A THOMASIAN band placed second in the Rock Mo’to rock band contest held last Sept. 30 at Metrowalk in Ortigas.
The band Frozen Vow, whose members include Thomasian Julius Cruzat as drummer, clinched the second position in the contest sponsored by Motorola, a wireless and broadband communications company. The band received P25,000 and each member received a MotoROKR phone, Motorola’s newest mobile phone.
“What we wanted was a band that would live up to the image of our new product (MotoROKR phone),” Mari Litonjua, marketing head of Motorola, told the Varsitarian. “They won because they reflect what our company is. A band that is edgy, different and that stands out,”
Meanwhile, CDMC and the Deliquents placed first and third, respectively. The grand winner received a MotoROKR, P50,000, a management contract, and an endorser stint for the mobile company.
Before competing in the rock contest, Final Vow, together with two other Thomasian band finalists Blue Cheese and Sporenee, were chosen to join “School of Rock Mo’to,” an all-expenses-paid workshop for amateur bands last Sept. 16 to 17 at the University of the Philippines Hotel in Diliman.
They were given basic training, on vocal harmonics, song arrangement, band management, and album production before competing with other 14 bands on Sept. 30. The workshop was formed to give amateur bands from different universities a break in the rock music scene.
“Unlike other amateur rock band contests where bands compete without getting proper training, School of Rock Mo’to gave an avenue for us to learn the basics of rock music and how to perform on stage before we compete with each other,” Cruzat, a senior Percussion major in the Conservatory of Music said.
Among the instructors for the workshop were bassist Francis De Veyra of the Radioactive Sago Project, drummer Marco de Leon of Paramita, vocalist Armi Millare of Up Dharma Down, and Bing Austria, lead vocals of Juan Pablo Dream.
“Motorola made this kind of contest to promote its new MotoROKR phone and to give amateur bands a way to improve their craft,” Patrick Ondevilla, a junior Computer Science student and a guitarist of Sporenee, said. L. J. D. Postrado
