Does anyone
still know Westdon Martin Abay? Also known as Dong Abay, a poet
and Filipino rock artists who were born on April 5, 1971 in Manila, Philippines
and married to Ninj Botor Reyes and have a son name from his passion, Awit Abay.
He was the lead vocalist of Yano, Pan, and now he became a solo artist,
During
1992 Dong Abay, Eric Gancio and Larry played on Patatag, on 1993 the three of
them decided to form a band called NG with Renmi Nadela the drummer, but
Mapolon left the band and they recruited Onie Badiang to play as bassist. They
change the band’s name to Yano, on June 1993 they recorded their demo at the
house of Joey Ayala an alternative artist. Their band started playing on clubs
such as Mayrics, Club Dredd, and 70s Bistro after their song “Kamusta Na?”
aired on a local radio on 1993. Yano is a tagalog word for simple. The band
disbanded when Abay left the band on 1997, but Gancio revived Yano as a one man
band, he continued to use sidemen as back up musicians on live performance.
After
leaving Yano, Dong Abay goes through a 5 year phase of clinical depressions. On
2002 Dong Abay returned to the music industry and formed Pan with Badiang. Pan
was a duo mix with electric sounds, they offered their debut album “Parnaso ng
Payaso”. The band name was from the enchanting mythical creature Pan. A Half-man
Half-goat, the Greek god was believed to dwell on forest and playing flute. In 2003
Abay decided to finish his bachelor’s degree at UP where he took BAPS (Bachelor
of Arts in Philippine Studies).
On
2005 Dong Abay became an indie artist and he had finished his university degree
of BAPS, he released an EP called “Sampol” at UP as his thesis, eventually
reborn as full band pieces in “Filipino” Released on 2006, the album was
produced by Abay’s Art Studies professor Robin Rivera, he is also the producer
of the Eraserheads and eventually hired ex-Eraserheads Raimund Marasigan and
Buddy Zabala to play on the album, this album proved Abay’s importance to
Philippine music by releasing songs such as “Perpekto”, “Tuyo”, and “Bombardment”.
On
2014 Abay formed a new band from the time he released his last solo, until now
Abay’s dedication on writing new songs and now working on some compositions that
will be released this year. He is currently performing with Kakoy Legazpi,
Simon Tan, and Abe Billano, their band is called D.A.M.O. (Dong Abay Music
Organization)
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