Former General Luna Vocalist and Award Winning Singer-Songwriter Nicole Laurel Asensio releases new song “Silong”

BY WHATSHAPPENING
Published · Tuesday, August 25, 2020 07:08 AM

Award winning singer-songwriter Nicole Laurel Asensio has taken home an Awit Award (2017) and a Trend Star Korea Award (2018). Referred as the "Schizoprano" because of her versatile vocals able to span many genres and her quick adaptability and resilience in the music industry, now release a new song called "Silong”

“Silong is a song I gave up on many times because it wouldn’t lend me an ending, it is also the only original song in my upcoming album that I did not predominantly write the lyrics for, instead I focused on the melody and being involved in instrumentation ideas with my bandmates,” Asensio said.

It was one summer afternoon when Nicole was cleaning up her old hard drive and found 49 unfinished songs and poems all works in progress, half written, half forsaken, and Silong happened to be on the top of the list.

“There were 10 of us in a 10 square meter room (we each picked our own square meter) Michael Alba on drums, Karel Honasan on Bass, Ira Cruz on Guitar, Nikko Rivera on keys, Michael Guevarra on saxophone, Lester Sorilla on Trumpet and a few more friends and their glasses in hand. The sun was blaring through my very small attic window, we were all squinting and laughing and the energy was pure, there was a lightness that I hadn’t felt in years,”Nicole added.

Silong was supposed to be set for release January 2020, but COVID happen and everything falls apart, And now it is time for the people to hear it and be inspired from it via Warner Music.

Nicole grew up with music since her families are all into playing and singing. She was the Granddaughter of coloratura, librettist and voice professor emeritus Fides Cuyugan-Asensio and Theatre artist Celia Diaz Laurel, Niece of broadway star Cocoy Laurel and Daughter of singer Iwi Laurel. Her first exposure to music was through musical theatre and classical music. as a child she sang for composer Schoenberg.

Right after college with a degree in Literature and writing her first book she embarked on a quest and co-founded and toured with all female rock band General Luna. They performed original music and toured for 5 years abroad and around the Philippines with major brand endorsements as well as opened for international rock acts such as Mr. Big and Slash.

By 2014 she goes solo and released a self-produced solo album entitles “Schizoprano” under MCA universal. She is a favourite amongst corporate event clients locally and abroad and has performed in London, Barcelona, Dubai, Doha, Shanghai, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Maldives, U.S.A., Malaysia, Vietnam.

Recently, she caught the eyes of a few Grammy Award winning producers abroad and signed with Warner Music Group. Nicole is currently writing, producing and recording her second album with a team of top tier musicians and is aimed to release new music this 2020 with Warner Music.