Zerothreetwo Conversations: Interviews with the Creative Class

Conferences like the Spark Fest Cebu is an opportunity to spend time with people you can learn from.  Not only will you be able to hear from the likes of Steve Benitez of Bo's Coffee, but you can hang out and mingle with many likeminded people who attend the conference. People who are trying to learn as much as you are, people who are in the same place in their journey as you are.

This conversation is with Edel Tribiana. He found that he loved the sport, the culture, and the people, and spent most of his waking hours on his board. Eventually he became good enough to be a sponsored rider, and from his experience skating for other brands, he decided he could do it on his own. The result is the premier skate brand in Cebu called Strap.

Rescue A Hero is a band that started in 2007 composed of Mark "Mcoy" Cortes, Jeremie Lim, Jason Almendras and Carlo Villarica. We gigged as often as we could till 2012.

Even though someone once called us the "Titos of rock", we were merely a blip in the music landscape of Cebu, but our original intent was never to be anything. We just wanted to make music and hang with friends. By that measure, we were the most successful band out there.

Mark "Mcoy" Cortes is the founder of the band Rescue A Hero and an early pioneer of skate in Cebu. I've spent countless hours hanging out and making music with the dude, but this conversation still surprised me as he shared what he has been going through over the years. For those of you who know Mcoy, it won't surprise you to know that this episode is full of interesting stories.

We got through the very first Ask Me Anything episode of Zerothreetwo Conversations. Thanks to everyone who submitted questions.

In this episode of Zerothreetwo Conversations, we talked about how my wife and I handle disagreements, the good and the bad traits of Cebuanos, tips on starting a business, where I find motivation, and a whole lot more.

As a fan of local music in Cebu, I wanted to get perspective and talk about what it was like back then compared to now. Who better to talk to than someone who has been active in the music scene in the past twenty years? Cattski is a mainstay and provides unique insight as to what it was like back then compared to today. She's a founder of 22 Tango Records, they are the label responsible plenty of beautiful music, and the studio director of Room Eleven, the first professionalized recording studio in Cebu.

This conversation with Franz Deadways was an eye opener. His experience running clothing brands Product of Uranus and Deadways is invaluable to small business owners in Cebu. The work ethic and passion needed to thrive is something any small business owner should remember, but is usually forgotten at the first sign of adversity. It takes years of hardwork, and true enjoyment of what you are doing to have longevity, especially in the risky business of running a lifestyle brand.

Some of you may be familiar with Chad Manzo's work. He has worked with artists like Urbandub, Taken by Cars, Faspitch, and more recently Mandaue Nights. His work has been published in Hypebeast and Highsnobiety to name a few. It's clear that it takes a little more than just great work to get these connections.   

In this episode, Chad talks about how these connections happened, how he goes about his work, and how he juggles multiple disciplines like music, graphic work and running clothing brands.

You know you are old when you don't even know what to call the genre of music being played (I'm old). With that in mind, I'm happy to have been able to talk to Tony Alfonso a.k.a. Fonzy about what it is like being a music artist in Cebu 2018. After my conversation with Fonzy, it made me want to explore the local music scene even more. One of these days, the wife and I are going to watch a gig or two. It should be fun.

The strength of podcasts is the ability to listen while doing something else. It will make commuting much more bearable, cooking slightly less lonely and mundane ordinary tasks like inputting numbers on a spreadsheet more interesting.

There are a ton of podcasts worth listening to. If you'd like to know what I listen to on a regular basis, listen to this episode. You might discover a slew of other podcasts, and after a few thousand hours of listening, you might even be compelled to start your own.