Juan Karlos on new relationship: ‘My heart is full’

From Buwan to Ere, Juan Karlos “JK” Labajo did not expect that his tracks would make it big in the music scene. He is just an artist who makes songs, as he put it.

“Ever since I released Buwan, which was my hit song and actually my only hit song basically, parang I was like this one-hit wonder artist that people just knew because of that. But ever since then, I caught myself in this position of, ‘F**k, I need to make another hit song,’” mused JK in an interview during Rakuten Viber’s Backstage Pass event at Baked Studios, Makati held recently.

His experience made him realize that “it’s not that hard to make a hit song; the hardest part is making the second one.”

When JK churned out Buwan, he didn’t have any expectations. He recalled, “I was not trying to make a hit song. I was just making a song for my girlfriend at that time.”

He and former girlfriend, model-beauty queen Maureen Wroblewitz, made their relationship public in 2019. Maureen appeared in the music video of Buwan where the two played lovers.

“I remember this magical moment when that song before the whole thing, before siya naging second national anthem, I remember that moment when it was just me who knew about the song’s existence,” he said.

“And then, when I played it in front of my then-girlfriend, it was just the two of us in the whole world who heard that song — and that was it. That was the main goal. That was the main purpose of the song. It’s a bunch of words and melodies, putting my emotions into some sort of medium and that’s it.”

When JK recorded his newest album called Sad Songs and Bulls**t Part 1, he didn’t harbor any hopes for it to become a hit as well.

“And ever since, what, 2021, a lot of things have happened in life, especially the pandemic that affected everyone. But I just went back to the purpose as to why I make music in the first place. That was really it — making songs. That’s it! There’s no, ‘Ito gusto ko ‘to maging hit song. Ito gusto ko ‘tong ganyan, gusto ko maging ganito. Gusto kong ganito karami yung kikitain ng lahat dito sa song na ‘to.’”

Fast forward to today, his track Ere has become the most-streamed Filipino song on Spotify Philippines in one day, garnering over