Awake

Awake didn’t actually have a name until around 1995, a year after progressive rockers Dream Theater released its third album. It was to be an important piece of work for them at the time. But the band has been around much earlier than that, and already had some underground following right when it started, and respect from fellow bands in Santa Rosa, Laguna, and neighboring towns.

In the Beginning…

At around 1992, Liloy and Aji were introduced to each other by mutual friend Ap Villamor, during "one of those drinking sessions." While it was common for them to drink and sing with an accompanying guitar being passed around, Liloy, himself a fine acoustic player, was amazed at how Aji played. Aji, considered by fellow guitarists in the area as a six-string maniac, downplayed himself, saying he could not play acoustic as well as electric. In fact, he still considers Liloy to be the better acoustic player to this day.

Liloy and Aji planned about forming a heavy metal cover band with Liloy’s buddy Bengz, who was a disciple of death metal. He was very much into Slayer, Sepultura, and Morbid Angel. Aji, being more from the melodic school, suggested Metallica, Megadeth, and Van Halen. Liloy was supposed to take rhythm guitar duties while Bengz would do lead vocals. Aji had his own band at the time, but it was based in the university where he was studying anyway, so there was no problem forming this one, he thought. The problem now is getting the rest of the band.

The Heavy-Metal Bengz Era

At a jam in a local studio at around 1993, the three came in to watch Tanits, who was practicing with his band. Liloy and Bengz had long known that Tanits was a bass monster. Never mind that they were playing Guns ‘n’ Roses and Bon Jovi covers, which all three hated so much, but Aji was immediately introduced to Tanits’ playing. Eventually, the three joined in to jam, and, having no songs under their belt, just played a typical 12-bar blues groove. When it was over, the guys approached Tanits and discussed their plans. Tanits, never seeing any guitar player like Aji, was already discussing about plans of forming a band with him in between breaks. Tanits would soon leave his band, but these two bands (Awake and what would become of Tanits’ band then) would eventually become allies and close friends.

Leklek, notorious drummeister from Binan, was Bengz’ high school buddy. Upon introduction to the rest of the group one day, he was immediately taken in, without even playing. His diverse stylistic influences were a perfect fit for the rest of them, and his wacky personality jived well with Liloy and Aji, who were clowners as well. At this point, the lineup was complete. They went on jamming and doing performances, the first one being at an ROTC prom at Perpetual Help College in Binan. Later that night, they thought they made such a good show that they celebrated at Aji’s place over a few bottles of Ginebra San Miguel. Sweet!

The Breakup

Then in 1994 in a secret meeting, Leklek, Tanits, and Aji planned to break up with Liloy and Bengz, for two reasons: (1) Liloy was such a sloppy rhythm guitar player; and (2) Bengz could not sing in tune with some of the more melodic songs, and did not have the range. Sure, gobs of distortion would do it, but heavy metal rhythm guitar had to be precise and metronome-tight, they thought. On the singing aspect, they could hardly get past the half-singing, half-rapping style (ala Phil Anselmo) of Bengz. The plan was for Aji to break up the band by saying he’s leaving in order to get a job (Aji just graduated from college at the time). Then the three would form again in two months, scouting for a new vocalist who had a wider repertoire in the meantime. Aji would then handle all guitar duties.

It was to be a sad day for the band, as they were close friends to say the least, but it had to be done. Liloy and Bengz were so saddened; rumors had it that they formed another band. The three would jam secretly, and once, they were actually caught by Liloy in the act, and that was the end of it. Bengz would go on a job contract abroad and would never return, even to this day.

The three practiced Top-40 pop songs with plans of getting a weekly stint at a local music bar. They auditioned at Kalesa Kape in Santa Rosa, with Aji doing lead vocals, and failed. For months they could not find the singer they wanted. The playing is now tighter, but it lacked the fun and enthusiasm of the old days.

Awake… Finally!

A hurried invitation from Lylon Alinsod (now bassist and leader of Tanit’s old band) came up for a 5-song spot at 1997’s Rockfest, which was a local yearly rock concert in Santa Rosa, Laguna. Wanting to perform so bad but not having a legitimate singer, the three suddenly realize literally to the last minute, that only one guy could do the vocals for them with style — and it was Liloy! His singing had always been pitch-precise, with a touch of class, and he had that wild persona that could bring back the fun to the band. This was December 30, 1997, and it was 8:00 p.m., and Liloy was hosting another program at home. The three drove to his place and snatched him, and the rest was history.

Come next drinking session, the three apologized about their dirty deeds. Aji admitted that he wasn’t comfortable at all having a second guitar player in the band. Tanits told Liloy how much he hated him in practice since he always had the loudest volume of all. What surprised the three was that Liloy actually said that he always wanted to be the vocalist (!) of the band, and that he knew his guitar style sucked.

And so it was, and the name "Awake" was adopted. They would venture into every style they could: pop, rock, metal, the blues, and jazz, even bebop… They would be pop-like and trivial one moment, then syncopated and dissonant the next. Every song they did was unique. They could morph from one genre to another and still make it sound so convincing. They formed a solid repertoire and got themselves playing at clubs (Beefeater in Binan and Bottle City in Cabuyao) introducing new, unheard-of cover songs into a usually boring setting. They organized Rockfest ‘98 with Lylon and his band, this time the whole event showcasing only them. It was to be a huge success.

The year 2000 was to see The Cover Jams, an album of cover songs they did at a practice session at Leklek’s. With Aji and Leklek producing, engineering and mastering the album at their own Virtual Tracks Studios, and with  friends helping with the concept, design, and packaging of the album, the band also formed Spaghetti Enterprises, their management base headed by long-time friend Mayo Articona.

The band is now experimenting with sounds and styles in their first album of original songs. They hope to release this sometime in 2001, when hopefully rock music would finally reign supreme again!