On March 22, The CompanY members Moy Ortiz and Annie Quintos-Uy talked about their group’s early days and how they changed over the years during the media conference for their album launch for Gitna.
Ortiz revealed that the name The CompanY came from a musical made by Stephen Sondheim.
“Ang grupong The Company, ang pangalang The Company ay naka–it’s based on a 1972 musical of Stephen Sondheim called Company. Ano ‘yung kwento ng Company, it’s about relationships, whether between married couples or singles, or even with your relationship with yourself.”
He then shared their history when starting in 1985 while they were in the Ateneo College Glee Club.
“Pinangalanan namin ‘yung grupo namin na The Company because when Annie and I built the The Company in 1985, walang nag-audition sa amin. Lahat kami miyembro ng Ateneo College Glee Club.
“Lahat kami ‘yung barkada within the glee club, so sabi namin parang pareho doon sa musical ni Stephen Sondheim na Company na it’s about relationships, it’s about barkada, it’s about couples.”
Quintos also recalled the struggles they faced when they started in the music industry.
“The change– the difference between before, malaking, malaking, malaking difference. Before kasi, when we were twelve, when we originally started with twelve members, siyempre we were feeling our way. Hindi namin alam kung tatagal ba ‘to.
“Hindi pa namin alam kung anong music talaga ang gagawin namin. So there was a lot of birth pains. Birthing pains at that point. As the years passed, we became eight, ganon pa rin, it was parang always finding our way–finding our way in the recording industry.”
She then detailed how the group changed and matured over the years.
“And then eventually, I think it’s only now that we know ourselves more; we know our music more; we know what we can give; and what we need to work on still.
“And we all also think in the same wavelength. Have the same core values, so this is now a get-together of people that’d/ been working together and making it something that can move forward easily.”
Now the current members of The CompanY include Annie Quintos, OJ Mariano, Moy Ortiz, and Sweet Plantado.
The CompanY recently released its new album Gitna, which houses a collection of multi-genre songs tackling the different themes of love and highlighting their impeccable vocal harmony.
The 10-track album is currently available on all digital streaming platforms while their music video of Gitna streams on March 25 at 8 PM on Star Music’s YouTube channel.
