This time, the main man behind the phenomenal Pinoy punk rock groups Yano and Pan, named his new band after himself.

"But I am not imitating Bamboo ha. Uso lang kasi," he quips, with his signature deadpan look before

Back for another crack at the music industry

For those who grew up, er, rather, begin and end their sentences with lots of "hal-lers" and "duh," Yano is the enfant terrible rock trio in the 1990s, which epitomized what alternative music was. Their massively embraced "Kumusta Na," "Senti," "Tsinelas," "Banal Na Aso, Santong Kabayo," "Trapo," and "Es-Em," among the many witty socio-politically-inclined hits had helped balance the status quo equally dominated by the teenybopper tongue-and-cheek ditties of the Eraserheads and the "angstified" hollow bone-marrow sound of "Wolfgang."

The pitfalls of fame and relentless cash flows, the pressure to stay at the top, the monster that was the music industry itself sent Dong to a major burnout. Yano folded up, luckily just in time when the boy-band era barged in.

Doing a self-exile in his own bedroom during the entire duration when actor Joseph Estrada was President – by sheer coincidence as he suffered major depression – Dong Abay re-emerged from his private hell with Pan sometime early 2002, releasing its debut album Parnaso Ng Payaso. In the songs "Dumpsite," "Huling Hiling," "Kahimanawari," and "Rebolusyon," the signature Dong Abay sarcastic social-realist touch was still there, albeit fresher in approach and more positive thematically. There are even the likes of "Gusto," a catchy masterpiece of a rock ballad perfectly tackling incompatibility between, uh, lovers. More so, Dong already has a supportive wife and a "mini-me" named Awit.

A year later, Pan was disbanded after a less-publicized disagreement with the record producer. Dong went back to UP Diliman, where Yano was born, to finish his long-overdue college degree.

"I was on my third year in 1994, fine arts, major in visual communication when I left UP to go full-time with Yano. I went back in 2003. I chose AB Philippine Studies, major in Creative Writing, minor in Art Studies. I was out of school for nine years and it was good to be back where everything started," he says in his fast-paced manner of speaking.

Conversely, his thesis initially titled "The Essential Dong Abay" before he finally settled for "Papel (Paper)" was focused on those tumultuous years when he was a full-time musician. The discourse centered on the ups-and-downs in the predatory Philippine music industry, tackling how too much commercialism can destroy the musicians themselves. In a rare solo exhibit-cum-performance at the UP Diliman early 2005, Dong the graduating college student displayed photocopies of documents, receipts, certificates, news and magazine articles, original posters and album covers, everything that was on paper related to his Yano and Pan years.

Teary-eyed before his classmates and newfound friends, most of them 10 years his junior, he confessed in Filipino, "I don’t need these (pointing to his paper exhibit) to be happy. Look what I had gone through. Look what it did to me. For those of you who want to form a band, be a solo singer or do anything related to getting into the mainstream music industry, think twice. Here I am. Still recuperating from the abuses. Learn from my experience. "

That time, talking to Dong would mean hearing lots of regrets – why his past and recent albums weren’t that well promoted, always taking a backseat from the more profitable Sex Bomb Dancers and other novelty acts. On another occasion, indignant, he blurted out, though alcohol-driven, why he – despite his dedication to his craft, the social relevance and maturity in his compositions – is still riding tricycles and jeepneys while Chito Miranda (of Parokya Ni Edgar) is reportedly buying brand new cars every month and has a showbiz lady for a girlfriend.

"But it’s not the commercial benefit of it all, or the rock-star lifestyle I am after. I was never after that rock-star lifestyle. Being chased by groupies. Sa United States lang uso yan. I did not grow up in a macho culture. I’m just after the respect, my due as musician, pare."

In between classes, Dong tried his hand doing installation art. His works made out of metal scraps and paper mache were exhibited in some lesser-known group shows held in alternative art galleries, mostly in Quezon City.

He had written poems in Filipino, more than enough to fit in a book. Even when there was Pan, he read those verses willingly in between songs, especially whenever guitarist Onie Badiang broke a string and took some time to replace it, or, after the band’s final set and members of the audience shouted for more.

Sans the music, Dong’s verses on their own can stir one’s emotion, though they’re far from being emotional. If he’s in the right mood, he will recite more than a dozen.

His fascination for poetry also brought him to compose music for the classic works of Filipino poets starting from those written by Francisco Balagtas, Jose Corazon de Jesus, Lope K. Santos to contemporary ones like "Liham ng Ama Sa Anak," by Jose "Pete" Lacaba. He had written more than 80 songs of this type.

Dong Abay the band has bass player Jing Gadi, drummer Allan Quimto, lead guitarist Mark Villena. All auditioned for the part.

In his latest gigs at Magnet Katipunan, one can see in him the contagious energy and enthusiasm of a bandleader who’s just starting for that ultimate dream in bagging a record deal.

Why he keeps on coming back despite countless declarations of throwing in the white towel is not a mystery. "It’s the only thing I know and what I love to do. It’s just but sad that gigs are not that regular. I might teach next semester at the UP about songwriting. I have a family to support now. Pero iba pa rin if I am performing live. Gusto ko nga every night. Bread and butter ko pa rin dapat is my music."

And many would agree that getting him for regular gigs or any worthwhile projects like, ahem, commercial endorsements, can also mean helping a gem in the Philippine music industry, whose luster will never fade as long as there are serious listeners out there.

For interested parties, the revitalized Dong Abay can be reached via farmeryano@yahoo.com or at 0921-5219411.