What are you working on right now?
I have two projects right now: the Magical Journey album and Tomato Music and Entertainment Company. For the album, I worked with Dodo, a Frenchman who came up with the idea of making an international album with famous artists and an oriental sound. Dodo wanted it to be emotional and spiritual, something like world music mixed with jazz. I’ve been into this project since I heard him describe it. I spent two years producing this album, traveling around the world—to places like Jamaica, US and India—to collect the music of each place and contact artists. Now everything on the music side is finished, we’re just tying up the business side.
What’s special about this album?
It’s world lounge music. And we recorded most of the instruments live. We’re lucky that we got many Grammy Award winners to sing for us, like Sharon Marley, daughter of the legendary Bob Marley; Jean Paul; and Lady Saw, the first female DJ to win a Grammy. There’s only one Thai singer, Marsha. The vice president of MTV Asia likes the album so much that he is recommending it for next year’s Grammy Awards. He also said that it should represent Asia on MTV around the world. It looks like we have a good chance at the Grammys since last year’s nominees in the world music category didn’t have very good ideas. Magical Journey is a breakthrough. It’s revolutionary.
How’s working with those famous artists?
It’s easy since they’re very professional. Once they understand what you want, they can implement it immediately.
When will it launch?
We hope to launch it overseas this September, so it’s in time for the Grammy Awards next year. Then the Thai release will come seven to eight months later.
What about your music company?
It’s a new small label. Our first album, released in February, is called Tomato Project #1. It showcases songs from our three bands that will each launch their own full albums soon. My band is one of them. We’re focusing on ease of enjoyment. And we record live.
Why do you bother to do it live when the computer is much easier?
This way it has emotions and feeling. It’s fresh and not bland. The audience might not notice whether we play it live or use a computer, but I believe they can feel it.
Do you feel stressed about the label’s first album?
Not much. We intend to produce quality work and money isn’t our first objective. We want the audience to listen to it and feel that it’s worth every baht they spend. And this is just an introduction to the bands and to our label. We have to wait and see whether it will work or not.
