#43: RJ Manalo - Music Production, forming Project: AKOOL, and the “Filipino Infinity Stones” - One Thousand Gurus Podcast

Episode Transcript
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J.R. (00:00):
Hello everyone, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,
vampires and werewolves,koreaboos and otakus.
Welcome back to another episodeof 1000 Gurus with me, your
host, jr Yonacruz.
Today's guest is RJ Manalo.
Rj is a musician, producer,freelance sound editor and
recently a dance videographer.
He's the director of ProjectA-Cool, a project created, but

(00:21):
not limited to K-pop vocal anddance covers.
He also works as a musicminister for his local church,
singing and playing piano forSunday services, as well as the
drummer for a 70s 80s cover bandin Rancho Cucamonga.
He, along with his rapper duoEd1, first placed in KCON's
Coverstar K vocal competition in2019.
In his free time he plays gamessuch as Apex Legends or League

(00:44):
of Legends with his friends andhas a hobby of prop making and
carpentry.
He kind of dances also.
So this was another fun episodewith a fellow dancer, creative
and Filipino.
Rj and I have known each otherthrough the K-pop community, but
as we get into this episode,he's deep into the creative
world, making music, producingcovers with his project group,
a-cool, and we talk about hisexperience growing up

(01:06):
Filipino-American, his journeyto becoming an audio engineer
and music producer and a bitabout K-pop and video games,
like one of our shared favoritegames of all time Kingdom Hearts
.
Talking with RJ is alwaysenjoyable because he's such a
personable guy and easy to talkto, and I respect how, like many
of my guests, he's figured outwhat he loves and pursues it
wholeheartedly, and my hope isthat you, the audience, can get

(01:26):
inspired to pursue the thingsthat you enjoy and learn from
people like him.
So, without further ado, I hopeyou enjoy this episode with RJ
Manolo.
Hello everyone and welcome backto 1000 Gurus.
Please welcome my guest, rj.

RJ (01:48):
Thanks for being here, appreciate it.
Yeah, thanks for the invite.

J.R. (01:50):
I was really surprised that you invited me, because I
was like, oh wow, but you're afriend of mine, yeah, and I
respect you and I think you havegood insights and we're like
similar age range.

RJ (01:57):
I hope so yeah.

J.R. (01:59):
Yeah, and thanks for coming from Rancho.
I know it's pretty far out,right yeah it's always a.

RJ (02:03):
It's always a journey coming out to Orange County or like
Los Angeles, just trying to makemy way over.
But you know I appreciate thetime I take to just come here.
Yeah, no, I'm glad I got here.
Same yeah.

J.R. (02:12):
I was going to say, because I didn't know until
recently, until after I didn'tknow that Rancho Kokomo and then
I'm finding out that there'srestaurants there.
I'm like oh yeah, that'sdefinitely a Filipino place.

RJ (02:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

J.R. (02:30):
I have this.
I think I told you, but I havethis standup comedy joke where
it's you know how do you findFilipinos in your area?
You just open up.

RJ (02:41):
Google Maps type inlly bee, there there's a jolly.
It's right next to seafood city.
There you go.

J.R. (02:45):
That's what you know for the filipino side it's a real
thing, but I didn't realize sorecently and I'm like, okay, it
makes sense.
Rg lives there, mickey livesthere the prerequisites, exactly
you know some of the other.
Like candy, people live out inthat area too so I was like,
okay, that makes sense, allright.
So let's get into how I know you.
I think we first met when youfilmed Choreos' BTS Dynamite

(03:06):
cover, right, yes.
And I was like, oh, becauseusually we film, we have we
internally film, like we havefilmers internally for our
Choreos, but I think this onewas like during the pandemic,
and so we were, and there wasn'ta lot of people there yeah,
like there.
So I think someone reached outto you and was like like, oh,
can you film our cover?
And so you were one of thefirst people who were like an
outside film for choreos.
So that was rare, but thenyou're super chill.

(03:27):
And then, since then, I starteddancing with you through
Untitled, also like people likeTravis, who was on the show as
well like dance with them.
And so we did a handful of 17covers together, like, yeah,
rock With you, super Crush,right.
And then we also dancedtogether for k factor in 2022
and let's see, yeah, I've alsobeen to your place a couple

(03:49):
times because you do a lot ofyour own recording audio stuff,
like covers, with various otherdancers as well.
You've done some stuff withblessy as well, and so that's
why I mean she knows this, butlike I'll drive her there.
She's like hey, are you freethis next weekend to go to
argy's place?
I'm like, yeah, sure so I'm herchauffeur and then she'll sing,
and then I'll just be chillingthere.
But yeah I think that's prettymuch like our relationship in a

(04:10):
nutshell any clarifications orwhat are you up to?

RJ (04:13):
I totally forgot that that was when we met the dynamite
cover.
I just remember it was like bowor something who hit?
Me up, and I was surprised too.
I was like wait, I get to filma choreos cover.
I know At the time they werekind of like a big yeah,
exclusive kind of a big deal inthe cover community, especially
in Southern California.
Dude, that was a really cool.
I'm thankful for thatopportunity.
We met each other and obviouslyI met, like some of the other

(04:33):
people in the choreos too, sothat was pretty cool Apart from
that?
I don't think there's reallyany other clarifications really,
especially with how we metright.

J.R. (04:42):
Yeah, exactly, and you fit the bill for one of my guests
because you are Filipino.
We both have two-letter names.
Two-letter names yeah, I thinkmy audience knows that 95% of my
guests are dancers and or theyfall into the category of
Filipino.

RJ (04:59):
female content creator or some sort of gay dude, those are
very like specific, exactly.
But I look back at the rosterI'm like yeah, that's 85% of my
guests are those the only wayyou'll be invited to 1000.

J.R. (05:11):
Yeah, if you fit in all three categories and you're a
dancer, you're probably going tobe on the show.

RJ (05:17):
That's amazing.

J.R. (05:18):
Yeah, all right.
So if nothing else, then we cango into the first topic.
So else, then we can go intothe first topic.
So, as with all of my guests,we go into origin story, just to
humanize you a little bit.

RJ (05:30):
Where did you grow up and what were your main influences
during your childhood?
So I was actually born on theEast Coast.
I was born in New Jersey.
I didn't actually know that,yeah, I was.
I lived there since I was likefive and then, yeah, pretty much
like an East Coast baby.
Then I moved to SouthernCalifornia when I was like five
or six and I've been living inthe rancho inland empire area
ever since.
I guess kind of like myinfluences, like I was pretty

(05:50):
much like influenced by likefamily most of the time live did
a lot of like weekend partieswith filipinos, always like that
, did a lot of weekend partiesat my uncle's house, just hung
out like in rancho all the time.
And basically, especially likecareer-wise.
I think my biggest influence isprobably like my dad, because
he's like his, most of hisfamily's like musicians.

(06:11):
I didn't pursue it like as acareer.
They mostly just do it as ahobby and I think I just decided
to do that rather thaneverybody else because, oh,
that's not a safe type of careerto do.
I'm just like I'm gonna proveyou wrong.
right, because when you're afil're Filipino and you do
anything like outside of, likenursing or whatever everyone's
like, what do you want to dowith your life?
Right, I don't think so.
Yeah.

J.R. (06:29):
Was it the same for you with the whole Filipino pressure
of going into nursing orwhatever?

RJ (06:33):
Yeah, because you have siblings I forgot, I do have
siblings.
Yeah, I have one older sisterand then one older brother, so
and my, yeah, like going back tothe whole like pressure of like
nursing, yeah, like a lot of mycousins were nurses right even
now, like my mom, I'm alreadylike pretty well into like my
career as like an audio editorand like a sound engineer, and
my mom's like are you sure youdon't want to do nursing?

J.R. (06:55):
it's not too late it's not too late.

RJ (06:57):
I was like mom, okay, I'm already here, I already have
pretty decent connections rightnow.
I think.
I think I'm pretty muchfiguring it out right now.

J.R. (07:03):
Yeah, that's pretty much how that works.
Yeah, what is your sister andbrother do with my?

RJ (07:07):
you know I'm asking so my sister is, the is a boxing
trainer in Santa Fe Springs.
Yeah, she's a.
She owns her own boxing gym inSanta Fe Springs.
Do you know where a snow globeis that I have an idea.
Yeah, her boxing was like rightnext.
Oh, that's really funny.
Yeah, so she does that and it'scool because she's actually

(07:29):
she's very well known in thecommunity, in the boxing
community, because she's femaleand she's asian.
So it's like really cool.
Pr people try to like talk toher all the time.

J.R. (07:33):
It's like oh my god you're like the coolest yeah, you know
, girl, I ever met.

RJ (07:40):
There are moments she's like oh yeah, I'm gonna meet manny
cool.
Yeah, it was really cool.
And then my brother is a gameart designer yeah, but he also
works as a like warehouse stuffalso, so he does like some of
the game art stuff on the sidewhere he works there's like
warehouse tech.

J.R. (07:52):
I think, yeah, it's interesting.

RJ (07:54):
So you're, you and your siblings are very like
quote-unquote atypical for themyeah, like comparatively to a
lot of our cousins and stuff,we're like like black sheep,
yeah, of the of our cousins.
And I always find it funnywhenever we're like hanging out
at like parties and stuff, mycousins talk about like how hard
of a day they had at like thehospital and they're like, hey,
and they're like, oh, queer argy, what did you do at this week?

(08:16):
And I was like, oh, I filmed amusic video, right.
Oh, I made a song with like myfriends.
Really funny, this sort ofjuxtaposition between me and
like my cousins yeah, did youTangent?

J.R. (08:28):
did you ever get into boxing or try it out?

RJ (08:30):
No, I think that was something that, like, that was
really just my sister.

J.R. (08:33):
I mean I did like Pacquiao , right?
No, that's the last thing.
Like it's genetics, apparentlyEven I did boxing for a little
bit.

RJ (08:40):
Maybe just for my sister, maybe my brother also did, maybe
I don't know, if it like fitslike my brother did karate when
he was younger.
I think the most that I've donewith I guess is like body
movement.
I guess it's just dancing oranything.
Yeah, I don't think I've everdone like fighting or whatever.
Yeah, it's very shit like,you're a dancer and a singer
musician, so you have a lot ofthe filipino check boxes already
yeah, you're just obviouslyjust not a nurse, but that's

(09:01):
totally fine I think it's, Ithink about that stuff like like
infinity stones, it's like tobe filipino.
Yeah, yeah, it's all.
Yeah, I have only four of likethe five like.
Oh, I guess I'm never gonnaachieve full powers right, I'm
not a nurse.

J.R. (09:12):
Yeah, what else is there being astronaut?

RJ (09:14):
nurse.
Yeah, nurse, I guess, sing, orno, yeah, nurse, singing,
dancing, maybe, I guess, beinggood at cooking maybe yeah, or
like working like at the postoffice.
I think so yeah, it's a veryfilipino thing, or working at
jollybee, working with jollybee,or at least having a relative.

J.R. (09:29):
That's work, that works there, like that yeah so I know
one of the topics we wanted toget to was your just your
experience growing upfilipino-american in socal.
I'm from the bay and so I'm aquote-unquote transplant since
college.
But yeah, for my own curiosity,what was it like growing up
Filipino-American in Zalcal andwhat do you think are some of
the nuances that people mightnot know?

RJ (09:51):
about.
I think it really just stemsdown to, like, family.
I don't think there really isan inherent difference between
when you're from the Bay or fromwhen you're down here.
I think it really all juststems from knowing whether or
not your family is willing togive you the culture back to you
and I think my family inparticular.
When you're growing up as, likea Filipino American, it's a

(10:13):
little bit more of an identitycrisis.
It's oh, you hear your auntsand uncles like speak like
Tagalog like all the time, likearound you and you want to know
what they say.
It's unfortunate for me thatI've never learned how to speak
Tagalog, because my parentsnever taught it to me, because
they just never thought it waslike like a good idea to teach
me.
There's no point, right.
It's like you're in America,just speak English and you'll
succeed.
And then the years later, likenow, my mom's like man, I should

(10:36):
have taught you Tagalog, shouldI taught you Filipino?
I was like I don't think that'smy fault, but you know they
thought of what was what wasbest for me and being being an
american.
But it was funny because Ithink I developed more of a
sense of learning the culture onmy own as I got older,
especially when I meet, met upwith a lot of like different
friends from college who were inlike filipino clubs and like

(10:58):
doing a lot of performances andstuff.
So I think that might be thedifference between like certain
people who want to experiencebeing filipino, and I don't
think there is a differencebetween norcal versus like socal
, like filipino american culture, really it's really just what
you make of it right, I knowthere's a lot of common
denominators, which is what wefind out in this age of social
media.

J.R. (11:17):
Yeah, but where's your family or parents from in
philippines?
So my mom, I would know reallybut so my dad is from batangas
and then my mom is from manila,but she's from pampangan, so she
speaks.

RJ (11:30):
Oh, I see.
Yeah, so they're very like,like even that is.
Kapapang is like a whole otherlanguage too, and it's just like
even my dad speaks likebatangin yo right, which is like
more like deep tagalog tagalog.
Right now it's mostly likespanish along with tagalog, but
my dad speaks speaks like pureTagalog also, so you have like
words that mean certain stuffthat would otherwise mean
differently in.

J.R. (11:50):
Spanish.

RJ (11:52):
But yeah, but basically.
Yeah, that's pretty much wherethey're from, yeah.

J.R. (11:55):
Does your dad have coffee on rice?
Is that a thing in your family?
I've never asked him actuallyReally.

RJ (11:59):
I mean, he probably does, I just have never seen him do it,
maybe.

J.R. (12:02):
Yeah, that was a big thing when blessing ever on TikTok a
lot.
And then I realized that herfamily obviously does that a lot
.
I didn't even know if my familydid that.
But then my mom was like, ohyeah, some people do, but not
all.
I never grew up seeing on ricecoffee on rice.

RJ (12:16):
Yeah, I've never heard of that, really I feel like we've
talked.
I've seen a lot of Filipinorecipes.

J.R. (12:23):
So just white rice on a plate and then like black coffee
, hot you just pour it on andyou eat it.
What?

RJ (12:28):
Really yeah, that's it.

J.R. (12:29):
Ask my dad about it, look at our comment section in our
TikToks.

RJ (12:33):
It's like there's a war.
It's like people are like ew,that's gross.
And people are like oh, I dothat.
My family does that.
Okay, know champorado.
Yeah, have you had like dillis,like fish, with champorado
before?
Yeah, it's like that.
It's like a sweet savory kindof thing.
That's the craziest thing I'veheard.
I've tried.
I was like it's pretty good.
I've never heard of coffee onrice or whatever.

J.R. (12:52):
Yeah, I always give blessy a hard time about that because
I'm like ew that's gross.
It's not really gross, but shegets so offended that I just
keep going anyways.

RJ (12:59):
Filipino taste buds are just like titanium dude I, I don't
know what it is man and eventhen, it's not even just a
Filipino thing.

J.R. (13:04):
Apparently, other Asian, some Asian cultures also do
coffee on rice, but that's justwhat we found out.
Okay, so I guess maybe youtouched upon this, but
challenges, advantages that youfeel like being Filipino
American lent to your journey oryour experience.

RJ (13:21):
I think me being Filipino it did introduce me to singing.
Or your experience, I think mebeing Filipino it did introduce
me to singing Like I was a.
I joined the Filipino choirbecause of my parents, obviously
at my church, and then thatkind of moved into me becoming
like a musician at my church.
So that is one of theadvantages you just learn how to
like operate with peoplesocially and like in a group
setting and like some sort ofbecause I think being Filipino,

(13:49):
filipino is like mostly aboutcommunity.
They're very welcoming andinviting.
So when you're around thosetypes of people a lot, you tend
to try to give off that sameenergy to a lot of people who
probably aren't filipino ormaybe they are filipino, but
otherwise I don't think I don'tthink there was any real
challenges apart from thecomparative nature of you being
like oh, why aren't you this,why aren't?

J.R. (14:02):
you a nas astronaut?
Yeah.
Why aren't you this?
Why aren't you a NASA astronaut?
Yeah.
Why aren't you a nurse?
Yeah.
Why aren't you a nurse in spacethat does?
Yeah, that's pretty much.

RJ (14:08):
I don't think there's anything more to that actually.

J.R. (14:10):
So, like last weekend or the weekend before, I went to
the East Coast to visit my mom'sfamily and it was like one of
the first times that all of myaunts and uncles on my mom's
side and some, and it brought meback because I realized that my
whole family, it seems likethey're all extroverts and
they're all loud, oh yeah, andthen I'm just like just quiet in
the corner, which I've alwaysbeen.

(14:31):
But it just was a not a cultureshock, but it was kind of like a
punch in the face.
Wow, actually my family is likethis yeah, I'm kind of like the
odd one out, because I'll justlisten and then I'll throw in a
joke and then people will laughand I just go back to listening.

RJ (14:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

J.R. (14:43):
Because when there's too many extroverts, I just start to
become more introverted, butwhen there's too many introverts
, I'll become extroverted.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, but Ithink it's funny you mentioned
the community thing too, becausemy family is also like that,
like they're also like mixedFilipino American, my grandma
communal and even though it'slike there's differences, but
it's still very family yeah,same with my dad's side too yeah

(15:05):
, okay.
So the last question on this.
You already went into careeraspirations and trajectory, but
I know you just mentioned howyou got into singing, but how
did you get into dance?
I got into dance your genetics.

RJ (15:17):
Well, maybe when I I got into dance, because when I moved
back to public high school in,I think like my junior year of
high school, I hung out with alot of Asian people.
Right, High school is sectionedoff because all the Mexican
kids are like one place Peopleself-segregate yeah people
self-segregate because they justwant to feel comfortable.
It was like all the Asians werein one place.
So I hung out with all theAsian people and they I was like

(15:42):
dang, that sounds cool, I wantto go.
And I went and I was like dang,I want to learn how to six step
, I want to learn how to babyfreeze.
And it wasn't, honestly, most alot of people go into it as
like a phase, but I reallylooked into it.
I was like maybe this could bea cool recreational thing,
because I don't really doanything active besides, maybe
just play basketball orsomething.
So I decided to just go.
Then, from there it went fromoh, like learning how to b-boy,

(16:04):
to oh, can you perform with uson stage at this like event?
I'm like sure.
And then that's when I got intomore hip-hop, choreo stuff.
And then I think after that Iwent more into k-pop.
Stuff is blowing up.
I knew about k-pop from like awhile but I never bothered to do
like this was during highschool college yeah, I think in
high school that's when Istarted how to dance dancing.
But then when I started doingmore performance, stuff was like

(16:26):
after high school basically,and that's pretty much how I
started dancing.
I just wanted to be a coolb-boy Filipino kid in high
school, basically.

J.R. (16:34):
So how about K-pop, since you just mentioned that?

RJ (16:37):
I got into dancing for K-pop because my friend from CSUF or
Cal State, fullerton, she, wassaying like, oh, we need
somebody to, we need one moreperson for our dance competition
at Anime Expo.
And I was like, yeah, sure Ican join.
And then because that personwho invited me, she was part of
this cultural event Filipinodance cultural event that we did

(16:57):
she was like, yeah, we needmore person.
I know you like k-pop, do youwant to just do this?
I'm like sure, I guess.
And I joined.
And then that's when I meteverybody else in the community
basically and I met ed hd nico,basically like a lot of the
other people who were like inthat and at the time, that was
like the only way you can reallymeet like dancers and stuff but
yeah, that's pretty much how Isubmitted

J.R. (17:15):
myself in the k-pop community yeah, what's what got
you into k-pop first off?
Was there specific artists orhow did you come across?

RJ (17:23):
it.
I think, like most people, itwas like taeyang big bang and
like g, so like 2008 to 2009basically, yeah, like I'm pretty
old fan, like when I rememberwhen and I'm a sister right like
my boy, like when those, likewhen snsd came out with g, I was
like man, who are these?
really pretty girls and colorfulcolored jeans, yeah like this
song is so addicting, and theneverybody wanted to be taehyung.

(17:44):
I remember in high schooleverybody had the fedora like on
the side of their head andeverything it was either you
wanted to be taehyung or youwant to be neo.
It was like one of the two,right?
Yeah, that's pretty much how Igot into it it's like fedora.

J.R. (17:54):
Who do you like taehyung?

RJ (17:55):
yeah, he's like I love gd or something.

J.R. (17:57):
Yeah, exactly okay, so now I guess we're going into
singing.
I wanted to ask you about thestory of how you got first place
in a K-pop vocal covercompetition.

RJ (18:09):
Yeah, so me, along with my our friend, ed, right Like I've.
I met Ed like a while back andwe did competitions together
like K-Factor, what have you,and we saw that KCON was
actually having a vocal covercompetition.
And normally when you think ofcover competitions in like at
KCON or like any like K-popsponsor, like event, you think

(18:31):
they're mostly like dancingright, that's the norm.
When we found out that theywere having a vocal cover one, I
just messaged Ed.
I was like, hey, man, you wantto do this thing?
And he's like sure, we'll do it.
And like I'm very thankful toEd for being like always down to
do stuff like that.
So we, we do the thing.
And then I think it was likebased on like voting.
So we kind of pr'd ourselves alot.
We're like, hey, vote for us,whatever.
And then we made a music videofor it and just to show people,

(18:52):
hey, we mean business, we're notjust like singing in our room
or whatever.
I know no discredit to peoplewho do that, but we wanted to
show people that there's more tojust there's a little bit more
effort being done by people whoalso like singing in k-pop.
And then we got up on stage andwe just killed.
We just did our best.
We killed.
It had fun see all of ourfriends like in the audience.
I was like man.

(19:12):
I feel like a k-pop star man.
It was cool.
The lights are shining in yourface.
I'm like whatever.
And there really wasn't a lotof.
I don't think there really waslike a lot of prep work to it,
because I've been singing withed for so long already.
We know each other's likeniches in terms of performing.
So it's like I think when youdo something for a while, for so
long, with somebody else, youjust bounce off of each other in

(19:33):
a very organic way, and I thinkthat's what put us over the
edge to get first place yeah,it's like more natural, you're
in the flow yeah, and there isalso a lot of prep work to be
done, right, because you do aperformance and then one one
like previous performance,something goes wrong, and then
you think about, okay, how do wemake this better for the next
one?
So you prep and you're like,okay, we, maybe we need a
countdown in the beginning so wedon't mess up the timing, right

(19:54):
, that's all.
Maybe we shouldn't run aroundso much, we'll get tired more
easily.
So, really, things like that,the previous performances that
we've had, especially when doinglike other competitions or like
other events and stuff, I thinkthat is more of the more of
what helped us get over the edgefor coverstar k at kcon.

J.R. (20:13):
Yeah, okay, a few questions to follow up to that.
What year was this?
So it's 2019, 2019.
And then, what songs did youguys sing?

RJ (20:22):
so we only only did yeah by Winner, yeah, and then I think
around that time I think Winnerwas there for a kick on, so I
think it helped a little bit.

J.R. (20:31):
It wasn't like a you have to do one of these songs from
one of the artists, yeah, yeah,whatever, but you guys did.

RJ (20:36):
We did anyway.
Yeah, and I think Ed and Ireally work well when, when we
do YG style songs, crowdpleasers like a lot of yelling,
a lot of rapping, yeah somethinglike that.

J.R. (20:45):
That makes sense.
Okay, and then so, if I'mgetting this correct, was it
like a two-phase sort ofcompetition?
Yeah, so submit a video andthen live performance.

RJ (20:53):
Yeah, so there was the voting phase, which was the
first round, and then the secondround was pretty much the
finals.
Perform, yeah to perform.
And it was funny because Iremember one of the this might
be a little bit of a tangent,but one of the people that was
supposed to be in it we had agroup chat.
It was like, oh wow, I can'tmeet.
Wait to meet you guys, so wecan all hang out.
And then, like later on theyfound out that one of the girls
was like like 17 years old.

(21:14):
She wasn't like an adult, soshe wasn't allowed yeah,
eligible to perform.
So it's like she made this groupchat and so really disappointed
.
I like, what do we do?
I felt so bad, but yeah, no,she's cool, though she forever
hates.

J.R. (21:26):
Everstore K-Brand.
Because of that You're so close, almost got in.
Yeah, that's crazy.
So it was the same song youperformed that you recorded.

RJ (21:32):
Yeah, yeah.
So the same song we made amusic for.
We performed it at thecompetition.
Do you remember who judged?
I don't, I actually.
I remember, yeah, it was like apanel.
I think there was like a coupleof KCON like representatives.
There was this one likeproducer guy named like Kairos
or something.
He like gave us his card and wewere just like, oh yeah, here
you go.
And then I tried calling himand he like never answered.

(21:54):
I was like, okay, so that'slike the reality of the
situation.
Right, and so you can performat KCON, you can do great, but
sometimes you're probably notgoing to make it anyway.
I bet he did it as a courtesy,just to give us something.
I'm not bad-mouthing him oranything, but that's just what
it is.
I remember we did win twotickets to go to the actual
concert.
I wasn't planning on going tothe concert.
He gave us the tickets and theywere like oh yeah, here you go.

(22:15):
And I remember going to theconcert and they were just like
to go downstairs.
And we're like downstairs, whatdo you mean?
Oh, we're gonna be in the pit.
No, way dude.
Yeah, it was actually reallycool that's cool.

J.R. (22:25):
Yeah, it's a good perk you won right.
Was that the only prize?

RJ (22:27):
it was just like tickets and stuff yeah, just like tickets,
I think shirt, like a coupleshirts and stuff, yeah, some
swag and then like a, I guesslike a little placard saying,
hey, you won cover circuit.
That's pretty much it that'sdope.

J.R. (22:40):
Okay, so I guess a little bit of a pivot.
But what draws you to yourcurrent career?
Passion, audio and sound.

RJ (22:49):
I just like producing in general, I think even past audio
.
I just like making stuff.
When I was younger I think itwas in high school that was kind
of when I discovered audioediting and just writing music
and stuff.
And at the time it was onaccident actually, I was
actually making videos.
I was just making fun littleteleportation videos and really
fun like VFX stuff, and then Inoticed like on the bottom there

(23:12):
was like a audio track and thenyou can record audio to it.
So I was like, oh, let me checkthis out really quick.
And then I just recorded myvoice.
I'm like, can I do it inanother?

J.R. (23:20):
lane.

RJ (23:21):
So I started recording myself to myself and then it
turned into this sort offascination of what can I add to
this to make it like even more.
And then that was actuallyaround the time I started
becoming like a musician, right,and I started learning like
different instruments.
So I had my drum set set up,put a microphone like next to my
drum kit, played like randomsomething random, and put it
next to my guitar amp and Iplayed something along with the

(23:42):
drums, put bass to it, butsinging, and then by the end of
it I was just like man, I justmake a song, and one of those
moments is what it feels likelike an epiphany.
I had an epiphany.
I was like man, this is thecoolest thing ever.
I want to do this for the restof my life and that's why I
disappointed my mom.
Right, it's like you don't wantto be, you don't want to be a
nurse or whatever.
What do you mean?
You want to do audio and Ithink more.

(24:03):
I think before I was so used tolike working on my own, like
more recently.
I love working with people.
I love working with any artists, any singer who has this drive
to just make something, and Ifeel like having like-minded
people, just who love to singand who love to create, is just

(24:23):
what draws me even more to justmaking music and just like
editing sound.

J.R. (24:26):
And even not even just like editing music, but even
like doing it for for videoright, doing it for films and
stuff that's pretty much where Istand on that, yeah so I don't
really have any insight into theindustry of sound and audio
engineering and things like that, but I want to ask, in your
experience, what is thattrajectory like, what are some
challenges, what are some thingsthat people should know about

(24:48):
getting into it?
And then maybe, what are thepotential career avenues?
How do you approach a career inaudio and, like, what are the
different avenues you can take,what are some challenges, etc.

RJ (24:59):
For what I know is that a lot of the people who get into
audio and who get into like getinto audio and who get into like
just anything with soundediting.
I think a lot of the people thatI've met have all been
musicians, right and I thinkmost of the people that kind of
fall into, like editing andstuff, were people who not

(25:19):
necessarily failed at being amusician, but more so like they
found out that that wasn'tfeasible as like a career I see.
So they just moved into the nextbest thing, where they can
still do the things that theylove, but in a more safer
expectation of a career.
One of the things I will say is, if you want to be, if you do
want to be like an audio editor,I guess, be open to a lot of

(25:44):
criticism and a lot of editing,because you're going to, you're
going to meet like a lot ofpeople who are basically like,
oh, like I hate how this sounds,can we redo it?
And you have to just be open tothat and I think I think also
just being having good socialskills, because you're gonna
meet a lot of, you're gonna talkto a lot of people, right?
Even if you think, oh, yeah, Iwant to be an engineer, I just
want to be in the studio, I justwant to edit, edit, no, you're

(26:05):
going to be talking to a lot ofpeople, no matter what you think
it makes sense?

J.R. (26:08):
Yeah, so what are some common or types of careers or
types of jobs that people aspireto have in this industry?
And I guess, how do you getthere?

RJ (26:19):
So one of the ways is one of them is like being a sound
editor for post-production.
That's like kind of what I'mdoing right now.
You can be a bedroom producer.
You can be a bedroom producer.
You can have your setup like inyour room, like on a laptop or
whatever.
You can make music that way.
You can probably show it to theworld on YouTube or whatever.
It's not like necessarily a wayto start that career, but it is
a way to show yourself andpromote yourself.
Other things that you can dothere's a live sound also, where

(26:41):
you can do sound for venues.
You can be a audio tech for apodcast, just like this guy,
right, right, sorry, things likethat.
Other things that you can do Ithink it's pretty much like the
bulk of it, because there's likea lot of things like in between
that they're pretty much likeumbrella stuff.
Say, live sound, you can be theguy at the mixing board or you
can be a roadie like.
You could set up cables, youcan tear down equipment.

(27:02):
You can also be a coordinatorfor the event.
I think it's more like concertstuff, but that also works in
the same realm For producingmusic.
You can be the producer, youcan be the songwriter, you can
be the audio engineer, you couldbe the engineering tech.
There's a lot of things thatyou can go into and it's
actually very widespread as acareer path really, because I

(27:25):
think most of the time whenpeople get there are specifics
right.
When you like graduate from acertain field, like you have the
title oh yeah, music, industry,professional, whatever but you
can the things that they teachyou in school, for those things
that like in like college, youcan apply those to like a
plethora of things.
I think that's great.
I think that's why it is hardto get into.

(27:47):
But I will say that there isstill like a large margin of
error that if you do mess up atyour, there's a lot of stuff out
there.

J.R. (27:54):
I guess my question is any advice on an advice for people
who may want to get into audio.
Oh yeah, how would you advisethem?

RJ (28:15):
to get started I would say, if you have any a practice like,
really just practice on yourown.
If you have a like an audioproduction, like any like audio
editor, just like.
Practice working with likeclips or like tracks or whatever
, and just see how certainsounds react to each other,
because you're going to be doinga lot of that later on.

(28:36):
Familiarize yourself with whatyou're working with and that's
common amongst like, a lot ofmusicians.
Right, you hone your craft, youlook into it and you try to be
the best at how like at acertain program as much as you
can, and that by the time youwork on like actual, like
industry level stuff, it's gonnabe a cakewalk.
Yeah, that's how I thoughtabout it too, like I, when I

(28:58):
used before I worked with a lotof like industry like stuff,
like pro tools, like final cutand all that stuff I was already
cutting in like a very barebones program, and that practice
that I've had for a long timehelped me get over the edge of
being being where I am now.

J.R. (29:16):
Yeah, All right.
Last question on this is if youcould go back to just
graduating high school or yourcareer trajectory is there
anything you would redo or dodifferently?
I would take like graduatingafter high school.
Like you just graduated highschool, you knew that you want
to pursue this career.

RJ (29:36):
Is there anything that you would?

J.R. (29:37):
redo or do differently?

RJ (29:38):
I would take a lot more connections more seriously,
because I think when I, afterhigh school, I was still in this
funk of am I good enough to dothis, am I good enough to edit
for anybody, and I had a lot oflike self-doubt after high
school because I really likewhen I was doing it after high
school, I was really much moredoing it as like a hobby and I

(29:58):
did things on like my own timeand whatever.
But there was a lot of careeropportunities that I was
presented with that I did nottake seriously because I didn't
think I was good enough for themand I think if I had I said yes
to a lot of those opportunities, I think I'd be in a much
better place than I am right nowin terms of my own career as,
like, an audio editor and likewhatever.

J.R. (30:19):
Just because just taking more opportunities.
Yeah, I see.
Okay, let's shift now.
So I want to ask you aboutA-Cool.
So how did you start it, what'sthe story behind it and what is
the name?
What is A-Cool?

RJ (30:32):
we were at this k-pop club and the k-pop club had, like
other groups of friends who madefun little teams and stuff.
Originally we weren't called acool.

(30:52):
We were actually called notseven like a long time ago and
because we were doing a, we're abunch of seven dudes just doing
a got seven song.
That's why it's cheesy, right.
So we did that and then fastforward later we also did.
We recorded the song.
We recorded a song by godson,we did got7 fly and we did the
dance to it.
So I started off this wholething of doing singing and
dancing for k-pop covers.
We didn't really take itseriously.

(31:13):
Fast forward a little bit.
My other friend who was alsopart of the club.
He wanted to participate inthat, but I didn't want to ruin
the not seven like name.
So I was like, oh, let's make afree brand into like a cool,
right and a cool.
The name is actually based offof the blockberry creative group
, luna, which is l o o n a, andit's basically a the first the

(31:35):
way.
How?
It's a pretty long explanationI think I'll tell you after the
podcast, yeah, but it's prettymuch.
It's pretty much referenced offof that and I basically started
that again.
Oh, I started that in 2016.
So basically, it was like athing where I wanted people to
come together to docollaborative singing projects,
because there's not a lot ofteams like that say, for who's

(31:56):
that?
Like Aurora, for example?
There's not a lot of teams thatdo that and I wanted to be.
I wanted to do more things likethat with my friends who also
knew how to sing and stuff.
And it was also like thinkingabout it now after restarting it
, because from the time when Istarted A-Cool, I joined
Untitled and I had to put A-Coolon a bit of a break.
And when I left Untitled, Idecided, no, let me revive
A-Cool to do more stuff.

(32:17):
And then so, when A-Cool kindof came up or when I brought
A-Cool back up again, I thoughtof it as a really cool
opportunity for me to hone mycraft as, like, a producer and
audio engineer and also to giveopportunity to people who don't
have the setup to record.
To take, for example, likeblessy right when she comes over
and you come over too, and likeother people that I invite to

(32:38):
do this project.
I want people to be able to havefun doing a cover without it
being like weird or like, oh, wehave to do this right or trying
to be too try hard and, likewhat I said when I was saying
earlier, it's like working withpeople is a lot more easier for
me because it allows me to honemy skills as, like, an audio
engineer.
I think that right now that'slike the like where a cool is
going.

J.R. (32:57):
Yeah I like that.
It's kind of like a triple win,because you get to hone your
craft, you get to build thiscommunity, socialize and whatnot
, but also give them, give thema space to explore this avenue
that they probably don't have.

RJ (33:11):
Yeah, and there's a funny joke I think I told you.
It's like whenever people comeover to record, they're like, oh
, how long does it take for usto record?
I was like, oh, maybe two hours, but it'd be 30 minutes of
recording and an hour 30 of justtalking.
Yeah, no, it's exactlyEstablishing rapport.

J.R. (33:24):
Yeah, no, it's exactly establishing like rapport yeah,
no, that's always the fun partwhere it's like the couple of
times we came over, and maybe 15, 20 minutes and blessy is like
pretty fast, right, yeah, and sothen it's just 30 minutes of
just talking.
Yeah, minutes of recording,which is fun I like that yeah,
so just for due diligence.
Yeah, tldr, do you have thestory of what does a cool mean?

RJ (33:46):
so a cool yeah.
So what I said earlier, it'ssupposed it's based off of the
blogberry creative group, luna,and luna means, uh, italia,
sonia, which means girl of themonth.
I think I'm like butcheringthat angle like super hard right
now.
Yeah basically how it works iswith luna's name.
It's the first letter, firstletter of every syllable of that

(34:07):
phrase.
Oh, okay.

J.R. (34:08):
Yeah, so if you look at how like I'm off of that sort of
yeah.

RJ (34:10):
Yeah, so the way how we did it for Aeco, it would be 이 추위에
선연, which is boy of the week.
So it was like because wealways, when we were doing it,
we released like teasers everyweek, right, so it's all boy of

(34:31):
the week, right.
And then because boy and girlhave the same first syllable for
that for the name, for sonyoversus sonyon.
It just worked out in that wayto be able to have it especially
be like a co-ed group.
But that's pretty much like theidea yeah, wait, hold on.

J.R. (34:45):
But a cool a k o o l yeah, so I don't know if I'm able to
write it.
I could show you.

RJ (34:50):
Oh, I see, I see, I'm like trying to do my head.
I know I can read hangul, butI'm like you know the, you know
the, ja, like the this one.
Yeah, yeah, if you turn it,that makes it a k oh so, like
actually what it looks, likewhat it looks like.
So like the c it the s yeah, sothat's the a oh, yeah, and then
yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll show youlater, you'll get it okay, I?

J.R. (35:09):
get what you're saying now .
So for those of you who don'tread korean or whatever so like
the symbols, the letter thecharacters characters and you're
saying you just changed, likeyou physically changed the
rotate the orientationorientation, and then that made
equal.

RJ (35:24):
Yeah because that's what they.
That's also what they did for lalso.
I see, now it clicks All right.

J.R. (35:29):
Cool.
Thank you for that Now, becauseI'm sure the audience will be
like wait, did he just pass overthat?

RJ (35:33):
Like what is this?

J.R. (35:33):
teaser.
What does that mean?
Okay, cool, so let's go into.
We talked about K-pop.

RJ (35:53):
I want to ask you Kingdom Hearts also like playing Genshin
Impact, you know like a lot oflike fantasy style, like stuff.
Apex Legends, like ShooterValorant I guess I stopped
playing it, but there's alsolike another one.
I think I really like gamesthat are just have great like
music really.

J.R. (36:05):
Oh, there you go yeah.

RJ (36:06):
So I played a lot of rock band and like guitar hero back
in the day.
So I was like I was stuck onthat when I was that checks out.
Yeah, I was like playing.
I actually it was funny becausethat was actually like rock
band was actually one of thereasons why I got into drumming,
because I was like wow, I canactually move my hands, so this
predated when you actuallystarted learning yes, yeah, yeah
, yeah, should I got into that alittle bit.

J.R. (36:25):
so maybe, maybe Rock Band was a main influence for you, I
guess.

RJ (36:28):
so yeah, that makes sense Now that I think about it.
Yeah, now that we mentioned it,yeah, rock Band, I think, was
like one of those games that waslike I was trying to be like on
the leaderboard like every timeLike oh, I got to get perfect
score.
Yeah, I was pretty, I was asweat at Rock Band.
Those games mentioned, likekingdom hearts a little bit.
I guess we'll like dive intothat later.
Yeah, basically like a lot ofgames that like involve like a

(36:50):
lot of music.
I love games like that yeah,okay.

J.R. (36:52):
So then now kingdom hearts .
Why kingdom hearts?
What's so special about thatgame?

RJ (36:56):
yeah.
So kingdom hearts for me islike the storytelling is great,
the gameplay is great, the it'ssomething about the game,
especially the music, right.
I think kingdom hearts was alsoone of those really big
influences for me, like justwriting music, because I, when I
was learning piano when I waslike younger, I was like man, I
don't want to be playing likeall this classical stuff.

(37:17):
It's boring, right.
And then when I heard a lot ofkingdom hearts music, I was like
I want to learn how to playthat.
It's kind of like how peoplelearn how to play like river
flows and you or like weddingdress, right.
It's kind of the same thing forme, like I wanted to just learn
how to play these songs and Ialso wanted to write music like
that.
I think Yoko Shimomura, thecomposer of Kingdom Hearts, I
think was and probably is one ofmy biggest influences and I

(37:40):
never get bored playing the game.
I think like I can play thegame like 10 times over.
I can never get bored of itbecause the music really just
draws you in and I think evenlike a lot of the sound design,
like Keyblade, like soundeffects and like a lot of the, a
lot of the like sound effectsfrom other weapons and stuff.
It's almost like a masterclass.
It feels really good to likeplay in it.
I don't like.

(38:01):
I can probably go on and onabout it, but I don't want to
don't want to like.

J.R. (38:08):
Yeah, we like to hear about it, I mean so I'm also
love kingdom hearts.
I was like a big staple for mein high school yeah, one of the
main franchises that I played alot and I do a lot of solo like
one player games.
But another thing too is a lotof our friends and people who
are really into gaming, likefinal fantasy and so kingdom
hearts is like.
If you don't know what kingdomhearts is, it's like a fusion of
that final fantasy genre vibewith disney, yeah, and so it

(38:29):
combined these two crazy thingsand then it worked really well.
And now it's this huge thingcultural, I don't know, cultural
shift in the video game worldyeah and I think to the point
this could also be a maininfluence, because it seemed
like it really like made animpact on you growing up yeah, I
think it's funny because Iremember we stumbled upon it on
accident.

RJ (38:47):
My older brother just brought the game home, the first
one, and he was like, oh, thislooks cool, right, we just
bought it and he's always seedonald duck and like goofy and
mickey randomly.
What is this like disney game?
It's like anime looking and weplay it and it's like the
coolest thing ever.
Yeah, friend, and I think theoverarching message of
friendship, friendship, beinglike there for your, like
everybody, and being the greatergood and like a lot of stuff.
I think this is really cool,very anime for sure, but it just

(39:10):
feels good, especially when putinto a disney context and
especially because the you getall these like ips of little
mermaid, like lion king, beingput into this new interpretation
of it and you're like wow, andespecially in an anime sense,
right, wow, this is really cool.

J.R. (39:25):
Like you, because you can watch the classics, right, and
those they're good becausethey're the classics, but to see
them reimagined, yeah, andexplore deeply exactly different
contexts, yeah, but basicallyyeah, I like that a lot too,
because kingdom hearts is whatbrought me more into disney,
meaning like learning about theworlds, yeah, the backstories
behind it, because they'rereally faithful to the spirit of
all the worlds that they bringyou in and they touch almost

(39:46):
everything in disney classicsright, but they also bring in
the world of final fantasy, yeah, all those characters, and
that's how I also got more intothe lore of final fantasy, but
they just did it so well in thestorytelling, the gameplay, yeah
, and then, just like this, thesaga that has been playing,
playing out over time.
There's still some games that Ihave not played through, and so
I'm just like it's on my listto just watch the playthroughs

(40:09):
or watch, like, the cut scenes,just to get it.

RJ (40:11):
I will tell you like certain games you don't have to play
right, no like yeah, you, Iwould encourage you to watch the
playthroughs, but you don'thave to play them if you really
don't want to, because I'vetried and I'm just like I'm just
gonna watch it youtube, yeah,no that's why there were some of
those games where I was like Iknow this is going to be tedious
.

J.R. (40:26):
There's a lot of grinding or, like some of the handheld
games, I don't really have thecapacity or the platform to do
this, but if I just watch theplaythrough I can get the value
of it and like the experience.
But yeah, it is such a deep,immersive world.
I highly recommend it.
Anything else on Kingdom Heartsor video games?
Not really, no, just a hugerecommendation.

RJ (40:46):
Yeah, like you know, parts of you like disney, like I see
all you disney adults.
If you like anime and you likedisney kingdom hearts is for you
.

J.R. (40:52):
Anime, disney, video games it's like the best, like
intersection of all of it yeah,one of my dream cosplays since I
was younger I think I knowwhere this is coming from was
like an organization.
13 yeah and so I eventually gotit.

RJ (41:05):
I eventually got it, so now that's one of my staples wait
you actually had 13 other peoplethat no, no, okay, so not with
other people, but just theoutfit itself oh, okay right
like the hooded black likeleather yeah I don't have
keyblades, but just having thecosplay was like I'm like dude.

J.R. (41:19):
Let me just put me in as organization 13, just walk
around exactly.

RJ (41:23):
Obviously you're gonna be like oh, let's just grab like 14
or like 13 of my other friendsand just show up with black
coats and just readily walk.

J.R. (41:30):
That would be fun if I found, like X many other nerds
to do it and all the differentweapons, that they have too.
Oh yeah, but even then youcould just do the black coats.
No, yeah, you could just do theblack coats.

RJ (41:46):
I think it'd be just another level.
I'm sure people have done it.
I'm like, oh, the silver whiteone with the black one, oh, so
good.

J.R. (41:53):
Yeah, that was like my dream cosplay.
So it'll happen one day.
One day.
Okay, anything else on topic ofgames, kingdom Hearts or K-pop
before I move on.

RJ (42:04):
Not really.
No, I don't think we have.

J.R. (42:05):
It was a little nice, little yeah yeah, just a little
nostalgia.
I've not played game parts in awhile wait, what's your
favorite?

RJ (42:11):
have you played all three of them like uh?

J.R. (42:13):
so I didn't play the third one I played the first two and
then the third one came out what10 something years ago,
something like?

RJ (42:18):
that.
No, I think it was like fiveyears ago.
Five years ago, okay, whatever,whatever.

J.R. (42:21):
I just never got to it because I've been on a video
game hiatus since then okay, butit's obviously top of my list,
like when I when I get back intovideo games like I do, like a
six month stint, back into itjust to get back onto the drug
and, like I did, some firstperson shooters like the call of
duties and the assassin's creedand god of war and I'm supposed
to get back into to catch up ongta, but kingdom hearts is on

(42:45):
there and also final fantasy,whatever the most recent ones
are but those for anyone knows,those are like a grind.
So I'm just like, let me justget the first person shooters
out of the way.
Those are faster usually yeahstory yeah, all right, so rapid
fire, you ready sure cool.
First one billboard question ifyou could put up a sign for
millions of people to seemetaphorically non-commercial,
what would it say if?

RJ (43:06):
you have a voice, use it.
And I mean that in the way of,if you like, if you want to
perform, if you want to sing, goout and sing.
If you have this song that youwant to put out, put out that
song.
Or if you, if there's an issuein the it's bothering you, speak
up.
Things like that are likepretty important part of my life
.
Just talking about, oh I, Idon't like it when things are

(43:28):
just like basically, yeah, Ilike it.

J.R. (43:31):
What is one of the hardest challenges you've faced in your
life and what did you learnfrom it?

RJ (43:35):
I think having that I had a bit of a depressive episode,
like after high school, likewhen I started college and until
now, because I had a lot oflike self-doubt and in like my
skill as like a audio engineerand just like working on music
in general, because it was likeyou see all these people being
like amazing and I thinkovercoming that was probably the
biggest hurdle of my life andjust understanding that maybe I

(43:58):
am good at what I do and yeah, Ithink that was probably the
biggest challenge, for sure whatwas like the takeaway or what
did you learn from that?

J.R. (44:06):
because so you said you had this sort of doubt and then
you overcame it.
Did something help, a strategy,mindset or something that
someone told you that helped?

RJ (44:13):
yeah.
So there was a one of myclasses.
I had a acoustics class whichwas like studying like sound in
like a space.
I did a final project and hemet.
He emailed me.
My professor emailed me.
He was like hey, rj, can youcall me back at this number?
We gotta talk about your finalproject.
And I was like oh my god, I'dlike mess it up.
I was like I'm gonna fail theclass right.
And that was already when myself-doubt was like at its

(44:33):
highest right.
And so he called me and he wasand I called him and I was like
professors, you want to talk tome?
My, my final project.
And he was like, yeah, amazingjob.
And I was like, oh my god, likeweight was lifted off my
shoulders.
And then he told me he was likeand I asked him like sir,
wouldn't this have like sufficein an email or like a text?
This could have been thismeeting, could have been an

(44:53):
email, yeah this could have beenan email, and he told me he was
like that's the thing I wantedto talk to you about.
Why is it that this projectthat I'm getting, this amazing
project, is coming from somebodywho only has a B minus in my
class?
And then that made me think I'mlike oh, it just shows that I
am capable of making greatcontent, I'm able of making
great things.

(45:14):
I just didn't have the drive todo it and I didn't have the
validation to do it.
Granted, you can.
You don't have to have otherpeople validate your work.
But in this kind of field, andyour friends and family can tell
you all the time oh you'rereally good, but it doesn't
really sell that much whenyou're being told something like
that from an industryprofessional and I've had that
happen to me multiple times oryou have ears, or this is great.

(45:35):
I love this.
It's like OK, it makes me feellike maybe I am, maybe I do know
what I'm doing, and I thinkthat helped me really get over
that challenge of self-doubt.
For sure, and that's when tiedback to equal Working with other
people.
Because I know people, I'mconfident in my ability to now
help other people and produceother people.
In that regard, I like it.

J.R. (45:55):
Self-inflicted wound?
Do you have a story aboutsomething that's gone wrong in
your life and you can't blameanyone because it's your own
fault?

RJ (46:00):
I think when, not that I.
I think my laziness maybe Ithink that was the biggest thing
.
That's part of the whole likeovercoming that challenge.
My laziness is like a big thingfor that Cause before I got
complacent, even when I thoughtI was good, I really wasn't.
There's always the next level.

J.R. (46:18):
There's always the next level.

RJ (46:19):
Yeah, after that I can't really.
I don't think I've had enoughintrospection for me to really
think about it too much, but Iwould say it was just me, my
complacency and just my lazinessreally Makes sense.

J.R. (46:34):
Okay, if you could give your younger self advice, what
would it be now?

RJ (46:40):
Any age.
I have a funny one.
Tell her you like her.
Is there a story behind this?
Would you like to tell it, orno?
No, just saying that was when Iwas like like in high school,
oh yeah, no, I think another,like a more serious note, like
did you not tell her?

J.R. (46:55):
I never told her.

RJ (46:55):
Ah, yeah she got is the one that got away.
Yeah, on a more serious note,yeah, take your education more
seriously because, like when Iwas a kid, I was like man,
school's lame, right, I justwant to play video games all the
time like no, no, no, no.
Take it more seriously, you'llbe in a much better place you
are than now.
Because the repercussions ofnot taking your education
seriously you have to workharder in life, right, you know.

(47:17):
Work hard now, have fun later.

J.R. (47:18):
The whole thing yeah, don't put it off for.
Don't put it off for too longwhat, in the last few years,
what, what new belief, behavioror habit has improved your life?
No one is coming to save you.

RJ (47:28):
But you and I realized that in order for me to improve my
own, or in order for me, I can'texpect people to help me all
the time.
So I've just come to terms withbecoming my own savior really.
If I have an issue, I have toaddress it on my own.
I can't rely on anybody to helpme with it.
It's fine to have an issue.

(47:48):
I have to address it on my own.
I can't rely on anybody to helpme with it.
It's fine to have like your ownsupport group to help you with
stuff, but at the end of the day, you have to be like your own
savior really.

J.R. (47:54):
Yeah, like taking responsibility yeah how do you
define success?

RJ (48:00):
it's more so defined by the connections that you make with
people.
If people believe in what youdo is good, then I think you
have a pretty successful lifebecause you can be really good
at what you want, what you do,like when you're alone or like
whatever.
But if people don't believe inwhat you do and if people don't
see the value in what you do,then what you do means nothing

(48:20):
really and that's yeah so it'sso, it's like dependent on the
outside feedback or it'sdependent on like creating
connections with people in orderto how do I say this?
Because before, when I would domusic as like a hobby, I always

(48:41):
did it by myself and I was notsuper happy doing it because I
felt like I was just doing it,just to do it.
When I started working withmore people who were just as
inclined to do that thing withme, I think that's where the
kind of success kind of likerolls in, because it's more of a
community based or likecollaborative based thing.

J.R. (48:53):
Oh, I see.
So it feels like and correct meif I'm wrong it's that next
level of, okay, you can dosomething for yourself and it's
fun and that's great.

RJ (49:01):
But when you get to that next level of you doing it in a
community and you get thatvalidation and there's more
fulfillment there, yeah, you getthat validation and there's
more fulfillment there, yeah,because you're both winning in
the very end, like, especiallywhoever you're with and wherever
you're working with, Becauseyou don't want to be selfish,
because you have all this skilland whatever, and if you can't
show that to the world and youcan't share it, there's no point
in even doing it.

J.R. (49:18):
I see.
So it's like a gift is meant tobe shared with the world.
Yes, I like it.
If you couldn't fail, whatwould you be trying or doing
right now and subsequently, ifyou knew you would absolutely
fail, what would you do anywayIf I couldn't fail?

RJ (49:31):
If I couldn't fail, I would open up my own recording studio.
If I couldn't fail, and if Ihad all the materials and all
the finance for it if it wasjust given to me I would totally
do that.

J.R. (49:44):
So open up a recording studio, and then what?

RJ (49:47):
Be a producer for artists Yeah're just like producer for
artists.
Or be produced for artists.
Make, write music for people.
Just create a space for evennewer artists or even newer
bands to kind of show up andjust record music if they wanted
to also be being a part of themusic industry.

J.R. (49:57):
Yeah, oh, I see, yeah and then, if you knew you would
absolutely fail, what would youdo anyway if I would?

RJ (50:01):
absolutely fail.
I'd probably be a nurse if youknew you would go into nursing,
I would go into nursing.

J.R. (50:09):
So I'm probably going to kill you because I'm absolutely
going to fail.

RJ (50:14):
No, I mean, it's like in terms of if I knew I was going
to fail like music, I wouldprobably just go back to, I
would probably go into nursingbecause I would be like the same
, or I don't know if I'mmisunderstanding.
Oh, I see what you're saying soI like that answer.

J.R. (50:25):
The spirit of the question is like what would you do, or
what would you continue doingthat you enjoy so much that,
even if you are a failure quoteunquote you would still be doing
it?

RJ (50:34):
oh, oh, then probably just still music, then okay yeah, or
nursing, or nursing, I wouldstill do.

J.R. (50:41):
Nursing, yeah, I'd still do nursing.
What is something you've beenpondering either frequently or
deeply?

RJ (50:47):
or both.
Am I still?
Am I making my parents proud?
Yeah, because, at the end ofthe day, you do all these things
for yourself, right, and Ithink, like my parents, they
support me and whatever I do,right, like my dad is my biggest
supporter and then, but my mom,like my mom supports me, but
she's like my harshest critic,right, I'm thankful.

(51:10):
But I'm thankful for it too,because even when I'm like
playing at church, right, my momwould like I would play really
well and my mom would be likeAnak, you should, you should
have played this differently.
I'm like, no, but, and it'sthat sort of thing where it's
rather, am I not doing enough?
And I always think about thattoo, because you it goes back to

(51:31):
that filipino like comparisonright, it's all your family,
your cousins, are like off doinglike amazing things and you're
just sitting on your own liketrying to make things work,
trying to make it happen.
But I think that's one of thethings that has that's
constantly on my mind, because Idon't want I never want to
disappoint my parents, because,probably because I'm asian, I
also don't want to have themworry about me too much, and I

(51:53):
think that's a yeah.

J.R. (51:55):
Have you ever asked them or do you know how they feel
about you and all that?
Oh, yeah, yeah they, they have.

RJ (51:59):
My mom especially.
She has been very verbal aboutmy career choice and it's like
you can't like, just go back tonursing.

J.R. (52:06):
It always just goes back to nursing.
So they are.

RJ (52:08):
They are proud of you but yeah, and to to degrees like
they they've expressed, yeah,like you did a good job and
stuff like that.
But I even I even told my dadlike I'm actually going to go
back to school.
I don't know, I should haveprobably mentioned that in the
beginning.
I'm actually going back toschool and my dad was like yes,
right, that one that one.

J.R. (52:25):
I love that right.

RJ (52:26):
No for what I'm gonna go back for music industry study,
oh, okay.
Okay, so I'm gonna actually begoing to cal poly pomona, like
sometime next year.
That's the plan, like, I dohave a degree in like audio
editing and audio art, but thenI wanted to expand my repertoire
and just I guess, like at thispoint I I think I have enough
know-how that it's just now.
It's just a formality right, soyou can.

J.R. (52:45):
You have the skills to do the thing, adding education to
expand your knowledge repertoire, etc.
Yeah, it can only help yeah, doyou have a favorite hot take or
something that you think mostpeople won't agree with?

RJ (52:57):
favorite hot take.
Well, this one's for k-pop, yeslike k-pop, hot takes bts
didn't pave the way.
Sns paved the way, like socialmedia paved the way for k-pop,
for sure.
And it's all because the reasonwhy BTS became a big thing in
the first place is because ofsocial media, and if that didn't
exist, would we even know aboutBTS?

J.R. (53:17):
Right, so it's like good timing.

RJ (53:18):
Good timing.
They just came at the righttime Because even before then,
with Big Bang and everyonebefore that yeah, like EXO or
like whoever, it's not like theyweren't as talented, exactly.

J.R. (53:26):
Or actually more of a pioneer.
But the social media, thetiming of that.

RJ (53:31):
I think that's a good hot take.

J.R. (53:32):
Yeah, what is one of the best or most worthwhile
investments you've ever made ineither time?
Money, energy, et cetera?

RJ (53:39):
I think finally buying Pro Tools for the first time.
Pro Tools is like a digitalaudio workstation Basically.
It's like industry standard,like a workstation to just
create and just produce music.
For a while I was sitting onthis random audio editor that I
was just using because it wasfree, but you don't want to

(54:00):
spend too much money.
But then, because of that audioeditor and I tried to hone my
skills in that audio editor,once I got into the industry
standard Pro Tools thing I waslike, oh my god, this is so easy
now.
It's a lot more fine-tuned anda lot more easier to use and I
think a lot of my music hasgotten a lot better because of
that.
A lot of my audio.

J.R. (54:21):
All right.
Last one Favorite books, movies, videos, articles or any media
that you share or recommend themost books, movies, videos,
articles or any media that youshare or recommend the most.

RJ (54:31):
One book that I would recommend would be called the
content trap.
It was actually a book that Iread in college.
It's by barat anand, I think.
It basically talks about thesort of connections that you
create with, like socially, orlike career wise, or like
product wise, right, and byconnections I mean like like
social connections, as if we'retalking to each other.
That's a social connection.

(54:51):
Another connection you wouldhave, let's say, if you're an
audio engineer or you're like aproducer or like a songwriter.
But you have another thing youalso are a videographer.
I can produce your songs.
Hey, like we're done with thesong, you want to make a music
video.
I'm a videographer's like that,like creating sort of things in
that way to expand your alreadygiven skillset.

J.R. (55:12):
Nice, I'll link that in the show notes.
All right, that is it for rapidfire questions.
We'll get into ending questions, so we always end with
gratitude.
Shout out to my mom, rj, whatare you grateful for?

RJ (55:23):
I'm grateful for my parents, my family.
They've always been supportivein what I do.
Grateful to a lot of my friendswho I talk a lot of tea and
like all that stuff withbasically Arty likes the tea.
I love tea.

J.R. (55:35):
So does Blessy.
Blessy loves the tea, so that'swhy, whenever we come over, she
asks for tea.
And then you give us tea andthen she's like not that guy.

RJ (55:44):
I was like oh my bad, I think I misunderstood you oh
yeah, I'm grateful to a lot ofmy friends who are supportive of
the things I like to do, andespecially even like people who
like want to be part of ACOOL.
Right, not like be a member,but just participate in the
project.
You know that's really cool.
Contribute and everything, yeah, contribute and everything yeah
, yeah, pretty much it yeah.

J.R. (56:14):
I don't think so no, you know, I just you take whatever
you got go play kingdom hearts.

RJ (56:19):
There you go.

J.R. (56:19):
That's a good takeaway yeah, all right, rj.
Where can people find you ifthey want to connect, see what
you're up to or whatnot?

RJ (56:26):
so I am on instagram.
I think jr will have like mykit on the description below jay
manalo 13.
Yes, and then I am also onyoutube at rj manalo music and I
also have for.
I also have a page for a coolthe world, so that's also
another one that'll also be inthe description below and that's
pretty much.

J.R. (56:44):
It's pretty much it nice.
Yeah, I'll link everything inthe show notes.
So so if you guys areinterested in what RJ is up to,
he is, like I said, I've been tohis place a couple of times for
the recording.
He is a consummate professional, really fun to work with.
A lot of our mutual friendswork with you a lot and he puts
out a lot of good work and, asyou can tell, he's very.
Any of that stuff definitelyhit them up.
I recommend them All.

(57:06):
Right, that is it, rj.
Thank you so much for being here.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you for sharing yourinsights.
I learned a lot, so hopefullythe audiences too.
For everyone else out there, besure to like, subscribe, follow
comments, leave RJ some love inthe comments, et cetera.
Let us know what you likedabout this and if you want us to
cover any more topics.
Just a reminder for my finalsign off.
Thank you guys for being here,a reminder to always be kind to

(57:27):
other people, especiallyyourself, and reminder that you
can always learn something fromsomeone if you take the time to
listen.
Thanks for listening.

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#43: RJ Manalo - Music Production, forming Project: AKOOL, and the “Filipino Infinity Stones”

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#43: RJ Manalo - Music Production, forming Project: AKOOL, and the “Filipino Infinity Stones”