"This band is composed of my brothers. Basically, we're of the same age, we listen to the same music. When we free jam, when we have ideas, it's the same wavelength, halos. It's very easy for us to synthesize." - Marc Abaya KJWAN burst onto the scene in 2003, when rock music had forgotten who it was originally and people were almost afraid to listen. Still, they came down hard, raw, in your face, and coined the now-familiar catchphrase, "Bastusan na!" to signal some heavy rocking. Their hit song, "Daliri," became an anthem to a new generation of rockers and being true to yourself became the order of the day. Even the very word, Kjwan, seemed to flamboyantly step in your way and hounded you so that you would never forgot the name, the band, the sound. Three years later, at the height of the new music renaissance, Kjwan is braving a second album, 2 Step Marv, which promises to be so many things more than their first self-titled album. "From the song, 2 Step Marv, and it so happened everyone liked the title. It's a 2-step beat, the song itself, yeah we play it live. And I don't know, we just said, Marvelous, so 2 Step Marv." - J-Hoon Balbuena Long-time friends and former high school band-mates Marc Abaya (vocals) and Kelley Mangahas (bass) got together with fellow Ateneans Jorel Corpus (guitar) and J-hoon Balbuena (drums) to form the band's initial lineup. They were joined in 2004 by Boogie Romero (second guitar), another high school friend and former band-mate of Marc and Kelley, soon after the release of their self-titled debut album. The first album earned them the nomination for Favorite New Artist at the MTV Pilipinas Video Music Awards 2005, specifically, for their breakthrough single "Daliri." The song, which received such a good amount of airplay on the radio and MTV, appealed mainly to rock listeners who were fans of A Perfect Circle, Audioslave, Rage Against the Machine, and the earlier grunge bands that defined early 90s rock. "The first one was a venture among good friends. Eventually, we wanted to form the ultimate band, I mean, every kid in college, everyone in high school wants to form the ultimate band. We started off as great friends and musicians who respect each other. The first album was very raw, very the four-of-us-in-your-face with our ideas, not as whole or as focused as the new album. - Marc Abaya If the first album had been simple matter of coming out, the two-year journey of making 2 Step Marv was more complicated matter of growing up-musically. They were able to craft better songs, hone their individual skills, introduce new musical elements to their primarily rock sound, and in general, just put more thought, heart and soul into the new music. They became comfy in their new skin. "Actually, the second album was a long process, over a year's worth of writing, writing songs, jamming, fighting, recording, everything, it was one whole year of us figuring out how we're gonna go from the first album, how we were gonna sound on the second. It's also an influence of what we've been hearing, exploring since the first album. And siyempre, Boogie." - Kelly Mangahas Skill-wise, three years of playing together, and more than that of playing with other bands, has honed each member enough to be confident in his own skin as musician. In terms of new influences, they have consciously opened themselves and their songwriting to be inspired by genres other than rock. If the band has made a rock drummer out of J-Hoon, who in fact grew up not listening to rock, he in turn, introduced them to his original influences, specifically jazz, drum 'n bass and electronica. These type of music, plus Kelly's RnB, hiphop and emo punk inspirations, Jorel's recent interest in samba percussion, and the rock orientation that the band's music originally started from, were the diverse elements that lent themselves to Kjwan's collective songwriting for 2 Step Marv. "For me parang hinahanap namin ang tunog namin dito, and comfortable yung playing. Tingin ko hindi pa namin nahahanap yung talagang sound namin, pero we're one step closer in this album, dahil, syempre, hindi mo naman pwedeng sabihin na "Pak!" isang taon, yun na yun. Yun na yung tunog niyo. Alam mo yun, hindi mo masasabi yun eh. Lahat naman tayo growing musicians eh. Tsaka lahat ng tao, made for change yan eh. Hindi naman pwedeng forever kaming nandoon, dahil hindi ka pwedeng maging static dahil maiiwan ka ng mundo. Diba?" - Jorel Corpuz Each and every one of them was more involved in all the creative processes, from the songwriting, the recording, mixing, packaging, and down to the video production of the first single "Pintura" (directed by Maria Ancheta of Up Dharma Down's "Pag-agos"). Marc, who writes almost all the words of Kjwan, points out that even in writing lyrics, it is easier for him to bare his soul to his bandmates, without hindrances like fear, insecurity or pretension between them. This very open friendship is a big factor in the maturity and confidence of the new album. With this album, they got to exercise their other "muscles" more. Guitarist Jorel, for instance, had the opportunity to incorporate his samba percussion skills to a couple of the songs ("Invitation" and "One Look") together with some of his fellows from Brigada (his samba ensemble); while drummer J-hoon contributed his skills in track programming. Also, with regard to the addition of a second guitar, it became an important learning process for both Boogie and Jorel (who were both used to being the only guitarist in a band) to put their heads together and cooperate in order to come up with different but complementary guitar parts, while each still retained his own playing style. "Yeah, like they said, it's a growth, so from the first album, that was their sound, it evolved right now in the second album, and hopefully, in the coming albums, it will grow more. So you can't really pin your sound to one given genre diba? It will still grow and grow." - Boogie Romero 2 Step Marv is recorded, mixed and mastered by Angee Rozul under the fledging indie label Barnyard Music, which is managed by the same friends who have supported the band since the beginning, namely Alvin Llanderal and Wally Chamsay (both from Sony Music). Get 2 Step Marv now, and prepare to blown away. KJWAN is: Marc Abaya - Vocals J-Hoon Balbuena - Drums / Vocals Kelley Mangahas - Bass Boogie Romero - Guitars / Vocals Jorel Corpus - Guitars / Percussion / Vocals INFLUENCES INCUBUS, 103 Zuco Zombie, White Revolver, Velvet Experiment, Philadelphia The Underworld, Power, of Tower Toto, Tool, Thrice, Blind, Eye Third D, Tenacious Sleep, Team 80, Tahiti Ray, Sugar Pilots, Temple Stone Wonder, Stevie Pumpkins, Smashing Soulive, Stone, Family the and Sly Mendes, Sergio Roots, Factor, RH Hargrove Roy Peppers, Chili Hot Red Radiohead, Service, Postal Dwellers, Pocket Parliament, Doubt, No Furtado, Nelly Muse, Michiru, Monday Bear, Minus Metric, Meters, Metallica, Matisyahu, Gaye, Marvin 5, Maroon Mae, Park, Linkin Nubians, Les Joss Scofield, John Buckley, Jeff Jazzanova, Jazzelicious, Jay-Z, Brothers, Isley Arie, India Incognito, Hancock, Herbie School, Modeling Boy Handsome Roses, Guns Malt, Gruvis Benson, George Funkadelic, Fighters, Foo More, Faith Deftones, D?Angelo, Rae, Bailey Corinne Common, Coldplay, Chicane, Stevens, Cat Cake, Breakestra, Heavies, New Brand Bjork, Audioslave, Keys, Alicia Jam, Pearl Chains, In Alice AFI, 4Hero, U2, Pe, Hed 311, Blackstar, Def, Mos Badu, Erykah Machine, Against Rage Sade, Withers, Bill Circle, Perfect A Pantera, Shoe, Ton Two BT, Cole, MJ Mayer, Legend, Scott, Jill NERD, Jamiroquai, For Bookings please contact Alvin Llanderal +639178174596 / alvin.llanderal@gmail.com   
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Purchase "ONE LOOK T-shirts...... more
 2 Step MarvCategory: MusicGenre: Indie Music Artist: KJWAN Kjwan thrives on mood, dynamics and accents. You can hear it in their groundbreaking self-titled debut album. You can definitely hear it even more in their genius follow up, Two Step Marv. It’s... more
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Eastwood City Libis Quezon City
Eastwood City Libis Quezon City
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