Francis Reyes

Early years

Reyes was born and raised in Lipa City, the second child of Florante Luz Reyes, a photographer, and Teresita Marquinez Saludo, a housewife. His youth was not particularly musical and his on-stage experiences were focused on oratorical contests which he regularly won. He started playing guitar at 14, helped by his elder brother Ferdinand who was a "natural" guitarist. The Reyeses were not rich, and his first proper guitar was a fake Gibson acoustic worth Php150.00 that his mother promised as a gift if he won a declamation contest during his junior high school year in De La Salle Lipa.

Although supported by his mother, Francis' choice to pursue music or fine arts in university was not encouraged by the family so he majored in Political Science and minored in Literature at De La Salle University. Nevertheless, he continued to study music on his own, bringing an old Telecaster copy–a gift from an uncle in Canada–to school and practicing behind the university library. He formed a few bands with friends and played at school events. The school's prohibitive tuition fees plus the delicate financial status of his family at the time took their toll and he went looking for writing jobs to supplement his income. In 1987 he auditioned for an FM radio station and became a graveyard shift trainee but was eventually able to join NU107.

NU107

At around the same time he joined NU107, he became a member of Afterimage, which was then managed by Martin Galan, who also managed The Dawn. When Francis joined The Dawn, he was juggling school, NU107, and the band. When the schedule of The Dawn began to fill up, he became somewhat negligent with the radio station and was let go amicably in 1992. He returned in 1997 to host the show "In the Raw", and has been with the station since then. He eventually was appointed its chief announcer and musical director until NU107 went its final broadcast on November 7, 2010.

The Dawn

Reyes met The Dawn during his tenure with Afterimage, although he had already known Jett Pangan in university during interpretative reading contests which Pangan regularly won. He became friendly with the group's guitarist/founder Teddy Diaz and they even spoke of forming a thrash metal side project with drummer JB Leonor's brother Dennis. Unfortunately, Teddy was murdered mere days after their talk. Reyes was then asked to be one of the three guitarists who were to play Teddy's parts in the tribute concert "Salamat Teddy" at the Folk Arts Theater in September 1988.

Reyes returned to Afterimage during Atsushi Matsuura's tenure with The Dawn and also became one of band's roadies. In November 1989, he was asked to replace Matsuura.

Reyes recorded three albums and played with The Dawn until January 1995 when the band decided to go on hiatus. Between then and until the band reformed, he became a session guitarist for Lou Bonnevie, Kulay, P.O.T., and Joey Ayala. He credits his experience with The Dawn and their eclectic music for being able to play in different genres comfortably.

The Dawn reformed with Atsushi Matsuura in 1999, thus expanding the line-up to a five-piece. When Matsuura parted ways with the band in 2004, Reyes became the sole guitarist.

On April 16, 2009, Francis left the band after what Jett Pangan called a "hard meeting". Pangan went on to state though that Francis is welcome to rejoin the band.

Francis, along with bassist Carlos Balcells returned to the band on June 7, 2016, thus the band became a quintet once again.

Solo work and current projects

Reyes is also currently a contractual music arranger for the Roadrunner Network. He recently contributed a piece for the compilation album Mga Gitarista under 12Stone Records. Although constantly encouraged by peers to create a guitar-oriented solo album, Reyes is not interested, preferring to focus his energies on The Dawn.

He formed the improvisation-oriented trio Garlic with Razorback bassist Louie Talan and Imago drummer Zach Lucero (also an NU107 alumnus) in 1998. Although the group garnered some critical accolades, they have yet to record an album.

He was part of Helenovela with former Orange and Lemons frontman Mcoy Fundales, now with KENYO and PESO Movement with Japs Sergio (Ex-Rivermaya), drummer Kurt Floresca and former Jet Pangan Group Bassist Macky Macaventa who is now with True Faith.

Reyes was also a part of the supergroup Project 1.

Billboard Philippines

In 2016, Reyes became the editor-in-chief of Billboard Philippines, a brand dedicated to music news, charts and other related services.

Musical influences

Reyes credits Ritchie Blackmore's solo on the intro to Deep Purple's Speed King as the moment when he decided he wanted to be a guitarist, although he was an obsessive Queen/Brian May fan as well. His early heroes included Eddie Van Halen and Gary Moore, and actually put electrical tape on his Telecaster copy à la Van Halen. His current influences are Pat Metheny, Eric Johnson, Robert Fripp, Allan Holdsworth, David Torn, Adrian Belew, Matthew Bellamy, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Nels Cline, and Jimi Hendrix.

Electric guitars

Reyes used to be an endorser for Hamer Guitars. He used the Hamer Standard XT and Vector XT models.

His other guitars used to include a Squier Standard Telecaster, a Gretsch 5235T Pro Jet, a Dame Mind 505, and a pre-lawsuit Yamaha Lord Player which he all sold. Now he mainly uses guitars from Lyric Music Stores which he is also part of. He has been playing Tokai Guitars.

He also still has the Casio PG380 guitar synthesizer used during his first two years with The Dawn.

Amplifiers

Effects pedals

Keyboards

Other equipment

Reyes also has a Vietnamese dan tranh, a Xaphoon pocket sax, and assorted small instruments such as a kalimba and tin whistle, all subtly used in The Dawn's recordings.

Discography