She is the invisible presence in the room, where Jericho sits squished inside the smallish conference area with 20 or so reporters came to look-see the reinvented actor and his new band, Jeans.

Even as the 27-year-old talks music and earnestly expatiates about the making of his band’s first CD, Loose Fit (geddit), he loops back his marathon two-and-a-half-hour Q&A with the press to the Heart he so openly wears on his sleeve.

His third high-profile romance in as many years – the first two being with equally angel-faced lookers Kristine Hermosa and Cindy Kurleto – Echo was recently embroiled in a duruan match with John Estrada who he accused of flirting with Heart while Echo was in the States shooting the Manny Pacquiao movie.

“It’s so high school!” John told columnist Dolly Ann Carvajal of the incident, which Gary Valenciano ended up mediating. “A girl making sumbong to her BF that a guy wanted to pick her up at a bar just to see if he will get jealous. Whatever issues they have between them, I hope they stop dragging me into it. I’m too old for such kid stuff!”

But it’s exactly the hormonal kid stuff that accounts for the giddy, can’t-breathe-without-you intensity of the Echo-Heart pairing.

Not wise in the ways of showbiz, I watch Jericho Rosales’ right profile from where I sit at the back of the room. I check out his hair (a coin-sized bald spot somewhere to the side of his head, the result of a DIY trim), his clothes (a faded olive jacket with upturned collar and a patch advertising a local FM radio station, jeans, Nike trainers), and the earnest face, deferential and kinda cute. I wait for the frisson that makes him such a magnet for gorgeousness. Later, I see it as we review the photos we take.

THE GUY CAN’T HELP HIMSELF

This afternoon, Echo tries – and fails – to keep his bursting ardor in check. He tells the assemblage of decidedly untabloid-looking press folk that while his management group, Genesis Entertainment, decided to go for the fan-friendly “Ngayong Gabi” as the album’s first single, he admits “Swim” is a favorite. Calling the track “parang jazz,” Echo says the song is “bagay pag nakahiga ka na sa kama mo at iniisip mo talaga yung minamahal mo at nagtetelebabad kayo…”

Les you think I am only being a gossip-whore and reading intrigue where none exists, Echo quickly and without prompting offers that he wrote “You’re so Beautiful” for Heart. In fact, she lends her high girlish vocals on the midtempo funk-jazz track.

Funk? Jazz?? Echo???

Same guy who strutted implicit washboard abs and heartthrobness with Diether Ocampo, Piolo Pascual, Carlos Agassi and Bernard Palanca as The Hunks, an ad hoc group high on visual appeal but a hair’s breadth short on musical cohesion?

Yes, him. On the album, Echo writes all 14 songs in a mix of styles rooted in R&B, pogi jazz and a whisper of hip hop. The result is surprising and brave and has an easy breezy vibe perfect for driving, traffic-less, out of the city.

One writer, who left the press conference earlier than the rest, got dragged back into the conference room by Genesis big boss Angeli Pangilinan who asked him to repeat his parting shot. The writer is suitably abashed. “He said the album is more than awesome because Echo wrote all the songs himself,” Angeli gushes.

“Wow, baka ako magka-hydrocephalus niyan,” Echo replies, standing to thank the writer and shake his hand.

Apparently Jericho Rosales has been nurturing his musical proclivities forever – except that acting intervened and proved more lucrative. Although he tells ONE PHILIPPINES his influences range from Lenny Kravitz to U2 to Phoenix to James Taylor, Echo apparently used his rising showbiz star to feed his musical adventurism. His press release says the actor listened to Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Aretha Franklin and then began collecting the Best Of series of the jazz label, Blue Note.

In 2004, Echo began hanging with friends who, like him, loved music and surfing with equal passion. In January of 2005, they began hitting a small rehearsal studio near the decidedly unglamorous wet market area of Nepa-Q-Mart.

In the meantime, EMI Malaysia approached the actor with a record proposal. It was a logical next step to the amazing success of Pangako sa ‘Yo in Malaysia, the soap that starred him and then girlfriend Kristine Hermosa.

Echo was more than ready. With guitarist Dan Serenado, bassist Jude Manota and drummer Aaron Ace Manio, he called the band Jeans because “like jeans, our music is comfortable and fits everybody,” he told a Malaysian writer. “Our music touches all areas of human emotions. I chose the (title) Loose Fit because the music here is loose, feels cool and it had a connection with Jeans.”

‘I HAD TO PROVE MYSELF’

Loose Fit debuted in Malaysia in March of this year. Six months later, the CD finally makes Manila. It was a long-ish process only because Echo had to complete his acting commitments and, more nerve-wracking, submit the songs to his manager Angeli Pangilinan, who the world knows is the wife and manager of the multi-hyphenated Gary Valenciano.

“I had to prove myself to them,” he recalls. “It wasn’t a joke performing in their presence. Kumakabog talaga yung dibdib ko.”

Angeli told Echo at that time, “If you start you must get the experts to guide you properly so you don’t get anything less than excellent.”
So Genesis re-did what Echo calls his own “elementary school drawing” of a cover and which Angeli describes as “Goth” and coached him on all he needed to learn about unsexy but crucial subjects like music publishing.

The musical makeover has been so extensive, Echo is putting his acting career on hold to concentrate on music for the rest of the year.

“ Ang lakas nga ng alaska na nakukuha ko kay Heart,” he says of some of the moves he’s been trying out and slyly inserting his favorite topic of conversation. “’Ayan, naga-Gary V ka na naman.’”

The guy is a goner, I tell you, and if you need further convincing, the liner notes on his CD are the last word on the subject.

“To my sweetHEART, thanks for the greatest support and the inspiration. You will reach your sweetest stars, in Papa Jesus Name! To many islands and sunshines together, I Love you. Always and Forever.”?

Jericho Rosales guests in Kuh Ledesma’s 25th Anniversary Concert at University of Washington’s Meany Hall on September 15.

Her “babe,” looking fully recovered, confessed, “Babawi ako ngayon. Trabaho nang trabaho.” After Linlang, Rudy will play a pivotal role in the new tele-fantaserye series Atlantika.

While he found his dramatic role in Linlang “fun to do,” is he ready to return to action roles?

“Of course!” he said without missing a beat. Then, flexing his biceps, he joked, “Tignan mo nga, matigas pa.”

To keep in tip-top shape, Daboy has been exercising vigorously and has cut sweet and fatty foods from his diet.

As important, he visits Baclaran church every Tuesday night without fail to thank God for his new lease on life.

After risking it all and going through the fire together, Daboy and LT have happily and gracefully accepted the rare gift of a second chance.