Arvin Nogueras aka Caliph8 is an interdisciplinary artist. Known as one of the pioneering artists to come out of Manila’s infamous Hip-hop movement in the 90’s. A graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, his work interrogates the dialectics of cultural synthesis through sound manipulation, video, paintings and contemporary installations. Enter with us in the world of Caliph8, an experimental laboratory where darkness and light, the abstract and the concrete coexist.



Welcome, a glass of?
Whiskey or Negroni .

Where do you come from?  
Manila, Philippines.



Do you remember how you discovered hip-hop?
It was 1983 and my dad bought an LP album of Herbie Hancock: "Future Shock". "Rock it", of course it was the track that made me pop-lock.
 


Your first approach to Djing and scratching? 
1986 was the year I started to mess around scratching, I was tinkering and sneaking to use my dad’s very old and fragile turntable system where I used the phono/fm switch as a toggle for the transform scratch I was experimenting on. 


Your first approach to beat making?
1988 was the year I started making tape loops using our family’s Karaoke machine. It had 2 tape decks and I started making loops with it. I also played with splicing the tape and scratching it directly to the tape head. My father was furiously mad at me.



Your first approach to graffiti?
I started around 1988 in San Bernardino County California. I was doing mostly characters and throw ups. I started illustrating and painting around 6 back in Manila.


Could you define your sound and your artistic vision? 
My sound is a sum of all my influences. I love to explore musicology and art history, so there’s a lot of influences that get mixed up with my creative identity. My style is all about experimenting. So when I create something that resembles Hip-hop, you can hear it in there but there’s always something in my sound that provokes you. It challenges your sensibilities and your boxed palette. But as an overall creative, I have a defined artistic language that I have distilled over the last 30 years, and it is manifested through visual works, sound compositions and performances.

Mountain or sea? 
Mountain.



If you could teleport yourself…
I would like to go back in the 1960s and experience the arts, life back then.



If I tell you AI? 
It depends how you use it. I don’t entirely hate it. There’s always pros and cons with technology.



Top 5 new releases?
- Shanto Kumar « Inner Nature Track 11 »
- Akilraham Sleuth Tatlo « Tres »
- Seething Mass Skeptic « Troubadour » 
- Billy Woods featuring EL-P & Breeze Brewin « Heavy Waters »
- Kreng « Satyriasis »



Top 5 old releases?
- Caliph8 « Offset Negative 27 »
- Western Cultural Noise « Psychic-Psykick »
- Slipstream Group « Paper Chase »
- The Residents « Medicine Man »
- Unrest Work & Play « Ritual Appearance » 
- Flying Saucer Attack « Distance »


Are you still diggin’ vinyl? What kind of music are you obsessed with?
Yes, I’m very active with digging. I just look for anything interesting, unique and other worldly. I also like the classics such as Soul, Funk, Jazz, Soundtracks, New Music, Avant-garde, Experimental, Library, World and Ethnomusicology.


If I tell you Manila?
Manila is a conundrum. Chaotic and interesting. Commercial, Novelty but has a compelling niche underground community.


Your first exhibition as painter?
Year 2000 at Big Sky Mind in Manila, the show was called Conscious Postulate Chamber of Rudiments.


Car or van?
Car.



Your top 3 record labels?
Wild Pitch, Tzadik, Blue Thumb.



What do you want to transmit through your work? 
I want to convey all sorts of ideas and emotions in the most honest and uncompromising way possible.


If you were not a DJ… 
I’d probably be a mechanic for vintage cars.


What’s next?
I’m currently working on a solo art exhibition midyear of 2025. I’m also preparing for performances and a tour overseas. 

Interviewed by Supa Cosh…