NXT 
A few months ago Rhyan Santos sent over a batch of 268 images for his “Photo Credit” feature. We flipped through the batch and fell in love with the raw, on-the-road-with-your-best-friends vibe he was able to capture in some of our favorite bands. We all strive to shoot similar photos when we leave the comforts of home, but he somehow does it with a youthful quality that most of us wish we could capture. It also helps that his friends are incredibly talented musicians we all know and love. So we ended up giving him a feature in issue 18 to highlight some of the more impressionable moments. Check out the gallery below to see a few of the 268 images and grab the new issue to see what we deemed worthy of the printed page and read below how he got into this.
What Youth: How did you get into photography? What was your introduction to it?
I got into photography through my uncles who do a bunch of wedding and commercial work in the Philippines, they came to the States with a bunch of camera gear and I would use them during their stay. They liked the photos I was taking, and told me I should buy a camera to start shooting. At the time I collected sneakers, so I sold my collection and bought a camera. From there I never stopped shooting, but my style and what I was interested in eventually changed because I started studying photography in college, going to galleries, and being exposed to other artists.
Click on the gallery below for full screen enjoyment:
Where are you from? Are you born and raised in LA?
I was born in historic Filipinotown, but was raised in Norwalk/Artesia where my grandparents relocated.
Do you play any music on your own?
I don’t, but I used to play bass clarinet and alto sax in middle school and was pretty damn good at it.
How did you start working in the music biz? Is that your main job or do you have other jobs?
I started working in music biz by lying to people. My best friend (Abe) and I have this project called Mu$ty BoYz, and at the beginning of the project (2013) Abe and I would go to shows and tell promoters and bands that we did photo and video coverage (for shows & bands), which wasn’t entirely true because we did it for ourselves, but just wanted an excuse to party and hang out with new people. A promoter/dear friend of mine (Alex) was the first one to give us a shot because he believed in the work that we produced, and ended up inviting us to the shows that he would throw, which always ended up being with bands that we wanted to work with. Fast forward a few months later, I started touring as a photographer with Death Lens and The Frights. Other bands would see the photos coming from the tours, so they started to invite me out on the road with them. I was still working retail on Fairfax, and my manager (Jesse, who is also a good friend of mine) requested that I started tour managing the bands I was photographing because he was tired of me leaving all the time. That planted the seed in my head, so I ended up leaving the job to learn how to tour manage bands. It has been a full time gig for me since January 2016, but before that it was a part time gig (I was working 3 other jobs by the end of 2015). When I’m back home in LA, I’ll get commission work for photography or get asked to DJ from time to time.
What bands do you manage and tour with?
So far I have tour managed for The Buttertones, Cherry Glazerr, The Frights, Ian Sweet, LALA LALA, L.A WITCH, Mu$ty BoYz, No Parents, Slow Hollows, and Tashaki Miyaki. In the past (as a photographer) I have been on the road with Santoros, Levitation Room, Psychomagic and Allah Las.
