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The Itchyworms Brings Festive Cheer with New Christmas Songs



The pop-rock quartet, The Itchyworms, has just released two Christmas songs “Have A Merry Christmas” and “Maligayang Pasko” to uplift our spirits during the pandemic. “Have A Merry Christmas” is a song inspired by a popular holiday meme in our country while “Maligayang Pasko” hits with a laid-back, groovy tune.

“We need to be reminded of the joy and hope and the spirit of giving. It’s the time of year when the world falls in love, so it’s important to listen to Christmas songs all year round.” 

– Jazz Nicolas

Kelvin Yu, the band’s bassist, on the other hand, echoed Nicolas’ sentiments.

“There will always be Christmas songs: during good times, it further uplifts us; and during not so good times, it can provide us with that warm hug that everyone needs come December.”

– Kelvin Yu

Have A Merry Christmas

The song “Have A Merry Christmas” is inspired by a meme featuring Jose Mari Chan, according to the band’s lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, Jugs Jugueta.

“When the Jose Mari Chan meme first came out, it was funny. But then, people just do it every year and it becomes not as funny anymore. Anyway, one time I posted a challenge to my Facebook friends: instead of posting about Jose Mari Chan, why don’t you write your own Christmas song? ‘Have A Merry Christmas’ is an attempt to do so.”

– Jugs Jugueta

The song “Have A Merry Christmas”, written by Jugs Jugueta, is a “smorgasbord of Christmas tropes or clichés all rolled into one song” and it fills the air with a comforting message of joy and positivity. “When you mix them all together, you get a song that pretty much says, Merry Christmas!” Nicolas added.

Maligayang Pasko

The song “Maligayang Pasko”, on the other hand, which was helmed and produced by Jazz Nicolas, will take you back to the ‘70s and early ‘80s era with its laid-back, groovy tune. The groove of this music, as quoted Nicolas, “is partly based on a latin or bossa nova beat, mixed with funky guitars.”

Furthermore, in an attempt to highlight the band’s sense of musical adventurousness, The Itchyworms’ multi-instrumentalist member also added a little bit of camp experimentation in the mix.

“I was very excited to use a combination of a vocoder, which is sort of a voice synthesizer and a text-to-speech type program to sing the chorus harmonies with us. I programmed three tracks of text-to-speech saying ‘mah lee guy young pass koh’ and tuned each them to sing in harmony.”

– Jazz Nicolas

Listen to “Have A Merry Christmas” and “Maligayang Pasko”

Both “Have A Merry Christmas” and “Maligayang Pasko” bring out the significance of timelessness of holiday songs, bringing festive cheer to everyone, despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic. Thus, according to Kelvin Yu, “Christmas should still be celebrated this year, especially with the important people in your lives.”

These new songs are now available on all streaming platforms worldwide via Sony Music.

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