For someone whose debut album is called KOLORCOASTER, Maki has a confession to make: he is not exactly a rollercoaster person.
During his time in Singapore, the Filipino singer-songwriter made a trip to Universal Studios Singapore, but thrill rides are hardly his idea of fun. Back home, however, he willingly got on the rides at Star City for the launch of KOLORCOASTER — mostly because his fans were right there with him.
“I’m not really scared at Star City because I’m with them,” he told Bandwagon.
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That relationship with his listeners has carried Maki through a much bigger ride over the last few years. From the viral success of 'Saan?' and the phenomenon that became 'Dilaw', to the colourful world of KOLORCOASTER, Maki has gone from wondering whether music was even meant for him to taking that music beyond the Philippines.
This past June, he brought KOLORCOASTER – The Concert to The Theatre at Mediacorp, presented by Tarsier Records, ABS-CBN Music, and ABS-CBN Global in partnership with concert promoter Flabbergast Productions. The Singapore stop formed part of the album's growing journey outside the Philippines.
And while Singapore left an impression — “very, very clean,” busy, and, importantly, home to laksa — playing outside his home country also comes with a different kind of weight.
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For Maki, taking KOLORCOASTER abroad is not just about introducing himself to new audiences. It is about making sure those audiences know where the music came from.
Painting OPM in red, yellow, and blue
Colour has become inseparable from Maki's work.
There is 'Dilaw'. 'Namumula'. 'Bughaw'. 'kahel na langit'. Then there is KOLORCOASTER itself, an album that turns colour into an emotional vocabulary.
Asked how he would describe the Philippines and OPM to a Singaporean using colours alone, Maki returned to the first three colours with which he built this world: yellow, red, and blue.
The choice was intentional.
“It's like the colour of the Philippines and the Philippine flag,” he explained. “I think these three songs can justify how Filipinos really celebrate and cry together.”
More importantly, they remind him that his identity as an artist is tied to something larger than himself.
“I’m not just an artist. I’m an OPM artist,” he said. “I would like not just all the Singaporeans, but also the rest of the world, to know where I came from and what my roots are, my culture.”
It is a sentiment that extends beyond the music.
For the music video for 'habangbuhay pansamantala', Maki personally sought out Filipino visual artists, choosing to showcase human-made work at a time when generative AI is increasingly entering creative spaces.
For Maki — who also considers himself a visual artist and grew up loving anime — the decision is personal.
“There’s nothing like a human-made thing,” he said. “Nothing will amount to what humans can do.”
He is particularly concerned about Filipino artists who, despite having the ability to create world-class work, may not always be given the platforms to do so.
“The more that we support AI, the more these people lose their careers,” he said, adding that the Philippines has artists capable of producing ambitious visual work but often without the opportunities needed to reach wider audiences.
Now that Maki has a platform of his own, he wants to use it.
“I have the voice, and I have the power to showcase Filipino local talent in the scene of arts and design,” he shared.
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One name he wants more people to know is Rwiizo, the artist behind many of Maki's logos, stickers, and other visual elements.
It makes the world of KOLORCOASTER feel less like branding for a pop album and more like a growing creative ecosystem — one where songs, colours, illustration, live performance, and Filipino identity continuously feed into one another.
What comes after a billion?
That world has reached a scale Maki once could barely imagine.
Ahead of his Southeast Asian shows, the singer-songwriter surpassed 1 billion all-time streams on Spotify — a number so surreal that even he could only joke about it.
“Maybe I’m a billionaire,” he laughed. “On Spotify! Not in my money. I wish.”
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When it comes to the artists occupying his own streaming history, however, one name rises above the rest: NIKI.
Alongside Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, The Carpenters, and Michael Bublé, the Indonesian singer-songwriter is among Maki's most-played artists.
“I think NIKI is the most,” he said. “I like heartbroken songs, so I like to cry with her. Thank you, NIKI. Thank you for crying with me.”
It is an appropriately Maki answer. Beneath the vivid colours and playful humour, his music has always made room for uncertainty, longing, heartbreak, and the messier shades in between.
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Failure is part of the ride
Perhaps that is also why success has not made Maki particularly interested in pretending everything that came before it was easy.
Given the choice between never writing another bad song or creating one masterpiece before never writing again, he gravitated towards the former — before reconsidering the premise entirely.
He does not want failure removed from the process.
“I feel like I can write a lot of bad songs because I’ve been there,” Maki said. “I wrote so many bad songs for me to get to a good song.”
For him, those failures became a kind of education.
“A lot of my experiences in music came to failure first,” he explained. “That became my staircase to the success that I have right now.”
It is a striking perspective from an artist who once considered giving music up altogether.
Maki described his younger self as someone with “very low self-esteem”, growing up in an environment where he did not always feel able to express himself fully.
What would the Maki playing international shows today tell that younger version?
“Just do what your heart tells you.”
Then came a line he also shares with his fans.
“Our dreams are not written in the stars — it’s written in our hearts.”
That instinct has taken him from seeking comfort in familiar places to finding new ones.
The University of the Philippines has long been both a happy and sad place for Maki — somewhere to celebrate, but also somewhere to retreat when life becomes heavy. Asked whether travelling had given him another place that felt the same way, he did not name somewhere overseas.
He chose Baguio.
It was there that he filmed a performance of 'Saan?' at The Cozy Cove, a video he remembers spreading across TikTok and Facebook as the song began finding its audience.
“A lot of my achievements were in Baguio,” he said.
It remains somewhere he would gladly make the long journey to when he needs quiet.
“It’s a very peaceful place,” Maki added. “And it’s not hot, it’s cold.”
Even as his own map expands, home — in all its colours — continues to pull him back.
And perhaps that is what makes Maki's international chapter interesting. The goal does not appear to be leaving the Philippines behind as the stages get bigger. It is bringing more of it with him: OPM, Filipino visual artists, his memories, his failures, and the places that made him.
The KOLORCOASTER may be travelling further now, but Maki still knows exactly where the ride began.
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