Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
Metro Manila-based indie musician Aaron Silvestre found himself feeling the quarantine blues back in 2020. With no outlet for his creative ideas and sorely missing the rush of performing at gigs, he directed all his frustrations and worries into a solo music project — and thus, Panic Car was born.
“Panic, anxiety, loss, I'm sure we've felt this toxic combination of emotions during the pandemic. It's like being stuck in a vicious cycle where every day feels the same. But maybe I'm a little bit privileged to feel that way. I can count my lucky stars that I was able to contemplate and process these emotions with a roof over my head and a bed beneath me,” Silvestre intimated.
Turning his frustration into action, Silvestre finally managed to build his own home studio during the quarantine and began to dabble in songwriting and music production, releasing his own music under the name “Panic Car.” “I was really trying to find a sense of normalcy and a taste for the old days at the height of the lockdown in 2020. In those days, I felt like I was in auto-pilot. I was working from home and it was just an endless loop of eat, sleep, work, repeat. I really wanted to give this music thing another shot, if only to break the monotony, and I'm glad I did. It was like therapy to me. It gave me a sense of escape and reprieve where I could just be myself,” he recounted.
True enough, the Panic Car artist had a productive music therapy — releasing a pair of singles in 2020 entitled “Wake Up” and “Midnight Musings,” respectively. The songs themselves were wholly written and produced by Silvestre himself from inside his home studio.
“Panic Car has allowed me to experiment and hone my songwriting skills as a solo artist and discover an intense passion for music production. So you'll see that this project really became an outlet for me to explore and be influenced by a wide range of artists like The Cure, Julien Baker, Dayglow, Wallows and Djo,” he added.
Over the next two years, Silvestre followed up with a string of releases with songs such as “Homebound”, “Sunkissed & Diamond Eyes” and “Circus,” where his genre-bending range of influences are undoubtedly heard.
“I'm just having so much fun [with Panic Car]. I certainly didn't think this would be a long-term kind of project, maybe one or two songs at the most but I really found myself in this and I feel I've really grown as an artist,” he exclaimed.
Silvestre's excitement is palpable and is never more apparent than in Panic Car's upcoming single entitled “Euphoria.” The song, which he quipped was very loosely inspired by the hit TV series of the same name, is an ode to classic rock with a new wave/post-punk twist.
“I really wanted to write a fun, upbeat '60s kind of rock and roll song. Like the kind of thing you would hear from The Beatles or the Beach Boys, with a tiny bit of The Cure vibe thrown in there as well,” he shared. “Lyrically, the theme of the song draws heavily from the “high” of falling in love with someone for the first time. I feel like there's nothing more powerful than that. It's euphoric. Like you're walking on cloud nine.” “Euphoria” by Panic Car is now out on digital streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.