A BRIEF HISTORY LESSON

After discussing music, history, and human nature for 30 minutes, Reyes had to end his conversation with me to perform with one of the most enduring rock bands in the Philippines, The Dawn.

Truth be told, The Dawn was a very abstract band to me as I was not really exposed to their music, having been born in the 1990s. It broke up in 1995 (“We got sick of each other,” lead vocalist Jett Pangan quipped) when I was in pre- school, and regrouped in 1999 when I was in grade school.

My mother, who was very active in the music scene at that time as a writer, publicist, and concert producer, couldn’t stop talking about how important The Dawn is in the history of Philippine music. She recounted that during the mid-to-late 1980s, Filipinos were interested in solo singers and foreign bands. The Dawn tore down the “foreign only” wall by creating “palatable” rock music. Once its brand of Filipino music was appreciated, the members also started composing songs in Filipino, and that eventually paved the way for other Filipino rock bands — hitherto lurking on the fringes of the music scene — to go mainstream. The Dawn sort of rolled out the red carpet for a new generation of Filipino rock bands, especially in the 1990s.

IN LINE WITH THE TIMES

When asked how their style of playing changed through the years, Pangan replied, “Earlier, we used synths because of New Wave. We were always guitardriven then; we have two guitars. But during the grunge scene, we