Only a small group of people know my real love for jazz. My family is full of musicians who play jazz. My passion is the jazz guitar. 

Sometimes you must be patient in order to reach your dream. I wanted to be a jazz musician but there was no audience for it a decade ago. If I’d tried to release a jazz album right away, it would have been career suicide. 

Jazz is like fine art for me. It’s this abstract thing that not everyone will truly appreciate or understand. On the other hand, rock is something people get right away.

Being a rock star was one step in achieving my dream. I love jazz but I also love to sing rock songs. Rock was my passport into the music industry, thanks to the success of my first album (Catarock, 1998). If I released a jazz album today, it wouldn’t be a problem as the genre is now more widely known.

An artist’s image must be adaptable to endure in this industry. I think my fans would be bored if I just served up the same music album after album. With my new album, Catarock OSX, I decided to work with some new, emerging talents who have helped me start a new chapter, while maintaining my signature rock ballad sound.

Everyone has an identity but not all can show it. Many musicians struggle with this. All I can say is find a role model, learn from their work and attune things according to your experiences. 

Being afraid of not being popular will only destroy your work. Many artists are trapped with this fear that their work won’t be a success and don’t focus on making their work the way they want. 

Make your mindset crystal clear and stick to it. Look at the T-Bone band: they played ska-reggae for more than two decades when no one really knew what it was. Now they are undoubtedly the number one ska band in Thailand.

Alcohol is to blame for the darkest part of my life. I forgot to focus on what I love to do, music, and just hung around with people getting drunk every night. I even lay down in the middle of the road in RCA because I was so drunk. 

I drank so much that I didn’t care about anything anymore, even my family and music. I would record songs when I was drunk and listen to them when I was sober. I would be like, “What the hell is this?” 

I even got to the point where I didn’t want to play music anymore. I was an idol for so many people and I was like, “Is this all there is for me?”  

Having a kid made me reconsider my behavior. I couldn’t go on acting like trash once I had [my son] Tigger. I wouldn’t have lived long enough to see him be successful if I kept on living like that. 

Find a place that lets you be at peace. I was lucky that I changed when I did. My energy was about to run out. I needed to find somewhere to recharge myself.

Entering the monkhood led to my rebirth. It lasted only two weeks but it was totally worth it. All I did was meditate in a temple deep in the jungle. After I finished, I knew my life had begun again. 

You won’t change if you don’t sit still and, with full consciousness, decide what what you really want to be. It’s like pressing a reset button, then you can start doing whatever you wish for.

It was my fault that I neglected to take care of my son when I was with my first wife [Nicole Theriault]. I thought everything would be fine as we had a nanny so I always went out for gigs and got drunk. 

Nothing is better than getting the chance to right a wrong. The best thing about being reborn was getting the chance to spend time with my son, even though I had divorced from Nicole. I tried to be his daddy, not just the drunken guy I used to be.

Life is not all about setting big goals. I’m now really into writing and I’m planning to release my first book soon, Fang Fuek Len (Listen, Practice, Play), in which I talk about life and music. I’m also trying to finish my master’s in jazz studies at Rangsit University, where I’m also a special instructor. 

As I get older, I want to spread my experience and knowledge. It’s better than just sitting at home after you’re retired from music.

I love taking pictures, especially using HDR [High Dynamic Range, a technique which produces painterly colors]. Some people think this makes pictures too dramatic to be realistic. But I see it as a great way to expand my creativity, making a simple photo into whatever my imagination dreams up.

Know yourself. Everyone wants to fulfill their desires. But you won’t unless you know what you really want.