Deep Routes is a radio series produced by dublab in partnership with Metro Art and with support from California Humanities and the Eastside Arts Initiative. Deep Routes explores the music histories embedded in the Los Angeles landscape and the transit topographies that connect them. You will hear interconnecting dialog from different music scenes, themes of identity, and civic themes that correspond to LA neighborhoods, featuring in-depth interviews with local artists, business owners, and community leaders. Fundamentally we aim to identify lesser told oral histories, and the ingredients required to allow musical cultures to prosper.

In this episode we explore themes of family origins, preserving tradition, new expressions of fused identities, and the ever important stories of multi-generational connection via music and sonic exploration in Los Angeles’ Filipino diaspora.

To guide these conversations we got in touch with interdisciplinary artist Anna Luisa Petrisko to be our host and guide. In her one-on-one interviews we hear from various Filipino-American voices sharing their musical journey.

While Los Angeles’ historic Filipinotown is a well known center of gravity for Filipino communities in LA – Filipino culture has created a constellation of influence throughout the Los Angeles landscape since immigrants initially landed in the 1920’s.

Echoing from the traditions of Rondalla to Manila Sound and the driving thumps of Filipino Disco.

The ringing gongs of Kulintang to the next generation of futuristic blends of hip-hop and electronic experimentation.

These musical stories connect us from Unidad Park in Historic FilipinoTown, down Melrose Boulevard, to nightclubs of yesteryear in West Hollywood and into the breeze of Santa Monica.

Guests include an array of Filipinx-American artists coming from various genre and era. In order of appearance on the episode:

• June Millington, guitarist of the LA based 1960’s classic rock band Fanny and founder of the Institute for Music Arts.
• Greg Narvas, drummer of the ska-punk band Hepcat and author of I Was A Teenage Filipino Skinhead.
• Tampugay De Leon – Elder of the Fil-Am community and instructor for traditional Rondalla music.
• Joel Quizon, arts and culture programmer, DJ, filmmaker, and behind the Disco Manila mix and event series.
• DJ Rhettmatic, DJ and producer and part of the LA hip hop crew The Beat Junkies and The Visionaries
• Gingee – DJ Producer, and percussionist who specializes in Kulintang gong.
• Micaela Tobin – Sound artist, vocalist, soprano, and teacher.

Ride Metro to discover more of LA’s diverse sonic cultures. Visit – art.metro.net

This program was made possible through support from the Eastside Arts Initiative and California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit California Humanities website for more info at: calhum.org.