Pop-rock misfits Tanya Markova have been blurring the line between satire and sincerity for 15 years now, long before the internet made it fashionable to hide behind layers of irony.
What began as a chaotic college experiment quickly turned into a full-blown movement, or at least a stubbornly resilient anomaly. Clown paint, fake names, and jagged synth lines aside, frontman Iwa Motors has been in this long enough to know that weirdness isn’t a gimmick. For him and the rest of the band — Robot Jaworski, Skrovak, Levy Poe, Rez Curtis, and Isabel Ole — Tanya Markova has always been a different kind of lens. A way to drag society’s quirks into the spotlight, only to laugh right back at it with a broken smile and a power chord.
They called it “Original Payaso Music” before we had a name for it. Before alt accounts, burner profiles, or masked avatars were the norm. These weren’t aliases meant to hide, they were tools for confrontation, characters built to reflect the absurdity of the everyday. Think white foundation and smeared eyeliner meeting theatrical chaos and an almost uncomfortable confidence. They’ve always stood a few steps outside the mainstream; not because they were kicked out, but because they never asked to be let in. 15 years later, their self-titled debut album, released under MCA Music at the time, remains a warped achievement in pop songwriting and ambition in the OPM landscape.
15 Years After Their Debut Album
It’s not just the look, either. There’s something deliberate in the mess of their debut album – synths poking through the noise like jabs to the ribcage in “Disney,” shrieking vocals folded between pounding percussion in “Riot sa LRT,” and warped melodies that barely hold still in tracks like “Linda Blair,” “P.A. Roadie Fernandez,” and their most famous single to date, “Picture Picture.”
Their shows feel less like concerts and more like surreal fever dreams, with oversized butterfly wings flapping against the rhythm or bubble guns mid-performance, and a kind of joy that feels both manic and sincere. Surreal music works best when it unsettles. Tanya Markova gets that, and the discomfort is the point. It’s there to scrape away the polish, to wake something up. And that may be why they’ve lasted. A decade-plus in, they’ve held onto their cult following not just because they’re funny, strange, or oddly catchy, but because they’ve refused to sand down the weird edges.
“Yung first album kasi, ano siya, parang siyang Black Mirror,” Iwa Motors tells Rolling Stone Philippines. “Hindi siya magkaka-relate. Hindi nagko-correlate yung bawat isang story. So kagaya doon sa Black Mirror, parang more on sa technology. Parang ganon yung ginagawa na modern times. So sa amin, ano eh? ‘yong concept ng horror at ‘yong concept ng kindergarten na pop.”
Motors unpacks every twisted concept the debut album is known for. When you listen to the entire album, every track feels like it’s straight out of a Shake, Rattle & Roll sequel but exclusively for the ears. According to Motors, “Linda Blair,” a reference to the actress who portrayed the demonic Regan in The Exorcist, was about possession; “Bye Bye Mosquito,” a track where nursery rhyme simplicity plays against the album’s heavier cuts, was what Motors calls “mababaw” or deliberately shallow. It was a songwriting technique that spoke to them from the start, and they took advantage of the formula.
“Wala pa kasi ‘yong mga ‘Picture Picture,’ ‘Linda Blair,’ ‘Disney.’ Wala pa ‘yon sa mga pinaplano namin ng kanta. Puro mabibigat talaga ‘yon mga pinaplano namin,” he says. “As in, mabibigat na nakakatawa. I mean, pang-weird. Extraordinary siguro yung tamang term.”
Back in the day, Motors and former bandmate Norma Love shared a fascination with Marilyn Manson, hence the clown makeup, inspired after watching one of Manson’s VH1 documentary episodes. But their magic also comes from onomatopoeic street sounds, random chimes, anything that bleeds into their environment. Still, it took them 15 years to survive with what others now call a “banger” album. Motors stresses sustainability and adaptability in today’s music climate, where old songs get revived while new ones fight for attention.
“Parang mas walang pressure ngayon. Kasi tumagal ka ng 15 years, so hindi biro. 10 years nga hindi biro. 7 years, hindi rin biro,” he says. “Kapag uso naman ‘yong luma, ‘yong bago naman ‘yong pinapakinggan namin. Tuwing maiisip mo ‘yon, habang tumatagal ka, mas lumalaya kang gumawa ng kanta. Mas hindi ka na sakop o nakakulong sa kahon. Mas creative ka kasi mas matured ka na e. Kasi hindi lang ‘yong music yung tumatanda – kami mismo ‘yong gumagawa ng music. Kami ‘yong tumatanda. Parang mas excited kami eh.”
Original Payaso Music
As persistent as they are creatively, Tanya Markova actively encourages artists to cultivate real, human-made art in an era increasingly dominated by AI. At one point, they promoted a headliner show with details stitched onto a “good morning” towel.
“Tuwing may solo gig kami sa bars, ‘yong posters namin ay kakaiba,” he says. “Merong karatula ng jeep, merong artwork ng bata. Parang anti-AI. So binibigay namin doon sa mga taong artist talaga ‘yong gumagawa ng crafts at art. Sila ‘yong dapat ma-showcase namin sa gig.”
Motors also emphasizes the importance of maintaining weirdness, experimentation, and ambition 15 years after their debut. Whether playing a hardcore metal show or a pop gig with fiery theatrics, there’s something for everyone at a Tanya Markova set and for the band, staying in one lane was never an option.
“Huwag silang matakot mag-explore, maging malaya sila sa gusto nila, at huwag nilang isipin ‘yong sasabihin ng ibang tao,” he says to aspiring artists. “Kasi kapag nakinig ka sa ibang tao, nalilimitahan ‘yong ginagawa mo eh.”
He adds, “Kasi kapag pinasok mo sa puso mo ‘yong peace, contentment, at happiness mo doon sa kanta, sure ako dyan na parang nagka-hit song. Hindi mo na kailangang i-play yan sa Spotify, hindi mo kailangan ng maraming views, pero every time na naririnig mo ‘yong kantang ginawa mo, natutuwa ka. Bonus kapag nakakapagbigay-saya rin ‘yong kanta mo sa ibang tao, kahit sampu lang yan. Hangga’t meron, sobrang solid yung kanta mo.”
