the classes that would have been useful. I semi-wasted my time on advertising classes because I thought I would work in an advertising agency someday. I experienced the MRT during my OJT year and that was the end of that option. I was the highest in my batch in Math 11, I think. I won't forget that because I suck at Math. That semester, I just wanted to prove that I can do something well if I tried. After that sem, I stopped trying again and focused more on music.“
Paul Yap (Up Dharma Down)
Liberal Arts (Integrated Marketing Communications), University of Asia and the Pacific, 2005 (“Originally batch 2004.”)
“(My course) helped in terms of understanding your audience, clients, and the evolving trends and industries. I'm also part of a digital advertising company now. I enjoyed doing production work for orgs. When I came in, I noticed that there wasn't a music org for the students so I founded one, which died down after two to three years of music sharing. That's where Up Dharma Down started, after meeting Armi (Millare) there. I was also part of the men's football team until my second year. I love football!”
Denise Santos (Hidden Nikki)
BS Management, major in Communications Technology Management, Ateneo de Manila University, 2010
“I chose that major because I really wanted to take up management, but I also wanted something related to art/media. I found some applications for it, especially now that I'm making music for ads and TV shows. I think my training in marketing works for me when it comes to dealing with corporate clients.”
Ahmad Tanji (Your Imaginary Friends)
BS Psychology, Ateneo De Naga University, 2002
“(My parents) had second thoughts about me taking psychology, but I had to convince them that I was planning to either go to law or med school after. Of course, I was lying. My main passion was to teach, write, and play music, and I knew that early on. I am in graduate school now, taking up my MP in Clinical Psychology. Coming from a strict upbringing where my dad would fetch us after class even during high school, college was the venue where I became a wild hyena straight out of captivity – trying everything that I could get my hands on, be it illegal or just plain wrong. I was in a band, too, and joined a lot of organizations. Fortunately, my grades were never affected and I graduated on time. Those were real fun times.”
Yagi Olaguera (COG)
AB Humanities, Ateneo de Manila University, 2007 (“Pero dapat 2002.”)
“I was a huge cultural studies geek so I took a lot of classes that were inclined towards that. I took a class on Otherness in Film and Literature one summer and I enjoyed that. I also had this class called Fatal Fiction and it discussed how fate was portrayed in different texts. That made for pretty good classroom discussions. I loved the music community we had in Ateneo back then. All the bands were into what the other bands were doing and we shared a lot of music with each other. “
Selena Salang (Ang Bandang Shirley)
English Studies: Creative Writing, University of the Philippines Diliman, 2003
“(My course) taught me how to search for more unique ways of using words and I try to remember these things when I write songs. Definitely, it allowed me to be comfortable with the role of creator as well, to own my creative work, because sometimes this is the hardest thing to accept: that you have something good you want to share with the world. I wasn't the most amazing student in class, but I think I did generally well. I just wanted to get through my course and maintain a low profile, especially because my department had notoriously strong creative personalities and dirty politics – I just wanted to stay away from all of that, and get a degree so I could get a job.”
Katwo Puertollano (Duster)
AB Communication Arts, Ateneo De Manila University, 2004
“I would say that my classmates and teachers in the Comm Department made for a very fuzzy and warm support system for musicians and that benign optimism fueled creativity and a passion for what you do. I think that's the most practical lesson I've learned from my time in school – that one should live a creative and passionate life. Looking back, I couldn't say that I had a plan about life, or about anything. Because of the band, I've had my fair share of ‘partying’ in college, which was excellent because no one had Facebook and only a few had digital cameras, if you know what I'm saying. But even though I had an awesome time during college, I was always grateful to my parents for sending me to a fairly good school, and I made sure that I only got D’s in Math as any other subject would've been inexcusable.”
Diego Mapa (Pedicab/Tarsius/Cambio)
AB Literature, De La Salle University, 2003
“Since '97, I already wore small t-shirts. In my first day of class, I entered one of my classrooms through the front door and I was late, and everybody laughed at me because I was wearing a Nora Aunor t-shirt, which I bought at the grocery. Now everybody is wearing small t-shirts. Now who's laughing? Also in college I already hung out with people who were into bands. But I easily got along with everybody, whether they were into bands or not.”
