MiG Ayesa happily living his fantasy

Whoever said MiG Ayesa is just about rock should be banished into the darkest corner of the attic. That’s because putting the Rockstar INXs search third placer in a box is an injustice.

His debut album tells you why. Mig (MCA Music, Inc.) bursts with a motley of smooth and mellow standards you’d think only somone who grew up in the mid-’60s would know. Yet Mig sings them with such twists and turns in his voice, ascents and descents of emotion, you’d think Mig was to the generation born.

Back in Manila from L.A. for a short promo tour of his new album, Mig, who is 36, says "my mind is getting younger. I feel I’m 18!"

Lose yourself in the strains of Peter Frampton’s acoustic guitar while Mig segues to Baby I Love Your Way (which Frampton originally sung). Swoon to the sound of love, sweet love in Mig’s take of Sting’s Wrapped Around Your Finger.

You can feel Mick Jagger and Keith Richards’ angst as Mig sings their classic, plaintive Angie.

It’s a new Mig even the Fil-Aussie singer-songwriter never thought existed, until MCA Music offered him a recording contract.

Suddenly, Mig turned into another Alice in Wonderland, tumbling headlong into a magical, new adventure with him as principal player.

"I’m living my fantasy right now," he gushes. "This is a realization of a dream."

That dream is to be a recording artist, something he never thought possible. But it was bound to happen. And Mig himself is amazed how things just fell into place for them to happen when he was not looking.

Mig may not have been named the best guy to fill in the huge shoes of the late Rockstar INXS vocalist Michael Hutchence. But the unsuspecting Mig got a better deal.

Recording company executives took one look at him and said, "We want that guy!"

So instead of languishing in comparisons between Hutchence and him, Mig is now basking in the glory of solo artistdom.

No one is comparing him with anyone else. His only yardstick of quality is himself, period.

This blows Mig’s mind away. But he’s careful not to claim sole credit for it. He gives credit where credit is due.

The guy entered the presscon room wearing a dark shirt that exposed a necklace with a cross pendant dangling from its chain, says, "What God has in store for you makes sense after a while."

It also makes sense to him to release his debut album first in the Philippines, the land of his birth. Australia, where he was raised, will follow next month. The US and Canada come next in March.

Mig’s reason for choosing the Philippines is a matter of patriotism.

"This is where it all started for me," he says. Then, he turns sentimental. "It’s poetry and symmetry," he adds, eyes twinkling.

Poetry is what you hear in the lush sounds of a 45-piece orchestra playing in the hallowed walls of the Abbey Road Studio in London, where the album was partly recorded. The violin weeps; Mig’s fingers pause expectantly on the piano. And every note bears the promise of a surprise of a dramatic change.

David Bowie, Seal and Sting, the original artists behind Life On Mars, Kiss From a Rose and Wrapped Around Your Finger respectively would have been pleased.

Here, live music is in, electronica is out. Mig made sure no form of technology is found in this, his concept album.

This early, Mig and his recording outfit are already planning the second album. This time, it will play up Mig the songwriter. Most of the tracks will be Mig’s original compositions.

But that’s getting ahead of our story. For now, let’s focus on Mig Ayesa, the singer who wants to say thank you to the land of his birth via his debut album.