DESCRIPTION:
KJWAN burst onto the Philippine music scene in 2003, when the local rock music scene had forgotten who it was originally and people were almost afraid to listen to anything new. Still, they came down hard, raw, in your face, with the release of their self titled debut album (in 2004)


The Manila-based quintet is made up of distinct personalities, with individual musical tastes that don't always overlap, and strong ideals that are often diametrically opposed. The chemistry might have combusted a lesser band before it even started, but the equally passionate friendships and shared hardships that make up Kjwan have held it together.

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 (guitar), another high school friend and former band-mate of Marc and Kelley, soon after the release of their self-titled debut album.

Three years later, at the height of the new music renaissance, Kjwan is braving a second album, 2StepMarv, which promises to be so many things more than their first self-titled album.

With this album, Guitarist Jorel, for instance, had the opportunity to incorporate his samba percussion skills to a couple of the songs ("Invitation" "One Look" "You Didn't Know" and "2 Step Marv" together with some of his fellows from Brigada (his samba percussion 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.

Romero says "It's a growth, from the first album, and hopefully, in the coming albums, it will grow more. So you can't really pin your sound to one given genre. It will still grow and grow and grow."