MANILA — The cat is out of the bag.

Hard rock band Razorback is out to record a new album — without their longtime vocalist, Kevin Roy. Instead, it will feature a variety of singers, including the alluring and multi-talented Nicole Laurel Asensio, who has, on occasion, subbed for the hard rock act.

We sat down with Asensio last Saturday at Promenade, Greenhills on a humid morning yet the skies threatening a downpour. Nicole, in a sleeveless shirt, jeans, and her long beautiful hair bouncing around, walked towards the coffee shop for the interview. She smiled and at once, she was like that ray of sunshine on this otherwise dreary day.

Pleasantries exchanged and a necessary compliment on her beauty out of the way, we get down to business.

I have to ask, if she is concerned that people view her only as a pretty face, talent be damned. “Not at all,” she dispels with nary a tinge of incredulity. In fact, she shows she ornery. “I cannot go on stage and wonder how people will wonder about my singing. I just focus on my job and I love my job.”

But what is her job?

When Nicole was in school, she dreamt of being a writer of non-fiction. Instead, she became a singer, one who first trained in the classical style. But since then, she’s dabbled with rock with her former crew, General Luna, and big band jazz — something she does to this day. And there’s singing with Razorback.

It doesn’t end there. She also designs rings and jewelry. Suddenly, I think of Galadriel from J.R.R. Tolkien’s "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and her quote to Frodo: “Instead of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen, not dark, but beautiful and terrible as the dawn.”

Fortunately, megalomania isn’t on Nicole’s mind. She laughs rather mischievously. “I’m just an ordinary person with many an interest,” she simply said.

She is wearing one of her designed rings and while I am not an authority on jewelry design, I am still impressed. 
 
Nicole takes a step back. She first got into jewelry design as a means to remember her father who passed away last year. “I had all these physical bits and pieces of my relationship with my father – a bracelet, a necklace, and other things. I melted them down and created something that I could wear all the time and make me remember him,” she shared.

And that’s the crux of her designs – something with meaning.

“I am lucky because most of my clients are people I know,” she said. “I design something that fits in their budget range. I design it for their lifestyle – is it for daily use, or for special occasions? What stones matter to you? What colors do you gravitate towards? And I try to be sustainable with materials. I also do a 'witness ring' as it is called. Say you have someone who wants to propose to their significant other. Instead of spending a huge amount on a new ring and big diamond. Maybe they can go to people who mean those most to them such as their parents, their aunts and uncles, or a best friend and get the little pieces the broken clasp or things and melt them down and include them in the ring’s composition.”

Asensio hasn’t gone to school for this. It’s a passion project and when she gets into something such as jazz, she looks into it and learns it with all her heart and soul. 

“I do need to go to a proper school for this and to get certification,” she conceded. “So for now, I only go to friends. I enjoy it because it is something I am busy with among others when I am not performing.” 

“Maybe when I am done performing, this is something I will get into full time. One day, I guess.”

However, for now, her days are mostly filled with music.

After she left, General Luna, Nicole embarked on a risky solo career and released a solo album that dabbled into all sorts of different genres. One of which is jazz and big band music (first with the AMP Big Band and lately with the Project 201 Big Band).
 
“A friend of mine, saxophonist Michael Guevarra, pushed me to get into big band and jazz,” she related. “He said, ‘You perform rock music, right? Well, bakit ka matatakot sa jazz? It has the discipline of classical and the freedom of rock and roll.’ I never thought it that way so I tried and now, I love it!”

And lately, there’s performing with Razorback.

“I have been friends with the band for quite some time and have seen many of their shows. I never thought I’d be singing with them,” she gushed. 

Following Roy’s footsteps hasn’t been easy. There has been some backlash to an extent. It has caused Asensio some consternation and she has answered her critics. Having done so, she says that she is just happy right now that the band has asked her to perform with them. 

Singing with Razorback isn’t easy. It requires the right amount of angst and moxie to pull off. Asensio is firmly aware of that: “I cannot do what Kevin did. He is amazing and unique. I can only bring in my own stamp to Razorback’s style,” explained Nicole.

Apparently, the band loves it. They frequently invite her to front them and have asked her to perform vocal duties for an upcoming album. “Of course, I said ‘yes!’ They will have to pry away that opportunity from my cold dead fingers,” she laughed with excitement. 

If necessity is the mother of invention, well, Nicole Asensio is the daughter of reinvention. 

“When I perform – whether before with General Luna, as a solo artist, with the big bands, or with Razorback, I draw from my many experiences to pull out for those different performances. It isn’t easy but as a professional, you need to get it done Shapeshifting is not everyone’s book but in mine, it is.”

Aye, the shapeshifter cometh. 

And she’s looking forward to the opportunities laid out in front of her.

“And to think I was just a fan of Razorback…”

ai vision