Coffee With Max Javelino

It was Monday in one of the less busy cafes along Katipunan—college town. There was the usual clamor of slow weekday service— the waiting staff calling out orders, silverware clinking into china as diners slice into their all-day breakfasts, the casual click-clacking of the omnipresent MacBooks. In the tepid rhythm of grinding coffee beans and steaming milk, sits Max Javelino.

- Robby Vaflor

“Can I get the French toast brulee? The one with banana? That’s it. Thank you,” she says as she hands over the clipboard menu to the waiter. She seats herself in the corner, waiting patiently for her first meal of the day which was taking a while. For a second, she stares out the window and back to the habitual pantomime of the café.

“Do you know SGD Bodega? So I went there last Friday, and I was just thinking, hey, curiously, maybe I could do a barista job,” she says, “That’s the dream—be a barista in the day and then at night do gigs.”

She graduated late last year and is fresh from the release of her EP, Backyard, last May 24 at Route 196, just a mile away from where we were sitting. She has since garnered a sizeable following in the local scene, playing in popular spots around the metro and even guesting on a well-regarded radio station. Music is pretty much what occupies her time at the moment; that and finding a day job.

“I haven’t been doing anything. I feel like I haven’t been doing anything, like, productive even. My parents are pressuring me to get a job; my mom wants me to find someone to date,” she laughs.

Low rising

It wasn’t a smooth road for Max’s career. Through several moniker changes and bouts of self assessment, she came out with the firm belief that music will always be a part of her.