"They have a different business approach. We talked about the future and about other things I could do," he explained.
Coming from the tutelage of dance choreographer turned producer and talent manager Geeleen Eugenio, Jay-R however expressed that he never regretted being managed by his former manager.
"I have no regrets being handled by her. I mean I have to start somewhere. She brought me here and she was the reason I was able to start a career here. I learned a great deal about showbiz from her," Jay-R said.
Changing management was a big risk he took and he never anticipated nor expected that he would also have a successful career so soon under a new manager. The singer, aside from his regular Sunday noontime concert variety show "SOP" on GMA-7, has been swamped with concerts, movies and product endorsements. His second movie, "Hari ng Sablay" was shown last week of November only but now he is also now promoting his third film, Bong Revilla’s starrer, "Exodus: Tales from the Enchanted Kingdom," which is an official entry to the 2005 Metro Manila Film Festival. He also recently launched his self-titled album under Universal Records.
"I’m happy with all the blessings coming my way,"said the Prince of R&B with a big smile.
In "Exodus," JayR plays Haring Bagulbol, an evil and powerful character. A "kontrabida," he plays a pivotal role as the killer of Exodus’ father which is played by Ramon Revilla Sr. in one of his rare movie appearances these days.
"When I was offered the role, I didn’t think twice. Narinig ko lang ‘yung cast and concept ng movie plus when I saw the costumes, I said yes at once. It was a pleasure to do the movie. They really spent a lot of money on this movie and you can see that they really worked hard to make this a very good movie to watch on Christmas day. Ang ganda ng pagkagawa ng mga costumes namin lalo na ng kay Benjie Paras," he said.
Haring Bagulbol has under his wing – the Fire Elemental and the Earth Elemental played by BJ "Tolits" Forbes and Benjie Paras respectively.
"Exodus" wasn’t an easy movie to make though. It was more than physically taxing than his live concerts as he was required to have fight scenes on his heavy costumes. He had to meet the demands of the films Hong Kong fight choreographers and this spelled lots of training for the singer.
"Grabe ang fight scenes. Minsan ang isang fight scene isang araw ang shooting. Maraming sipaan and liparan dito sa movie which I know moviegoers of all ages will enjoy," he shared. Ít was also hard to memorize my lines kasi malalalim na Tagalog. But it’s a good part kahit konting part lang sa movie."
With "So Happy Together"and "Hari ng Sablay" to his credit, he admitted that he’d rather do comedy than drama or action. He believes that he could not act well in dramatic scenes.
"Ubos na ang eye drop ko pero hindi pa rin ako makaiyak. I’ve been in teleseryes and I really have a hard time crying. I enjoy doing comedy films more," he sighed.
As to the negative press he’s gotten recently, Jay-R tried to clear his name by saying that he was never the cause of delay of their filming. According to him, he finished all his shooting on the required time.
With his self-titled album newly released, Jay-R’s schedule is tighter than ever with movie promotions and album mall tours all happening before the year ends. This though is not a problem for Jay-R since he enjoys what he does. He is very pleased with his new album that nearly took two years to make and he plans to promote it well.
"It is an R&B album and it contains songs from our personal experiences. Then we got Vehnee Saturno na naman for the Tagalog songs. We tried to collaborate on traditional Tagalog songs and R&B," he described.
He worked again with Saturno because of his expertise with Tagalog or OPM ballads. For Jay-R, Vehnee knows the right flavor for a love song which Filipinos love. On his part, he collaborated with Jay Durias of South Border to give the Tagalog songs an R&B arrangement.
"Out of 50 songs, we chose 15. Then they added three more songs from the TV commercials I made. It took long because I had to go back and forth to the US. I again worked with Ray Brown of Nu Life Entertainment."
He added, "When we wrote about our experiences, we didn’t have a hard time because we went all out. It was a no-holds-barred and everything came out beautifully!"
His carrier single from his new album is a remake of Billy Joel’s "Just The Way You Are." And its music video shot in the States is considered to be Jay-R’s steamiest music video ever!
"I chose to remake ‘Just the Way You Are’ because gusto ko po yung sinasabi niya. ‘Yung concept. Kasi ako, I promote myself as being real and telling people to stay real, stay cool or just stay the way you are," opined Jay–R.
The songs in his album are "Sexy Girl," "I Got The Key," "Hey Ma," "3 A.M.." "I’d Rather," "Everything," "How Many Times," "Tonight," "Goodbye," "Ngayony Narito," "Paalam" and "Di Ko Sadya." His albums bonus tracks are "Sun Cellular Seasons," "Tropicana Fill The Thirst" and "Colgate You Make Me Smile."
So is he nervous about his new album?
"Siyempre I’m scared po. I don’t expect anything siyempre. I just want to do the music that I like pero siyempre sana it becomes multi-platinum..."
Is there a song closest to his heart from the album?
"Lahat po but the closest song to my heart is not included in the album. It’s called ‘Arirang’ or ‘Buntong Hininga’ and it is about how I met my girlfriend before I entered showbiz. She has always been real!"
Jay-R’s wish for 2006 is to bring his album to the States and hoping it would become as successful as it would be in the Philippines!
