:: HB : Parokya Ni Edgar

PAROKYA NI EDGAR : Biography

OVERVIEW
PAROKYA NI EDGAR is a bunch of guys, six to be exact, who unexpectedly find themselves in a proper band, with a proper recording contract with a proper record company (Universal Records), which gives them a proper "recording career". PAROKYA NI EDGAR, or PNE for short, is Alfonso "Chito" Miranda and Francis Vincent "Vinci" Montaner on vocals, Darius "Dar" Semana and Gabriel "Gab" CheeKee on guitars, Buhawi "Buwi" Meneses on bass and Ferdinand "Dindin" Moreno on drums. For a bunch of guys who don't take themselves seriously, this proper recording career has yielded them three triple-platinum albums - their debut album, Khangkhungkherrnitz,
the follow-up Buruguduystunstugudunstuy, and their latest, Gulong Itlog Gulong (translation: roll, egg, roll) - and gold-certified Christmas album, Jingle Balls! (Silent Night, Holy Cow!). These four albums, in turn, have yielded them chart-topping hits such as "Buloy", "Halaga", "Picha Pie", "Lutong Bahay", "Tatlong Araw", "Sayang", "Silvertoes", "Maniwala Ka Sana", "Please Don't Touch My Birdie", "Inuman Na" and, of course, "Harana", the video for which coveted for them the 1999 MTV Southeast Asia Viewer's Choice Award. For the latter, PNE bested nominees from the region (Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia) to be one of only two Filipino artists to covet the Moonman, as the MTV trophy is widely-known.
PAROKYA NI EDGAR have also picked up NU107 Rock Awards' "Artist (Band) of the Year" honours for two consecutive years (1999 and 2000), as well as a number of Awit Awards (the Philippine Grammys) nods. Their debut album, Khangkhungkherrnitz was on the shortlist for the 1997 Awit Awards "Album of the Year" honors. Top FM radio stations RX 93 and DWLS 97.1 both picked "Harana" (off the second album) as 1998 "OPM Song of the Year". PNE repeated the feat in 2000 with the song "Halaga". In a recent poll conducted by MTV Asia, PAROKYA NI EDGAR were only one of two OPM acts to be regarded as the coolest bands the Filipino youth are listening to these days. This June 2001, PAROKYA NI EDGAR capped their illustrious career by bagging the "Favorite Group Video" award for their straight year at the MTV Philippines Video Music Awards.
PAROKYA NI EDGAR released their fifth album in February 2002 called, “Edgar, Edgar Musikahan” the follow-up to their multi-platinum fourth album. The first single is “Swimming Beach”. This album gave them two awards at the 2002 MTV Pilipinas Awards and got them a nomination at the 2003 MTV Asia Awards.
“Bigotilyo” , the sixth album was released in July 2003. Featuring the hit single, “Mr. Suave” that captured the hearts and ears of both young and old listeners. Finally winning the 2004 MTV Asia Awards for “Favorite Artists – Philippines”, this only proves that PAROKYA NI EDGAR is still super-hot in the local music scene today.
PAROKYA NI EDGAR is currently promoting their latest album, “Halina Sa Parokya”, which was released last August 2005
For a band who doesn't take themselves seriously, PAROKYA NI EDGAR is more than prepared to take off into this new millenium.

EARLY BEGINNINGS
When the music community first saw PAROKYA NI EDGAR in 1993, one would have hardly expected that a bunch of class clowns would ever get this far eight years later. The original incarnation of this band, then known as COMIC RELIEF, were classmates at the Ateneo High School - Chito Miranda, Vinci Montaner, Gab CheeKee, Mikko Yap and Jeric Estaco. These group of friends were widely-known around campus as the class buffoons of 4-H. Like any new band with a couple of guitar chords under their belt, their first repertoire consisted of mainly covers. They'd dress up in women's clothes donated for typhoon and earthquake victims, sing off-key during poetry sessions or fool around with the lyrics to classic rock songs (Cat Stevens' Father and Sons, Bob Dylan's Knockin' On Heaven's Door, among them) during variety shows. They later changed their name to PAROKYA NI EDGAR, which came from an answer Jeric Estaco gave during Philippine History class, when the teacher asked him where Rizal's fictional hero, Crisostomo Ibarra, was educated. The rest, as they always say, is musical history. After high school, Chito Miranda, Vinci Montaner and Gabriel hooked up with batchmate Ferdinand Moreno, Chito's neighbor Buhawi Meneses and UP Fine Arts classmate Darius Semana to round up the present line-up. With 3-4 songs under their arms, the group auditioned at seminal rock club, Club Dredd on April 4, 1994. Despite their then obviously limited technical skills, PAROKYA NI EDGAR was an instant sensation. Word quickly spread of their irreverent, outrageous, wacky performances among the club's habitues. They began to get invitations to open for top alternative bands, the Eraserheads and The Youth among them. Not long after, Universal Records signed them up.