Zerothreetwo Conversations: Interviews with the Creative Class

To my eyes, Willow Hoods is the genesis of a new type of haircut in Cebu. He didn't discover it, but he found out about it, noticed that no one was offering that kind of style, and decided to bring that look to Cebu. The Fade Haircut found its way into the every day lives of Cebuanos. It's not often that someone is able to make a mark through a haircut. With that in mind, I wanted to talk to him and finally meet him for the first time.

I sat down with the Bart Bros. and the explained the culture and history of Cebu street art. Composed of brothers Bart and Yummy, Bart Bros started by sharing their wild imaginations in the streets of Cebu, and have since been invited by various art galleries to exhibit their work. Their works are often seen as brutally painless and darkly cheerful with a tinge lowbrow humor.

Another AMA in the books!

I realized that the Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes are really fun to do. Some of the questions forced me to think deeply and look back at our own history. This particular episode reminded me of how far Zerothreetwo has come, our early beginnings, and how we've hustled our way to what we are now. We're still not at the final stage of Zerothreetwo, maybe we'll never even reach there, but it's been one heckuva ride so far.

A quick Google search of JP Arias showed his involvement in the rap scene as well as spoken word. He's showed up in a rap battle, tons of gigs doing spoken word, started a spoken word poetry group called Kasikas, and performed in the recent Bisaya Music Festival. He's been busy!

When he showed up to the interview, he brought his Kasikas cofounder, Raj Jumao-as. Together, they showed me the bigger world of spoken word and rap battles.

Karl Lucente is one of the members of Mandaue Nights, but long before the birth of the group, Karl had his fingers dipped in the local music scene for years. His video work under Southernlads Productions helped many local bands. Then eventually he found his own way into music through Honeydrop and Hey! It's Your Birthday before eventually falling into Mandaue Nights.

Kurt Fick's willingness to be humbled by people who know more than him helped his skill set, shaped how he lives his life, and impacted his professional relationships in ways even he cannot imagine. His musical success (Hahahahasula has 7.6 million views as of this writing), his skill with a camera, and his ability to share his stories through music, photography, and film all blossomed through mentorships by people who have been there before him.

Turns out Dave Visaya was making a living and growing a business through podcasting. His company, Podcast Engineers, is a service that allows creators to do what they do best by handling all the nitty gritty stuff like editing, posting, writing shownotes, transcriptions, etc. Not only does he make a living through podcasts, but he has one of his own called The Big Picture Podcast co hosted with Jo Librero. They interview entrepreneurs in Cebu to show the possibilities of business in the Philippines.

One of the ladies who selflessly organized the fabled production of Harakiri Mosh is Shak Mancao. Everyone called her Ate Shak. She really was like an older sister watching over her rock and roll siblings. Harakiri Mosh was responsible for helping keep the music scene alive.

Although Harakiri Mosh hasn't closed their doors, Ate Shak is organizing less gigs, but playing much more in the band Tiger Pussy. They have managed to garner a hardcore following through their three albums and their energetic shows

Cebu just doesn't have the infrastructure to support film making in Cebu. Unlike Manila, they already have the necessary ingredients. We're about to lose two more filmmakers to our Northern neighbor. Christian Linaban and Ara Chawdhury are planning their move to the big city.

I was able to book an interview with Christian Linaban. We had a long conversation about the state of the movie industry in Cebu, how he likes to make movies, his experience producing Superpsychocebu.

Luigi Miguel Balazo is half of the music group called Sepia Times, and is currently promoting his new music project called The Sellout Club. Amongst musical circles, they've been making waves and I jumped at the opportunity to talk music with him.

In this episode, we talked about the process of making electronic music, appreciating the act of creating music, the need to raise our standards, and what it means to become a good musician.