"wyrd"

A Most Exciting Musical Happening This Year 2000!

Take three very talented young ladies with ambivalent personalities and with at lease one common interest, music, of course; which binds them into a cohesive, fun-generating entity and there's the WYRD band, which leading

deejays and industry authorities proclaim as a most exciting musical happening this Y2K.

The first time their debut single. Scream, from their forthcoming "WIRED 2 SCREAM" album from Universal Records, was played on the radio instant enthusiastic feedback was felt. Neverending requests flooded the station that same day.

The response to WYRD's Scream was so overwhelming that the unheralded tune zoomed up to the top of the charts. Now Scream is No. 1 on RX Daily Countdown and No. 1 on TM's Final Countdown!

And who are these relatively unknown musicmakers who have suddenly risen above obscurity and have become the current toast of today's generation?

WYRD is actually an acronym meaning "We're Young Rockin' Dudettes" so the very unusual yet so apt monicker of the band composed of Nikka Paloma, vocalist & keyboardist; Jelly Pangan, drummer; and Babes Tolentino, guitarist.

Fifteen-year-old NIKKA is the moving spirit of the group. She composed most of the songs in their maiden album, including the carrier single, "Scream".

Nikka's grandpa is veteran journalist Vic Taņedo, from whom came the writing genes in her. She wrote Scream at the age of 14, but it's not really her first creation which attracted overwhelming attention.

Her first big break came when her original tune, "Chums" (written when she was 12 years old), won MTV Asia's The Next Big Thing search in the Philips Out Of The Box portion in 1997. Out of thousands of entries from all over Asia, Australia and as far as Nigeria, "Chums" performed by WYRD won the international contest.

"Joining the search was kind of a hard task for us", Nikka recalls. "We didn't have a single connection in the industry then. We combined all our allowances together and recorded the song on a simple demo tape". The "Chums" tape was sent a day before the deadline through the quickmail courier, but still Nikka and friends doubted if it would arrive on time.

Yes it did and it even grabbed the much coveted prize!

Nikka attributes her musicality as a gift from the Big Poppa (God) and additional genes from her grandma, who’s the most accomplished pianist Nikka has encountered.

She also gives credit to her dad who’s a good singer from whom she inherited the voice and her mom who’s a good storyteller who told all those original bedtime stories (the real ones) to her during the baby years; thus nurturing the creativity in her during that formative period.

BABES full name is Nerirose Poblete Tolentino, a full-blooded Batangue-a who’s based in Lipa City but stays at the U.S.T. dorm during school and work days.

She just graduated from the Pontifical U. (U.S.T.) last March 26 with a degree of Bachelor Of Science in Medical Technology, which she chose as her pre-medicine course.

But lately she’s considering to pursue law studies instead of medicine to have time to continue playing with WYRD as a guitarist. A consistent honor student, Babes also won awards in oration and declamation contests. She also excelled in math tilts and was a consistent winner in quiz shows.

Babes also joined several clubs in school and is also active in the Youth For Christ Movement since 1993.

She loves listening to solo artists like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai and to her favorite group, Dream Theatre. Babes loves baking cakes and pastries which she eats herself, so it’s a big wonder how she maintains that slim figure.

WYRD’s drummer JELLY CASIS PANGAN is also fifteen years old like Nikka. She’s very much accustomed to showbiz life since her dad Gayjee Manuel Pangan is a stage and movie director.

In addition to the drums, Jelly also plays the guitar during her freetime.

A future lady grandmaster, Jelly has just won the Trinity College Intramurals Chess Championship last month and has also added the Battle of Boards Championship last February 2000 to her conquests.

Jelly contributed one song, "Love I Guess" in their album.

* * * * * * *

"WIRED 2 SCREAM" album from Universal Records is a powerhouse of potential hits. Four of the songs in album are Nikka Paloma originals, including "Scream," "Dreams I Like," "In My Life" (with lyrics by Rina Chanco), "Don’t You Ever Go Away."

A song, "Gone" is written by guitarist Babes Tolentino; while another cut is composed by the album’s producer Noel Macanaya a.k.a. DJ Mod.

There’s a revival of Jose Mari Chan’s composition "Mamang Sorbetero" with additional verses and melody by Nikka.

WYRD’s "SCREAM" was mistaken for a foreign recording when it was played on local airlanes. Most of those who heard it the first time thought is a new single from M2M; while others dubbed it as a "Baby Alanis" song since they felt the song and Nikka’s voice is a younger version of Alanis Morissette.

Nikka admits that Alanis is one of the artists who have influenced her, together with Natalie Imbruglia.

But of course there are more beautiful music in the WYRD debut album. Out Now!