Band not timid about ‘nationalist rock’

By Niña Catherine Calleja
Inquirer

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna–Four college students and a high school teacher have a different take on rock music.

They formed the Ephrot Act, jumbled from “Torpe ka (You are timid)” and they have been composing rock songs with nationalist content, calling them “nationalist rock.”

“What we have is an old-fashioned goal in a modern approach,” Adrian Luneta, the lead vocalist, said in Filipino in a group interview in Los Baños, Laguna.

One of their hit songs on campuses in Lucena City in Quezon and in the University of the Philippines at Los Baños is “Makibaka.”

Although the band has no album yet, Luneta said its members were happy when they learned that their songs had been passed on through the Internet.

The Ephrot Act is composed of Mike Ona, drums; Edz Pagaduan, lead guitar; Louie Dizon, bass guitar; Leroy Valdeavilla, rhythm guitar; and Luneta. The best friends were classmates in the Quezon National High School in Lucena.

Their addiction to playing the computer game “Counterstrike” was diverted to music on their third year in high school. “In one computer shop near our school, the players were in queue so while we waited, we stayed in a studio on the second floor and watched a band’s rehearsal,” Ona said.

All of them had no formal lesson in music and only learned to play instruments from other band members out of curiosity. They decided to form a band and join local contests in 2001.

They just had to make noise to catch the audience’s attention, as other bands in Lucena were doing, Luneta said. In due time, they realized that what they were doing was wrong and aimed to improve their music and compose not only love songs.

In 2006, the Ephrot Act bagged first prize in a barangay contest in Lucena. That same year, they started performing at UPLB where, Luneta said, “we experienced a crowd who liked us and enjoyed our music.”

Since then, they have become more passionate in rehearsing every weekend, walking three kilometers from Lucena to the studio they rented. “We could not afford the fare to the studio,” Ona said, adding that they were already paying P100 per hour for the studio rental.

Modern approach

Eran Lagos, the manager, noted that the band’s music was similar to those of Noel Cabangon, Bayang Barrios and other “alternative” musicians, but its “attack in music” is different. The songs are usually about the country and what is happening, but the type of music is rock.

The group has written “Makibaka,” “Byahe na,” “Astig,” “Asam” and their other songs, based on intuition and observation. “We just write what we see,” Dizon said.

At present, the band has recorded eight songs and is still working on seven others.

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