When did you start playing music?
18 years ago in England. I listened to Gun N’ Roses and I saw their lead guitarist, Slash, and I wanted to play guitar like him. So my mom bought me a secondhand guitar, and I formed a band with my friend. Back then our sound was more like rock, punk and hardcore, but now that I’m getting older, I do more slow stuff, more chill and acoustic. As for Thailand, I came here to travel and really loved the culture, the people and the language, so when I went back to England, I wanted to compose a song in Thai. I wrote it in English and had some Thai friends translate it.

How did you get in touch with Parinam Music?
Over a year ago, I was here looking for a studio. I had a meeting with Poom and played him some of my music. It went from there. I provided them with the melody, and the entire band at Parinam helped me compose the Thai lyrics. It’s difficult singing in Thai but the more I practice, the better I get.

How would you describe Aplin’s sound?
It’s called acoustic percussion. It involves playing not just the strings of the guitar, but rather using the body of the guitar as well to create a beat while you sing.

Is it difficult to mix your English melodies with Thai lyrics?
I’m not the person who composes in Thai so for me the music is very much an English melody but with Thai lyrics. And that’s why our music has something different to offer. Because I’m not Thai, I can’t write with the Thai mindset. I try to create something new for Thai people to listen to, like when I listen to Thai music, a lot of it sounds similar. So, I try to bring something fresh and hopefully people will like it.

How do you like playing here?
The British music industry is hard to break into. If you want to be famous, you must sing in a certain way and dress in a certain style. But for Thai music, there is a lot of room for doing what you really believe in and being yourself. But the audiences also are different in style; Thai audiences focus on the lyrics while in England, people focus more on the music and the melodic line.

I was singing “Kae Nan Ang,” the song by Pla Nin Tem Ban at the recent Fat Radio T-shirt Festival. That was the first time that they wanted to officially introduce me as Aplin. I played in Bangkok before, actually, but nothing on a large scale. There were more than 500 people at the festival. I was sweating backstage and had my eyes closed through half the performance.