The Founder

About the Founder

I've spent over twenty years in the pit, on tour, and backstage — not because it was a career plan, but because I believed the moments I was witnessing mattered. That they deserved to be preserved. That someday, someone would want to look back and say: this is what it looked like. This is what it felt like. This was real.

I started in 2004 as a stylist for Filipino band Rivermaya. I ended up staying for the music, and picked up a camera to remember my time with them. Since then I've documented some of the most important names in the Filipino music scene — Greyhoundz, Kitchie Nadal, Spongecola, Barbie Almalbis, Kamikazee, platforms like rock radio station NU107 and FlipTop Battle League — not as hired help, but as someone who showed up, built trust, and stayed long enough to understand the story.

I've taught photography workshops. I've mentored the next generation of music photographers. I've spent two decades choosing history over convenience.

alt164 Press exists because of that choice. Every book we aim to publish is an act of preservation — not just of music, but of who we are as Filipinos. Music has always been the thing that unites us despite our differences. These books are proof that it happened. That we were here. That it mattered.

I'm not doing this for myself. I'm doing this because our history deserves a shelf.

— Niña Sandejas Founder, alt164 press