ericho Rosales outgrows the habit of shirt tossing while ocho-ocho. This time, he finds true voice, courtesy of those rugged pair of jeans.

Credit Jericho Rosales for wisely sizing up his situation. When the young actor arrived in Malaysia earlier this year to shop for a record deal, he had with him a copy of his own written songs and a self made PR kit to complement the demo. “Everything was a blur,” he mentions when asked what led him to the said country. While the purpose of soliciting support to roll his singing career was clear, strangely, he wasn't dead set with the thought that he was actually courting a foreign audience.

“ Manila is not ready for me,” Echo justifiably states. It was the same words he would utter every time he's asked by Malaysian label receptionists and executives, baffled with the thought on why a popular actor would rather skip a country he's already well k known.

“I don't know but that's the only true reason I can give them when they quizzed me. I just want an unbiased ear to listen that's why I sought another territory to hear my songs.” Back home and a few months after successfully releasing his band's debut album in Malaysia , Echo remains adamant and quite scared: “Even now, I wonder if Manila is ready for me.”

Shift Or Trip?

Echo swears that even before the cameras found him, music was really his first love. “I'm not really into television even when I was younger. I remember sa province, especially ‘pag gabi, music coming from ther radio speakers lamg talaga ang companion ko,” he shares.

He was even supposed to sing when he joined the country's longest noontime variety show Eat Bulaga as one the contestants of Mr. Pogi but the show's staff asked him dance instead.

“Ano talent mo hijo?” he recalls being asked by one of the show's production staff. “Kakanta po ako,” a skinny Echo nervously replies. “O sige sumayaw ka na,” was the staff's deadpan response. So he danced and eventually won the contest, paving his officially entry into the mad world of show business.

In hindsight, that seeming simple compromise opened the young actor's eyes when it comes to the real meaning of compromise in an industry that embraced him wholeheartedly.

“You can't be stubborn or insists in dong what you want especially ‘pag nagsisinula ka pa lang. In my case, I have to do acting and everything that comes wit it,” explains Echo.

That concession includes singing songs he never felt like singing, taking off his clothes to elicit screams from the wild audience and worse, being typecast as a purely soap-drama star.

“I never regretted doing all of that,” the 5'11” actor defends. “it's just that I realized na hindi pala gano'n kadali mag-shift or it's not easy for people to take you seriously when you want to offer something new. Some are even saying na my venture into music was trip lang which of course is not true.”

Music As Serious Business

Hooking up with Dan Serenado (guitars), Jude Manota (bass) and Aaron Ace (drums) to form Jeans according to Eccho was a serious commitment right on the first day they jammed to gether as a unit. Despite Jericho's status as an established actor and a matinee idol, the band still has to go through all the growing start up pains and probably had to endure a whole lot more.

“Struggle talaga,” as what Dan can only utter. “First, we have to adjust with each other's schedule, particularly with Echo and again ‘yung factor na every time we play and nakatingin lang ‘yung mga tao, we seriously wonder if they like the songs or just in awe because of our frontman or again, we wonder if they're taking us seriously.”

Perhaps IT was again this burning desire to be accepted as a performance that motivated Echo to write his own songs. Weaving words and melodies inside his head has become a hobby during shoot breaks and while basking in the waters of La Union on top of his beloved sufing board.

Jeans' 14-track debut album Loose Fit under EMI Records leans on jazz, pop and rock, clearly showing the band's diversity and willingness to venture into different musical territory. Interestingly, one song in the album entitled, You're Beautiful was penned by Echo for his girlfriend, Heart Evangelista, who gladly returned the favor by singing the said song with him in the record.

Despite the expected sole attention allotted to him by the press and public, Jericho strongly reminds everyone that Jeans, more than anything else, is a band and not a solo project. He may not be part of the Hunks anymore nor singing alongside with fellow heartthrobs but Echo expresses contentment working with three normal looking talented musicians. And he seems relieved with the thought that he can end every show with his upper clothes still completely in place.

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