Depending on who you ask in The Dawn, forty years can feel either like the blink of an eye or the journey of a lifetime. Guitarist Francis Reyes looks back with a twinge of sadness—or perhaps wistfulness—and can’t help but wonder, “Where did all the time go?”
It’s not because he thinks those decades were taken for granted, but simply this feeling that…“Really?”
“To me, it seems as though we started only last year. But then you realize that we have been going at it for so long, and, oo nga, ang dami na palang nangyari,” he tells Lifestyle Inquirer. “I guess time really does fly when you’re having fun.”
“To me, it seems as though we started only last year… I guess time really does fly when you’re having fun”
Lead vocalist Jett Pangan, on the other hand, is more conscious of the passage of time. And that’s especially true when he finds himself reminiscing about The Dawn’s beginnings in the mid-1980s, when he first entered their rehearsal studio—if you could even call it that.
“It was more like a home office with filing cabinets,” he recalls. “Nakita ko talaga how far we have come. I don’t mean that in a bad way; I appreciate it more now. I just have that sense of time.”
Compact but meaningful setlist
But regardless of how one perceives it, lasting 40 years in an unforgiving, ever-changing industry is no small feat—and tougher still to compress it into perspective.
You can look at their milestones: Twelve studio albums. Sold-out headlining concerts. Awards including Best Live Act at the 1994 NU Rock Awards. And a catalog of songs that have become part of local rock history—“Tulad ng Dati,” “Iisang Bangka Tayo,” “Enveloped Ideas,” and, of course, “Salamat.”
You can even draw cheeky metaphors. “If The Dawn were a person, they would have kids by now,” guitarist Rommel Sanchez says. “O baka pwede ring mga apo!” bassist Bim Yance chimes in.
But nothing quite compels you to make sense of it all like building a “compact but meaningful” setlist for “Kwarenta,” the band’s upcoming 40th anniversary concert. Sitting with four decades worth of music, they revisit every album, every song they have ever produced, deciding what stays and what goes.
They lock in their favorites and other essential hits. They relearn the chords to songs they last performed God knows when—like “Runaway.” They hope to bring back early gig staples like “Behind the Shadows,” which gradually slipped from their repertoire over the years.
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And realizing that a show isn’t always about exhaustiveness but coherence, they set aside songs they have already rehearsed.
So far, it’s proving to be tedious work, they admit, but also a lot of fun. “It’s exciting because you get to play around. You get forced to think of new ways to approach the songs to keep things fresh not only for our fans, but also for us,” drummer JB Leonor says.
“It’s exciting because you get to play around. You get forced to think of new ways to approach the songs to keep things fresh not only for our fans, but also for us”
A big family reunion
The songs the group has in store are sure to intrigue longtime fans come June 27 at The Theatre at Solaire—but who plays them becomes its own question. For a celebration of this scale, Pangan says it’s only par for the course that they invite past members and sessionists—everyone who helped The Dawn become the icon it is today—to jam with them onstage.
Guitarist Kenneth Ilagan, keyboardists Leni Llapitan and Dodo Fernandez, drummer Kurt Floresca, and bassists Carlos Balcells and Buddy Zabala will all be there. So will old crew members and managers, who will complete what Pangan calls a “big family reunion.”
“Their leaving was never about burning bridges,” he says. “There’s still that bond.”
Consistently active
But while that bond is a big part of their longevity, it’s still only part of the equation.
What makes The Dawn’s 40 years particularly impressive is that the music never stopped—at least not for any meaningful length of time. While there are bands whose journeys are marked by hiatuses, disbandments, or reunions, The Dawn stayed consistently active, with their shows never few and far between.
That’s not to say, though, that they never once considered calling it quits. That idea has crossed their minds—many times. When you do something for a long time, it inevitably becomes a question of sustainability—a euphemism, at times, for earnings.
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“It takes effort and time. And if music is the only priority, then you have to make some money, dude!” Pangan says. “There were moments when we looked at our cash flow, and it would have been enough for us to say, ‘Tama na. Let’s stop this and find something else to do.”
That might have been a reasonable course of action. But in those moments of uncertainty, passion kept them afloat. “Doon na-prove na you can push through challenges, simply because you enjoy playing with the band,” Pangan adds.
“Doon na-prove na you can push through challenges, simply because you enjoy playing with the band”
Spiritual presence
But there is one more reason The Dawn has never veered off course.
It has been 38 years since the passing of founding member and guitarist Teddy Diaz, but his “spiritual presence” continues to be a “motivating force” for the band.
“Teddy always pushed and strived for creativity and originality…He pushed everyone to compose music,” says Reyes, adding that the band has prepared tribute suites for Diaz, as well as for the late bassist Mon Legaspi.
“That ethos was his,” Reyes says, “and time will never change that”—even as they look forward to 40 and beyond.
Sanchez adds: “I would like to believe that Teddy was the band’s musical North Star.”
