Master Jay Javier Apungan and those days of future passed and what lies ahead…
When I was first introduced to him, I thought that I was either meeting the younger brother of famous R’nB singer Chaka Khan or was meeting the great Chaka Khan herself.
This person’s head was a shock of hair not unlike that on one of those troll dolls. What really won me over was his smile- open, genuine and always full of happiness.
Blaine Whittaker, an Australian saxophonist who had been playing and blowing throughout pretty much every venue in Hong Kong for what’s now been decades, was the person who introduced me to this singer-guitarist from the Philippines who was living in Discovery Bay and performing in different venues in Hong Kong.
I might have heard of him somewhere, because those were the days when Hong Kong was just so full of good ‘live’ music at venues like Dusk Till Dawn, Spicy Fingers, Insomnia and Amazonia- but I never frequented any of them.
I was happily married to my first real love and our favourite night out was staying home and watching television while enjoying the tacos and Sloppy Joes she made.
We lived a life not unlike what Graham Nash wrote about in “Our House” and his relationship with Joni Mitchell including the couple having a cat. We had our Kitty.
As for Jay, I was first introduced to him when having created the Happy Wednesday brand for the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
My marriage had unfortunately run its course and I was building a band around Ben Semmens, a brilliant singer-guitarist from Wales whose girlfriend at the time was handling social media for my company.
This was a really very very good band and Ben was an outstanding talent with one of the best voices I had heard ANYWHERE and which really could not be placed.
Ben was in a league all of his own, and he and I were already writing our own songs along with those “horsey” ditties we wrote for the HKJC. I had other ideas beyond Hong Kong and writing for horse racing clubs.
By the time Jay came onboard, it was about augmenting the band sound. Ben didn’t have a Rock voice and didn’t know the current hits that those coming to the Beer Garden and Adrenaline wanted to hear. This is where Jay came in.
The first night I heard Jay sing was when he covered something or another by Sting and then solo on guitar. It was obvious that the missing link we needed had been found and that we now had a very special band.
Ben’s six months in Hong Kong and performing every Wednesday at Happy Valley racecourse turned into three years, and when it was time for him to return to Wales, singer Jennifer Palor stepped in, and Adrenaline and the Beer Garden morphed into something else altogether.
What we had was a very tight recording band, and a musical ball of spitfire that produced a couple of sessions at Schtung studios and which I was happy to finance.
Jennifer could sing anything, and I needed her to sing something that was HER- and which we did.
Jay was a vital part of what became those unforgettable Adrenaline nights and which can never be replaced.
We were music people who respected each other and I was a very good international A&R music industry person who wanted Adrenaline to succeed on my terms and for my portfolio.
If I could help those along the way, why the hell not?
I was looking at returning to Universal Music, who had acquired EMI, and work with international artists like Michael McDonald, and also continue with what I had started with my great friend Morton by reworking tracks from John and Yoko, Robbie Williams, Bowie, Placebo, Gorillaz and others.
Jay, meanwhile, was performing with the resident band at the Hard Rock Cafe where he had his own following. He was born to play there and be the guitar god.
Through the various changes that we were and have all gone through, he and I have remained friends and have never been afraid to be anything else other than ourselves.
Take it or leave it and shut the door on the way out.
Around this time, I was with Kristine, a truly original Danish girl who re-introduced me to myself and Sri Lanka and also made me see a Hong Kong I never knew existed before.
She forced me out of my comfort zone and see who she was and where she was from and the food and culture and lifestyle and bands from Denmark including the brilliant Nephew.
With their brand of industrial rock that kinda reminded me of Depeche Mode, Nephew made me realise just how much good music and inhaling good new air I was missing out on by by being in a Hong Kong that I no longer recognised.
Though writing more and more originals, I was never really happy with most of these and those with who I was collaborating. It was just not where I wanted to be or go…
It’s now 2026, the world has gone through a massive paradigm shift, music has become a streaming service and been terribly devalued whereas we’re older now, we’re very different people with very different priorities and looking at next steps.
Jay and I are very good friends, and apart from me working on my Garden of Hope and Inspiration and Muzi project and looking at greener pastures while never interested in repeating old ideas, there’s always the plan to give Hong Kong its own musical identity.
Me coming up with the term “Canto Pop” is just something on Wikipedia and could have been called Hu Flung Dung for all I care.
The Hope/Muzi project is something that I have started to build and believe in and have my Filipino musician friend in mind to be part of the inspirational thread to what I am doing.
This is where the storyteller in me is seeing how much of the world we are in today needs positivity, and the importance in keeping things moving and being positive.
And, as the song says, that’s all he wrote- at least for the time being.
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