In early 2005, Abay became an indie artist and initially released an EP called ""Sampol"" ("Sample") at the University of the Philippines as part of his undergraduate thesis. This work consists of acoustic tracks, which were later reborn as full-band pieces in ""Flipino"," released in May 2006. The album was produced by Robin Rivera, Abay's Art Studies professor in U.P. and album producer of The Eraserheads who eventually hired ex-Eraserheads Raimund Marasigan and Buddy Zabala to play in the entire album. ""Flipino"" proved Abay's relevance to Philippine music by releasing songs such as ""Perpekto"" ("Perfect"), "Bombardment" and ""Tuyo"" ("Dry")". A month before that, Abay finally earned his degree of Bachelor of Arts in Philippine Studies (Areas: Creative Writing in Filipino and Humanities) from the University of the Philippines after 18 long years.