juan karlos is staying as authentic as possible and he aims to reflect that in his craft as a musician. The 23-year-old actor-singer sat down with the PEP.ph team to talk about almost everything about his thriving career in the Philippine entertainment industry.
One of the things that they tackled was people's reception to his song. "Madami akong nakitang opinions about a lot of people being against it. Kasi ngayon, yung mura, tapos yung mga bata na makakarinig, ganyan-ganyan," juan karlos illustrated to PEP.ph.
He was referring to one of his hit songs, "Ere." ICYDK, the song is known for its emotionally provoking lyrics, which actually include some profanities. ("Oh, 'di ba? Nakakap*t*ng ina / Tayo'y lumilipad, at ako'y iniwan mo," he croons.) He says it was side-eyed by some people because of those lines, and juan karlos couldn't help but ask, "But, at the same time, so what am I supposed to do? Just not stay true to what I was feeling during the time I made that song?"
After all, it's what he's determined to do in his career: just make music that resonates with him and the people listening to him. For him, it's the listener's responsibility on how to filter his songs. It's not something that he could actually control.
"I feel like it's the same thing with movies. That's why there's a whole thing about R-rated films. It's the listener's responsibility on who's going to listen to it. I guess people are expecting the creator to also control," juan karlos said. He reasoned, "I can focus on the making part and then siguro parents can focus on making sure [they guide their children when listening to the song]."
"Ere" was released in August of 2023 as part of juan karlos' album titled, Sad Songs and Bullshit Part 1.
juan karlos and his music career
Well, aside from trying his best to always be that artist who expresses his raw emotions through his songs, the singer is also out there trying to not mind people's expectations about him as a singer. He says he has long acknowledged the fact that there will always be expectations set out for him right after he released hit songs.
juan karlos described his career and song-releasing in stages, with the first one as the "hit or miss" part. "Kasi the first hit is kind of like a hit-or-miss situation. The second hit is when people already have expectations set up for you, and of what you're gonna put out next. It kind of continues so on and so forth," he stated.
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But juan karlos is making a case about the so-called process of "creating a hit song." For him, making songs is not about trying to make a hit—it's more of just releasing and putting something out there.
"It's never part of the cocktail na parang, ‘Wow, hit song!’ Wala. It's just I just wanna make it and then put it out and that's it. If it becomes a hit, then it's good. If it doesn't, then that's also good. My end goal is to put something out and then release something. So, that's a job done for me," juan karlos declared.