In case you didn't know, aside from being a graphic designer, I'm also a creative entrepreneur! One of my small businesses is organizing events as "HOHOL events".

For the whole time that HOHOL has been alive, I've been doing this event called "Next Slide Please", which is mainly Powerpoint Parties where anyone can talk about anything they want... while drunk. This has been the only event that I have put up as HOHOL (aside from an EP launch back in May), and what I'm about to share is something totally different.

Introducing Let Them Cook

What's cookin'? 🍳

Let Them Cook (LTC) is a new event series where we let beginner DJs have their first gig or experienced DJs to experiment.

Joining me on this journey is my friend Kyle Lim (aka Kadiliman) who is also my batch mate on the DJ workshop I joined last year. This will be a different entity, and is not affiliated to HOHOL.

The Inspo, or the part where my naive ass rants 🧠

LTC is inspired by my experience as a new DJ (it's only been a year since I learned how to). As a new DJ, I don't usually get gigs, and so in true Gian fashion, I made myself one. "Gian, you gotta put yourself out there, even just online." Well making mixes in my bedroom is boring af. I would rather physically put myself out there and dance with a bunch of people.

I'll also add that half of the gigs I've played are from friends, and so while I'm thankful for the opportunity, I'm also lowkey kinda frustrated with the fact that I have to play specific music (most likely "what's poppin' on the radio now... or years back"). It helps me practice technical stuff, but it doesn't really fulfill the whole "expressing myself" part.

I've thought of doing LTC as something that may be beneficial for new DJs like me. 1.) I'm booked for a gig — therefore legitimizing someone as a DJ —, 2.) I get to play the music I want to a crowd. Thinking deeper, I thought of a DJ friend of mine who wants to play a different genre of music than the ones they usually play. And so I thought, "why not here?" Let Them Cook, in short, just lets DJs "cook".

Kyle is in the same situation as I am, and understood what I wanted to do and achieve, so we joined forces to bring you this event series!

The Vision 👀

While LTC serves as a legit gig, we also wanted to lower the pressure, compared to a gig, rave, or club night. I personally call LTC a "part-gig, part-practice session", so while yes, you are paid to DJ at a gig, we just want you to do your best, and shrug off any mistakes you do. That's pretty much why it's called "Let Them Cook" too. It's encouraging and acknowledges that there may be a few mistakes here and there.

We're new DJs too! You think you mixed bad? It's okay, because it's part of the learning process! We get it! That's the point of the event too!

The whole thing is all about learning and exploring, so we're open to any genre of music, and we expect our attendees to be the same.

To somehow paint a picture of the whole "low pressure vibe", here's two mixes from Book Club Radio whose thumbnails are pretty much on our mood board.

In line with the whole "low pressure" vibe of the event, we plan to do these events during the afternoon to probably early evening. We think it changes the vibe from the usual gig / rave / club night, to some sort of rooftop party or just plain chilling with friends. On top of that, we're also planning to hold these events at places that are more chill, and because this is Let Them Cook, priority is given to places that serve food and drinks. Think cafes, rooftop bars, parks, or even beside pop-ups in the middle of the street where the DJ booth is next to a grill where someone's making BBQs.

Interesting Observation: We saw this new event series at Singapore called beans&beats where they DJ at cafes in the middle of the afternoon. I think this is the start of earlier parties or raves.

Techno rave at 3 in the afternoon, followed by an ambient set at 4, then a DNB set at 5? Game! Again, play whatever genre you want! We're here to let you cook!

Now, let's talk about the visual identity! The graphic designer in me just wants to talk about the inspo. Overall, the identity is very much based on diners. While diners aren't really a thing here in the Philippines, I think that the concept of going somewhere to eat and hangout with friends is connected to the whole "diner" experience, which is universal. Also, it aligns to the whole "low pressure / chill" vibe that we aim for. A diner is also a place where people cook, so there's that too!

Fun Fact: While everything looks very retro American diner, the logo is actually inspired by Rodic's Diner, a popular local food establishment!

The official poster + other announcement posters for the first event

Quick Share: The set times poster was supposed to be called "Menu", but it kinda implies that we're eating people... which sounds inappropriate, so I didn't call it that. HAHAHA

The future

Programming 🎛

We want to offer various kinds of experiences, especially to beginner DJs. From the usual 1-hour set at a gig (the main LTC event), to possibly longer sets in club nights or all-nighters ("Upsize"), a residency perhaps ("Meal Prep"), B2B sets ("Combo Meal" or "Paresan", lmao), etc. All the names are going to be food-related!

The initial idea is to let beginner DJs experience these various contexts, while playing the music they want. Kinda like making a curriculum. I feel like "the curriculum" now is just learn how to DJ, then upload a mix, and that's it, which I feel like is just the beginning of the journey... and the rest of the learning experience is like a big ass shrugging emoji 🤷, and I'm like "tf? 🥴"

Speaking of "learn how to DJ", I wanna do a workshop! We started from one! ~~Also, it opens the opportunity to add more people to our already growing talent pool.~~

Mixes on Youtube 🥗

Yeah... we're adding to the growing number of channels of mixes on Youtube. 😂 To be honest, I personally think we're NOT trying to be like the next Boiler Room or Book Club Radio. I don't know yet how we're gonna do this (like how would it look like), but my only hope is that it's kinda aligned to it as a recording for the DJ to 1.) use as proof of work, but more importantly, 2.) go back to to take notes ("Oh that transition was actually good", "This song's kinda out of place", etc.)

I don't want it to be just another "DJ in booth with crowd at the back" or "recording of a house party I wasn't able to attend".

I think I'm going to have a battle with the idea of "Mixes on Youtube as a marketing tool" when thinking about this.

On the other hand, we may also do just audio on Soundcloud or Mixcloud... and/or maybe commission mixes as part of another form of programming ("Lutong Bahay / Home-cooked"?!)

What does success look like / where do I see LTC in 10 years 🔮

Personally, I think LTC can have its own place in 10 years. I don't know if it will look like a bar / club for us to hold events in, or it will look like a studio — see Pirate Studios, which also holds open deck events at their studios — for any DJ to practice in.

Having a larger scale event would be nice, like an electronic music + food festival! Lots of DJs in a couple of stages / tents + lots of food merchants serving good food. We can also just have our own stage / area at a music festival or bigger event, say "Let Them Cook Stage at Wanderland or UNKNWN." 😳

While these sound huge / materialistic, what matters most to us is that we're able to give an opportunity to someone. What if because of our gig, someone gets discovered and gets booked even more? What if a bunch of people in our talent pool becomes friends and makes their own event series, and then becomes big? Having each DJ do a set for one of our events is already a huge success to us. 💖

Be a part of LTC

Wanna be a chef? 🧑‍🍳

If this sounds interesting to you, a beginner or experienced DJ, and you wanna join in the fun and be a chef, please follow @letthemcook.ph on Instagram and DM us! We'll send next steps after, but I'll give you a heads up and say that we'll look for any proof that you're a DJ (can be a mix you did at home and uploaded online, or a poster to a gig you were part of the lineup).

If you want to help out in other ways (ex. be a photographer, help in producing the video recordings, own or run a bar where your looking for people to play, etc. etc. etc., feel free to DM us on Instagram, or email us at letthemcook.ph@gmail.com

We're serving our amuse-bouche! 🍽

If you want to just attend our events, our first event, "Amuse-Bouche" is happening on Saturday at Comuna! The best part? Entrance is FREE!

An "amuse-bouche" is like an appetizer, except it's served free and the chef usually makes it to give you a glimpse of their style. Kinda like the event... where it's free... and gives you a glimpse of 1.) the music the DJs play, and 2.) what LTC is all about!

Cooking on the decks are Chynna, Kosmos Khaos, Kadiliman (Kyle), and DJ Better Living (me), from 3 in the afternoon, 'til 9 in the evening. Yup! We're partying and resting early! 🔥

BTW, Comuna's food & beverage tenants will be open during their usual operating hours, and coinciding LTC are a few more F&B pop-ups, so go check them out and fill your tummies!

As for future events, we originally intended for this to happen every other month, but with the number of interested DJs already, we're highly considering doing this monthly. 😳

Either way, follow us on Instagram to get the latest updates!

Anyways, that’s about it for this post. If you think this was interesting, consider collecting this post! It can help fund this event too!

Or if you want to just get the latest blog posts from me, consider subscribing! You’ll get an email every time I put out a new post (and I rarely do so, so it’s not spammy, lol).

I've been cooking a new event series