“WE STARTED as best friends. It’s not work for us when we perform. It’s like us collaborating on what we love to do,” vocalist of Mojo Nova Joanne Lorvene Bernal said as she reflected on her time with her band group consisting of drummer and vocalist Timothy Gregory de la Rama, keyboardist Reovanny Lucenara, and guitarist Hans Christian Samson.
On a clear Sunday night, atop Stonehill Suites, Mojo Nova had a live performance. As the City of Bacolod lurked in the background, the band was blasting 90s R&B, hip hop, and jazz music to an audience. While the lights of the city twinkled behind, the voices and music of Mojo Nova added another element of life to the dark skies that cloaked the city.
The band had its roots from years back, when all of its members were still in school. “There’s this school club [in the University of St. La Salle] called USLS Musicat. We started playing there. We had a lot of projects in school. When some of us graduated, we still played as a band after. We became best friends and decided to form our own band,” Bernal said.
The band name, “Mojo Nova,” Bernal said, came from a combination of each of the member’s names.
From the band’s inception, around 2016, Mojo Nova embarked on a long journey towards their musical solidification in Negros and around the Philippines. They joined numerous contests, including the Ceres Jingle Music Contest and the Kalamayan Festival: VMC Battle of the Bands 2018, in which they won.
Furthermore, the group had a chance to front act for more famous musicians like Ben&Ben, Moira, and South Border. Through these experiences, the band found themselves deepening their love for music.
“We’re not really the hard competition types. When we got into contact with these big artists themselves, we got to love music even more,” Bernal said.
Asked about his favorite time with Mojo Nova, de la Rama replied that it was when they would travel to different places to perform.
“The funniest moment I’ve experienced was when we went to Cebu. We had an early morning flight. We all ate breakfast, while we were waiting for the guy to pick us up. What happened was that,” de la Rama said pointing to the three other members of the band, “they were asleep. I was the only lone survivor. So, I started taking pictures of them.”
Bernal added: “During our breaks, we really make fun of each other. We see Van as the eater of our group. He always eats a lot. Any time we have free buffets or free food, he would always finish our food.”
“Tim is our joker. Whenever we have jokes, he makes them even funnier by animating them with his actions.”
With all good times, just like most creative professions, comes the harder ones. Mojo Nova was no exception to this oscillating tide of creative life. The pressure of having to organize performances, sometimes impromptu due to high demand, and being organized burdened some members of the band, especially Bernal, who also served as the band’s manager.
“One time, we were late for a morning event, I cried in the car. I was smashing Tim’s car until the air bag almost came out. I was crying because of the pressure that we have,” Bernal said.
“Sometimes, it’s too much.”
However, the rougher times come with plenty room for growth, professionally and personally, for all the members of the band.
“Our work involves entertainment. At times when we are stressed, we have to give a smile to the crowd. At times when we are emotional, we have to think we are performing professionally. We have to separate the personal from the professional,” Bernal said.
“We each learn how to be a better person and a better musician, both personally professionally. That’s something we learn every day because we go through everything together,” Lucenara added.
Asked about what motivated the band to continue performing, Bernal said, “Our roots started in music. I’ve been singing my whole life. Van started as a church musician. Tim took up music production. Hans is a really amazing composer, artist, and songwriter.”
Samson, on the other hand, talked about his deep connection to music: “Music itself is a motivator. It’s a language that everyone can understand. It’s different when you know how to speak it,” he said.
“As musicians, I think it is our language and our right to express ourselves through music. So that people who don’t play music can understand music.”