Planet Workshop: Pioneering The Interstellar In Local Nightlife

“Celebrating creative pursuits”– that’s Planet Workshop‘s tagline as they curate unforgettable nights shared among all its visitors.

From their fun spin on the conventional video-recorded DJ sets to their unique twist on the back-to-back DJ set, “face-to-face“, Planet has been innovating the Makati nightlife scene. The small core collective of six has grown into a full-blown community that everyone gets to be a part of. Packing in lineups of both long-established DJs and DJs who are fresh to the scene, not to mention international DJs hailing from all around the globe, no single night in this Planet is bound to be the same.

In this light, Billboard Philippines had a conversation with their core team; Sky (Creative and Music Director / Co-founder), Millen (Art Director / Co-founder), Marshoe (Head of Film and Broadcasting Department), Inah (Social Media Manager / Photographer), Maleek (Production Assistant), and Natalya (Project Manager). There, the Planet Workshop team delved into what it meant to be a creative in the nightlife scene and how these innovations became a part of their culture.

Billboard Philippines: When did you start Planet Workshop? What did you have in mind when creating this collective?

Sky: We started November last year, and I have this friend Len, he’s my business partner for Planet. We were discussing creating a brand, like a lifestyle brand that best represents us. At the same time, I also worked for Nokal and Kampai as a co-music director in events and marketing– they asked me to do the Friday nights in Nokal. So I thought, ‘Why not, since I’m working in nightlife and the represents our community, our friends, our lifestyle, why not launch the lifestyle brand we’re gonna do, in the nights that I’m gonna handle at Nokal?’

Sky: Instead of creating products to sell directly in your face first, why not create some sort of space and community with our friends who live the same lifestyle as we do and (have) the same ideologies?

Yeah, that’s what I realized too, about Planet. Like, while you have products, you have merchandise, what I see more of is everyone’s just having the time of their lives together. Was everyone (in the meeting) a part of the start of Planet Workshop? If not, when did you join?

Sky: I had Millen as my business partner right away, and then (I had) Marshoe and Inah as the core group to help us– basically, they were the eyes of what we’re trying to do and kind of project that publicly. Now, we’re incorporating the brand for longevity. That’s when we realized that Inah and Marshoe should be a part of it too, so we’re all business partners. Now, we have Maleek and Natalya to kind of scale up.

Lovely! Love to hear that. What did you guys have in mind when you were starting this? What kind of mindset did you have going into creating this brand?

Sky: To be honest, let me answer that ’cause I’ve been trying to answer this for the past eight months that we started. We went in being so raw and organic so we wanted to do what we always do. We wanted to invite people with the same mindset, same ideologies– they’re like-minded people. I feel like everyone’s been answering that (call). So now it’s like, how do we differentiate ourselves and what we do? It was kind of a challenge to put it into words, ’cause I’m not the best one to explain things in words. So we even ended up with a celebration of creative explorations, then it kinda made sense ’cause it’s like “We’re partying, we’re celebrating.” What we’re kind of trying to do when we’re partying and celebrating is release some kind of output and not just promote an event– we’re beyond that. We just needed to shorten that and we ended up with “Celebrating creative pursuits”.

Okay, that’s great, also because it leads to my next question. Planet’s tagline is “celebrating creative pursuits”. How does this philosophy reflect how you guys approach the conventional video-recorded DJ set?

Marshoe: We have different types of, let’s say, content (for lack of better term); we have highlight reels, we have recaps. We check the boxes for what’s expected of a night, but we try to go beyond that list. Not in the sense of trying to make something wholly different, but just like, I think the most important thing that I don’t see a lot is putting a narrative or a story in each reel you want to make. So, every now and then, I try to just inject a story into all the reels or content we make. Also, just trying out some cool stuff.

Honestly, we’re all just young creatives here who wanna do something cool. Looking at our main platforms like Instagram, it kinda validates or rewards that hook sensation– it’s a double-edged sword but at least we get to try something cool.

I find it super interesting that you mentioned putting a narrative or putting a story ’cause we’ve seen a million video-recorded DJ sets where it’s just trending with popular song transitions. So I appreciate how you guys bring the story into it.

What does celebrating creative pursuits mean today? How can we see creativity in the nightlife?

Sky: How do we cultivate a space where people feel allowed to be more creative? I guess, first, we’ll have to define what creativity is; for us, it isn’t just about videos or photos or DJ-ing, you can be creative in your cooking, right? So I guess, with us, we’re just starting off with the parties ’cause that’s what we’re good at. We’re DJs and we’re taking videos of it. The way we’re kind of challenging ourselves is the output we release, putting a story behind the DJs, putting a story within the night, but for Planet, this is just the start. What else is next? Maybe we’ll cook, maybe we’ll get someone to cook, maybe we’ll get someone to draw. But anything that celebrates creative pursuits, whether they’re good at it or just starting out, that’s what we want to do.

So, for a country that (plays) top charts and likes to have people sing along (in clubs), we like to invite new DJs people are not aware of. Because, we want them to celebrate them trying a different route.

Inah: The thing is, we say “Celebrating creative pursuits”– I think we’re not only referring to ourselves, like it’s not just about team Planet. I think one of the things I love about Planet is it’s become a platform for other creatives. I think one of the reasons why Planet really boomed was because we were able to gather in such a really, really solid creative community. It’s such an amazing thing to see how Planet helped give them the exposure they deserve. Like, we’ve had photographers and videographers post their stuff about Planet and we repost them, and then they get discovered. Same goes with DJs, there are a lot of new DJs right now that are really, really good. Planet becomes a platform for them.

Can you tell me more about your face-to-face DJ sets and what went on behind the process of that concept?

Sky: Well, to be honest, face-to-face isn’t our concept. It’s a concept of our friend, he hosts that party. I guess Planet became the platform for it. Like, okay, you know what? That’s a cool concept. Maybe we should collaborate with Planet and show us how it works, show the world how it works. So we become more of like the camera that shows what’s happening in that concept. But that credit goes to LM from Logiclub, and that happened accidentally.

There were two venues, the other one was outdoor, the other one was indoor. And then it started raining, but we wanted the outdoor DJs to play too, so we started, like, putting two DJ groups together, and we’re like, you know what? Like, let’s try, like, face-to-face, you know? But that credit goes to LM.

Okay, cool! I also wanna get insight from Maleek, how does managing two DJ booths at once go?

Maleek: I mean, it’s cool, but like, there’s so many things you have to watch out for: people coming behind the DJ booth, behind the cameras, (it) always affects the shows. But like, we don’t want to be rude to anybody. People are drunk, so we have to be nice to everyone. It’s really just controlling the scene and like watching everything at the same time.

So that sounds like being able to not only record but also manage the content, manage the DJ sets, manage the atmosphere for a team of from what I am seeing here, six people, how does, how do you guys manage that on like, a nightly basis?

Sky: We started pretty small, so we were also just figuring things out. We started with the GoPro, and then eventually we scaled up to Len’s camera and Marshoe’s camera. We already have a lot of friends who are regulars to Planet, they kind of already know what our roles are and how we work. So when they see things that are wrong in the night, they already tell us, like, almost as if the crowd is a part of what we do that becomes easier for us. So for example, Millen is the friendliest guy in the room, to be honest. Like we’re all like, busy and everything, but Len will make sure that everyone has a drink, and Len make sure that everyone’s having a good time. For example, when I’m busy with the DJ, when Maleek and Marshoe’s busy with stuff, with the broadcasting, when Inah’s taking photos, Len’s making sure that everyone is having a good time. So that’s the biggest part of it, you know, it’s the experience, and then all the technical stuff.

Can you describe one of your most memorable experiences with Planet?

Inah: I think I have two, like, key points with Planet. I think during the first time I shot, like, for Planet, when I started shooting, I was like, beginning to feel like it wasn’t for me. So I was, like, kind of telling Sky in a way, like, I don’t think the photography part was for me, but then I think he just pushed me into, like, really, just giving it time and see what it turns to be. It led to, like, the other key part with Planet, I guess, is like our finale last, like cinema, like the last finale. I think just putting up photos of like me and my fellow other photographers around Nokal, it felt like, wow, we made it here and stuff like that. I think the whole finale. That was really core for me. Yeah, I think that was like (when) we realized, like, what we were making was like bigger than us a team.

You know, since it was like physical, it felt more tangible

Inah: Yeah, yeah, and yeah. I think, like everyone helping me, like, set up 100 photos, like Natalya and like my friends, they were helping me, like, based up 100 photos around Nokal I was just like, wow. I was, like, really emotional the whole time. I was crying the whole night.

Marshoe: I can’t say, I can’t say, it has to be every night. I have to say the same, the finale was something else– our first official finale. It really felt like it culminated to that end, that one part, that ending of that chapter. Like I said, we try to inject a lot of narrative in our stories, a lot of narrative in our content. As a gift back then, we made a short film that’s showed at the end of the finale. And one night I was anxious, because one, I’m rushing the final film, the final film finished within the day of the premiere. So (I was) bit anxious, but also weirded out by the fact that I have to show a short film to a club like, “Who watches a short film in a club?” So like, minutes before showing, I was at the back of the room telling everyone, “I don’t want to do it anymore. Because, excuse me, watch a film in a club?” lt ended up well, I even had a tear in my eye. I guess they received it well enough to a degree that I never expected. I didn’t know it could touch people. It’s pretty special.

Can you tell me more about the DJ lineup that you have in Planet? Where did you meet them?

Sky: I mainly curate the lineup, my role’s music director. Len is a videographer but he’s equally obsessed with music as I am– as much as everyone here is too. In terms of the local lineup, I’ve been DJ-ing for over a decade now, so I’ve met the OGs here, so I know who to pay homage to. (I like to) give platform to the OGs and show to the young guys how to do it. But I’m kind of like the middle child here, I’m twenty-seven so I’m friends with the older wave and new wave. I realized I was teaching the next generation of DJs because I was teaching Rodri how to play, I was teaching Daze how to play, I taught Inigo how to play, and they started forming their own collectives here and there. I thought like, “Why not make a lineup that always mixes up OGs and the new wave?”

When it comes to the international DJs, I recently had a tour in Europe where I met most of them there. So, it got me connected with everyone. Len is equally suggesting DJs and I’m just the one scheduling when to put them.

A lot of these DJs are young, a lot of them are still students. Why do you think it’s important to give these young people a platform? What do you think this means for the industry?

Marshoe: As the young person here, I’ll put it into my perspective. A year ago, I didn’t know where I was gonna end up. I had a bunch of pipe dreams, I wanted to be a filmmaker but I didn’t know how to get there. With Planet and the environment I get to work with, like Sky and other people, it just got to this point where I can sleep now ’cause there’s work day in and day out. That’s a good problem to deal with now, given that I didn’t have those problems just about a year ago. I think that’s why it’s so important to have young people thrown in the deep end this early on. They just get to experience what life actually is like, what the career they want is actually like.

What do you think it means for the industry to have young people, such as ourselves, to be putting out new stuff?

Sky: When I was putting together the deck for Planet, I put a random copy there “Raw as sashimi”. We wanna keep everything flavorful and tasteful, but at the same time, raw. It’s because we’re celebrating creative pursuits so it can’t be just overly-defined output. I want the people in the process of seeing a young person trying out a new thing. That goes to not just DJs but all creatives as well, our merch was created by a college student too. He was our intern, and that was our main merch.

This is my last question, why do you think people are looking for creativity and freshness in the nightlife scene?

Inah: I feel like, when you’re someone who enjoys going out, it only takes you so far to just go to your favorite bar when it’s just music and drinks. You know what I mean? There’s not much to it, you’ll eventually get sick of it. I guess, when there’s a story behind it, when there’s something more creative, even something just like new music, it becomes more of something like “Oh, I want to see more of that”. Rather than just repeating the same routine over and over. You get to connect with more people too, more like-minded as you, if you’re a creative as well. I met so many creatives just through every single night of Planet and there’s so many of us and you don’t normally notice that until you’re there.

Sky: Because there’s the Internet now, you vibe with your tribe, you know? So there are more subcultures now, and we’re not alone. There are a lot of other venues right now that are being creative. We’re in a renaissance stage right now where it’s like, “Okay, how do we do something different?” The consumers now, even the young consumers now, are looking for something new because they know that there are establishments that offer that (experience).

Maleek: I think, every few years we go through a cultural reset. I think we’re going through a cultural reset right now. Everyone wants to be out there, everyone wants to try something new. Like, “I wanna do this, I wanna do this.” So, everyone’s out there right now exposing themselves like leaving out their insecurities and not being shy. I think that’s what’s happening right now.