Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown on CNN is more docu-series than cable show.

The tone varies widely from week to week — sometimes frantic and alcohol-soaked, other times more contemplative and story-driven — and the cinematography and editing are more natural than on shows that remind you with a constant barrage of logos and musical cues that you’re watching what you’re watching.

In the Parts Unknown Season 7 opener, Bourdain visits Manilla over Christmas to explore one of the Philippines’ chief exports, which is Filipinos who go to other countries to care for other people. It’s an immigrant story of sorts, but told from there (instead of here) and with connectedness (instead of divisive politics).

We caught up with Bourdain en route to somewhere — he never says where, but it was clear from the “turn here” and “turn there” directions that he knew where he was going — to talk about his week in Manilla.

DECIDER: I’m looking for a Filipino Billy Idol cover band. Any suggestions?

ANTHONY BOURDAIN: [Laughs.] Well, look in any directions in the Philippines. There are at least 20 people who can cover the full catalog of Billy Idol, Generation X and all of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon in a number of languages.

Is that a subculture in Manilla or something that’s everywhere?

Something I’ve come to learn from my experience in the Philippines is that music and singing is a really important part of daily life. It’s a way out of poverty for a lot of people — people who are good at it, who work hard at it and can cover every conceivable song, and who can learn new ones very quickly. I see Filipino cover bands all over Southeast Asia covering Meryl Haggard, Shirley Bassey, Guns N’ Roses — and all of the above.

From this episode, there seems to be a lot of American influence in the Philippines. They speak with more of an American accent than in a lot of other Asian countries. Does it feel when you’re there like a very American-influenced place?

We spent a lot of time there. We fought there. We installed a government there. We were a major part of Filipino life for many years. And a huge part of the Filipino economy is dependent on a lot of money coming from overseas, and a lot of that comes form the United States.

You went to a fast food place called Jollibee, which sounds like a big deal in the Philippines.

It’s huge, and they’re very proud of it. One of the things they’re proudest of is that it’s Filipino and not a foreign import. It’s a home-grown, wildly successful chain and is much more successful in the Philippines than McDonald’s or Burger King. There are a few in the United States now.

You go to all these different places and usually find a family or a group or a relationship that’s has it’s own particular details but is very relatable to people recognize those kinds of relationships. Do you think the show has become something like a stealth social anthropology project?

I don’t take it that seriously. Telling a story from a personal point of view is an effective way to tell a story and get a personal, individual perspective, but we like to change it up. This was a very sentimental, very personal, tightly focused story that focused on some individuals, but the next week could be very different. We could do a conflict-driven story in one episode and Eric Ripert and met getting drunk and eating our way through France in the next.

I won’t spoil the Philippines episode by talking too much about the story, but there’s a definite emotional pop.

It’s an emotional story about a particular phenomenon — about the Filipinos who leave their families to go abroad and take care of other people’s families and raise generations of children who love them but aren’t their own. All the while, they’re own families are back home where they’re not able to see them. It’s an epic tale and a very common one. This is a way of life for hundreds of thousands of Filipinos.

This is Season 7 and you’ve done 60-something episodes now. Does the format at the setup of the show still suit you?

Yeah. I can change the format and the setup anytime I want, and I try to do that as much as possible. I’ve been given tremendous freedom to go anywhere I want, tell any story I want, any way I want, and I’m trying to make the most of that freedom and the confidence that CNN has given me. They’ve been very cool about letting me do whatever I want.

Have you seen Gaycation or F*ck, That’s Delicious on Vice?

I haven’t seen Gaycation yet, but I think it’s a terrific idea. I’ve seen F*ck, That’s Delicious, and I’m a big Action Bronson fan. I like the show, and he’s a personality that we need today.

Are there places you haven’t been that are still on your list?

There are places we have’t been to for security reasons. Yemen is a place I’ve been trying to find a safe way to visit. Afghanistan. Pakistan. Tribal areas of Syria. These are all places that it would be foolish to go to right now but that I’d hope to go to at some point. There are a lot of areas of China I’d like to visit and a lot of areas we’ve been to that I’d like to go back to and do a different story or do a better job than I did the first time.

Have you done any live breaking news for CNN on any of your trips?

Oh, God no. I’m not a journalist. I would suck at that, and I don’t want the burden of responsibility that would come with it. I’ve got too much of a point of view to do that. I’m not asking people about conflict. I’m asking what they eat, what makes them happy, what their lives are like. When you ask things like that, people open up in extraordinary ways.

[Watch the seventh season of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown on CNN this Sunday, April 24th at 9 p.m., or catch up on prior seasons on Netflix]

Scott Porch writes about the streaming-media industry for Decider. He is also a contributing writer for Biographile and The Daily Beast. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottPorch.