In fact, for a band that’s heavily influenced by the political rock of Rage, you wouldn’t imagine them looking quite preppy, dressed in the Abercrombie and Fitch kind of way. But, then again, the boys of Dicta License would rather let their music speak for itself. Plus, really now, flannel shirts are so ‘90s.

Just don’t tell them they’re political. Dicta License’s Boogie Romero, Kelley Mangahas, Pochoy Labog and Bryan Makasiar

"We’re not out to make music that’s been done before, that speaks of activism. With our own kind of music, we’d like to think we care and we have something to say. Even if all of us grew up in subdivisions, in the city," Pochoy says earnestly.

The shift in his songwriting is never more evident than in the band’s debut album titled Paghilom. While the title alone may evoke political and social undertones, the band readily tells me there is only one song in the album ("Demockracy") they consider political. Rather, they describe the rest of the songs as positive in tone, in tune with the album’s title itself (which means "healing" in Filipino).

According to the band, the album’s carrier single, "Ang Ating Araw," speaks (or, maybe, dreams) of national healing. Dicta License fancies itself apolitical, not taking any sides, preferring instead to spark social awareness and, consequently, let their audience decide. "It was a conscious decision for us to make songs in Filipino because we wanted to connect with our audience. For us, it was more fitting to write in our native language because we want to understand what we are saying ourselves," says bassist Kelley Mangahas.

It may have taken the band past their high school and college years to realize that even with the kind of music they play, there is nothing more powerful than playing a song in your own language. But such dawning serves well for their first, real Dicta License album, with song titles like "Daloy ng Kamalayan" and "Alay Sa Mga Nagkamalay Noong Dekada Nobenta."

Dicta License traces its roots in the previous decade, alright. The trio of Kelley, guitarist Boogie Romero and drummer Bryan Makasiar were once part of a youth group in church during high school and have been playing together since. (Kelley and Boogie, being full-time musicians, do double duty as part of Kjwan while Bryan plays for a side project called Black Rims). Pochoy was then singing for his own band Reaction 105 while still a freshman in Ateneo and although two years younger, he can sing and rap to the kind of music the other three wanted to pursue.

And so after jamming to Rage Against The Machine’s "Bombtrack," they went on to form Dicta License. Rage has since disbanded a few years ago (actually replaced by fashionably-named Audioslave with erstwhile Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell singing but nonetheless still scowling) while Dicta License is slowly coming into its own. Like his more senior cohorts, Pochoy himself is trying to expand the kind of music he listens to these days, tuning in hip-hop artists like Kanye West and Common.

"We try to open our ears to different kinds of music, not just rock," he says. And maybe put a lot more soul into their songs.