We recently connected with Mak Ro and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Mak Ro thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Kris: In 2021, I ended up leaving a corporate job I’ve had for four years to fully dedicate my time to creating. I remember calling Eric one morning bawling my eyes out telling him I just turned in my two weeks. I think I was crying partially tears of panic/fear but also tears of joy. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done because I’ve committed so much of my time to that company and I’ve always seen myself climbing that corporate ladder but at some point, my heart was just no longer in it and so I decided to follow what brings me joy in life and fully commit to being an artist.

As scary as it was at the time, looking back now, I feel like it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made because this past year, we’ve gotten to work day in and day out from our home studio and have made so much great music. Outside of that, I’ve also been spending a lot of time being introspective and working on myself. I learned that to be creative, I had to organize a lot of what I was going through internally, so that I’d be able to communicate my feelings into art forms more clearly and more authentically.

Actually, one of the songs we released this year titled, “Diary,” is a time capsule of all the things I was going through during that turbulent time. But yeah, overall we’ve gotten to make so many songs this past year which we’re excited to share soon. But also I think what I’m most proud of was my ability to take the time to heal and work on my mental health and really figuring out how to love every phase of myself throughout the years (both the good and the bad) and most importantly becoming more excited about the life I’m living.

Eric: In 2016 when I first moved from Memphis to Boston for college, I was unsure if my path would be in the medical field or music. My entire family and lineage are all doctors, so I always felt like that would be my path even though I loved music. After my freshman year at Boston College, I ended up transferring mostly because my gut feeling was telling me that the environment and opportunities for music were just not right for me.

When I started my sophomore year at Northeastern University in 2017, I was still studying medicine and music. In 2018, still unsure of my path, I worked at a veterinary hospital as an assistant veterinary technician for 6 months during my 3rd year. That job was such a rewarding and tough experience because it made me realize that I did not like working in medicine. This was the most pivotal moment for me in terms of committing to either music or medicine, and I remember when I finished working there my Mom asked me how I liked it. I was honest and told her that I don’t think I was meant to be a doctor. Telling both of your parents who are both doctors that you don’t want to be a doctor was a fear that I had put into my head for a long time. Thankfully, they were accepting of my decision and even supportive of me changing my path. I remember crying in the stairs of my Boston apartment because I was calling my Mom telling her that I promise I wouldn’t be a failure in music. I honestly was scared. I’ve always heard those stereotypes of making music as a career: there’s no money, it’s risky, it’s stupid, and there’s no stability. Getting over that mental block was so hard for me at first, but I loved music so much that I promised myself I wouldn’t fail.

Since then, I went 100% into music. It was the spark I needed to just completely jump. I just want to make music for the rest of my life. It’s what I feel like I was born to do, and I’m so grateful to have that support from the people close to me.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Kris: Eric and I are real life cousins! Our families have been super tight growing up and we just naturally have been pretty good friends since we were little. We each had our own music thing going on for a while though – we had very different tastes in music so we never imagined we’d ever actually start a project together. Then one day, we were jamming at his parent’s house and out came a song ! The funny thing is we weren’t even trying. But that’s how our song “Elevator” from our freshman EP titled, Topanga, came to be! Since then we ended up writing more music together and at one point we decided we’d commit to a duo project and lo and behold: Mak Ro was born!

Also, our name is Mak Ro based on our last names, Makapugay and Ruaro. People usually have a hard time saying our Filipino last names so to make it easier, we made our artist name the easiest parts of our last names to say, combined.

For a while we were writing music while I was living in Nashville and Eric was in Boston and we’d just meet up at each other’s cities when we wanted to track stuff and put things we worked on separately together. But since 2021, we ended up both moving back to Memphis and now we live together and create on a daily basis.

And as stressful and exhausting it is to be independent artists – because we have to wear every hat possible – it’s been a blast getting to build this project from the ground up with my best friend! We’re actually complete opposites but I think that’s why we work so well together. We feel like our music gets to be so unique because of the way our contrasting traits compliment each other especially when we’re creating and I feel like that’s what sets us apart from other artists. In fact most times I’m not even really sure what genre we are – we just always have a goal to make music we enjoy and means something to us.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Kris: Anytime we finish a project – that’s always so rewarding. I feel like most people aren’t aware of the process of releasing music, and how much work it actually takes. With every project we’ve put out so far, we’ve produced, written, directed the mixing and mastering processes, produced visuals, created release strategies and have done PR and marketing plans all by ourselves. We joke around all the time how we’re signed to a label except it’s us – we are the label. But to be able to execute a project from beginning to the end – all with our own tastes and preferences – is the best part of it all. It’s full artistic liberation! And at the end of the day, we might not be technically doing any of this right, but we strive to create things that we love and once we love something, it’s already a success regardless of streaming numbers and whatever other external validation most people are used to associating with success.

Eric: Being able to create art that matches our vision is the best feeling. It feels amazing when I look back at the songs, artwork, and projects we’ve worked on and see the whole process come together from beginning to end. It’s a lot of work, but it doesn’t feel like work at all. We’re just having fun creating and working hard to see it come to fruition! Art is so interesting because it’s a different process each time, and creating something outside of my comfort zone makes me so proud of our work.

Is there a mission driving your creative journey?

Kris: The goal is to always create works we truly love. It’s so simple yet it works like magic. Also the best part about it all is being able to connect with people deeply and honestly. It makes me feel way less alone in the world when people listen to our music and are like “yeah – I’ve been through that too.”

Eric: Just creating things that we love. Making art without any rules is why I love making music. A lot of times people will tell you what they believe is the right way to do something, but from my perspective it’s just about doing what you like!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.makromusicofficial.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/makromusicofficial
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/makromusicofficial
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/musicbymakro
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/c/makromusicofficial
• Other: www.soundcloud.com/makromusicofficial

Image Credits
Kristoffer Ruaro