Listen to Mani Kontador’s first EP

Mani Kontador is a quirky punk band residing in Laguna.

Junee Abe (Guitar/Vocals), Rafael Gerardo (Bass/Vocals) and Ralph Rapiz (Drums) started performing as a band in May 2019. The band’s sarcastic sense of humor, not just on the lyrics of their songs, but also on stage keeps the crowd engaged during their electrifying and entertaining performance.

The punk trio were constantly invited to different bars within their area. They were also able to open for known acts such as Brace Yourselves, Piledriver, Bita and the Botflies, Dong Abay, and New Zealand’s Pale Lady, and Blu Fish. They got featured on the facebook pages of some of Laguna’s applauded event organizers like Musika Laguna, and Indie Laguna. But this is not to say that they cannot appear in articles outside Laguna. The band came under the spotlights of BusinessMirror, Rakista Radio, u Do u, Indie Manila, anti pop punk pop punk club, and Finite Fam. EP reviews from bloggers such as Mak N. Remington, and Mikoy Fernandez emerged too.

As the band releases their first ever EP entitled “Nakain ng Social Media” last April 1, 2021, and songs being able to enter the regular playlists of radio stations like Jam88.3, RADYO KNTTN, Madhouse Music, and Duro Cabeza de Cavite, their fanbase continue to grow. The trio continue to show their eagerness to become one of the country’s “must watch” acts. These three dudes might look hilarious on and off the stage, but they assure everyone that their materials will be done seriously, and passionately.

‘Nakain ng Social Media’ talks about how they see social media. They portrayed it as a drug, and showed how it might affect our mental health. The EP opener, ‘Sayn Ap’, contains different voices that mumble and ask you to sign up. Followed by the song ‘Peymus’. The one talking on this song is the social media itself, offering you thousands of followers in exchange for your privacy. The third track, ‘Aprub’, tells the story of a person who’s doing everything for the sake of ‘likes’, treating it as a reward. ‘Mensahero’, was their entry to a songwriting competition conducted in their province — Laguna. Of course, the song didn’t make it. Haha. But they know there’s a space for this song in this EP so they included it. The song ‘Sheyr’ was placed second last. This song will act as a savior after you listen to the first four tracks. If you realized that there’s something wrong with your mental health, they want this song to give you hope. The final track is ‘Selpi’, they imagined it as a tourism ad. But in contrast to its title, the song is not filtered. They want to show everyone not just the town’s beauty, but also its flaws.

The title of the EP is ‘Nakain ng Social Media’. At first glance, it seems that they wanted to say ‘Kinain ng Social Media’. But the word ‘nakain’ is very significant to the three of us since they were born and raised in Laguna where we say ‘nakain’ instead of ‘kumakain’, ‘natakbo’ instead of ‘tumatakbo’, ‘naulan’ instead of ‘umuulan’. They hope that after listening to the EP, the listeners will change how they see social media. We should be the ones ‘na kumakain sa social media’ and not the ones ‘na kinakain ng social media’.