Pupil

The Story and Songs of Pupil

Pupil is a Filipino band of Pinoy and Alternative rock. The band composed of frontman Ely Buendia; the lead guitarist Yan Yuzon, the brother of Spongecola’s Yael Yuzon; the band’s bassist, Dok Sergio, the brother of Rivermaya’s bassist Japs Sergio and the drummer Wendell Garcia, who replaced Bogs Jugo.

At first, Ely, Dok, Yan, Bogs and Jerome formed the band The Mongols. Dok Sergio is the former member of The Teeth, joined “The Mongols” making it a five-man band. Yan who was the bassist, moved to guitars while Dok assume the responsibility of the bass. Jerome Velasco left on May 2005 to pursue a career in producing and recording engineering. The last gig done under the name The Mongols was on July 7, 2005. Velasco’s departure shook the band and left it confused whether to continue with the band or not. They come to a decision of continuing the band in spite of Jerome’s absence. Yet, as they went along, they realized that they were making different sound without Velasco on lead guitars and decided to form new band. Forming new band means choosing a name first. Ely chanced upon reading a medical book and happened to see Pupil. The band wanted to have a classical name and tried several names before using Pupil such as Villain, Lord of Nasdaq, The Gets, Trochlean, Traitors, Tyrel Corp and Narcom. They chose Pupil for Ely liked the fact that it was a part of the eye where light enters and Yan interpret it as the eternal learning connotation of the name. They launched their first gig under Pupil on July 13, 2005 on UP Bahay Ng Alumni.

Pupil - Monobloc Music Video

Like any upstart band, they have the difficulty in looking for a label to record and produce their outputs. They submitted demo to several labels but no one seems interested except the newly-merged Sony-BMG. Incidentally, Ely left BMG Pilipinas on 2002 but still accepted him like a prodigal son.

Nasaan Ka? achieved popularity among listeners and quite played often but other singles released experienced difficulties. Consequently, the band was forced to make an acoustic rendition of Nasaan Ka? and Dianetic. The final version of Nasaan ka? was used as bonus track for Sony BMG’s CD Sampler 2006 Volume 3.

Together with Barbie Almalbis, they were chosen as promotional models of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit. The promotion included Juicy Fruit’s Tugtog Mo! Band and Style Mo! Competition. The band also stays active in the 2006 MTV Staying Alive Music Summit for HIV/AIDS.

Their fourth single, Gamu-Gamo immediately achieved its #1 position in “NU 107’s Stairway to Seven” within first week of year 2007. Pupil also participated in a special 8-minute medley including Eraserhead’s hit Pare Ko at the 2nd MYX Music Awards on March 15, 2007 at AFP Theatre.

Yan Yuzon announced formally on July 25, 2007 that Bogs Jugo left the band to pursue another career in life. A former Barbie’s Cradle, Wendell Garcia took Bogs place. His first gig was on July 26, 2007 at the “Hard Rock Café”.

Pupil’s debut album was released on November 10, 2005 under “Sony-BMG” entitled Beautiful Machines. Yan describes their genre as everyrock or a mass of everything of rock and roll, classic and stadium rock, punk, New Wave, glam rock, goth rock, heavy metal, grunge, all in between.

Pupil’s second album was released under “Sony-BMG” on November 6, 2007 entitled Wild Life. It features 12 tracks: Fin, Matador, Monobloc, Here I Go Again, Talon, Sumasabay, Animal Lover, Teacher’s Pet, Sala, Disconnection Notice, Bato and Set Me Apart. The 11 tracks feature Wendell as the drummer but the 12th track, Set Me Apart still displays Bogs Jugo as the drummer.

Blow Your House Down, one of Pupil’s song was features in a Hollywood animated film Hoodwinked. The soundtrack was released by Rykodisc. The band also made a new theme song for Animax Asia named Set Me Apart. It was launched exclusively in NU 107 and gained #1 spot in “NU 107’s Stairway to Seven”.