BK: How did you become a band?
Tul: Some of us were already in a student band at Silapakorn University. Back then, it was just me, Tor and Ton. Then Pop, Toon and Art joined later. We just played for fun.

BK: Why did you choose this name?
Pop: We were going to play at the university but didn’t have a name yet. I told my friends, who came to rehearse at my house, that it used to have a lot of planil (tilapias). They liked the name.
Tul: When Pop saw us all crammed into his tiny room, with our instruments and all, he said, “Planil tem ban.” [The house is full of tilapias]. We liked it right away.

BK: When did you first get noticed?
Tul: After playing at the Silpakorn Music Awards, we entered the Net Design Love Song Contest and a song that I had written, “Naliga,” turned out to be the winner. I didn’t want to write the usual song like “I love you, I dump you, I have a crush on you.” Mine was about the timing for two people to meet and love each other.

BK: So things really picked up after that?
Tul: Not really, we were still working day jobs to earn a living. We had a tough time and asked each other, “Do we want to stop?” But no one did, so we kept going. My dad also talked to me and said, “What if you can’t play guitar in your next life? You can play in this life, so why don’t you do it?”
Tul: Then, I wrote a song about doing your best, called “Kid Dee Dee” which climbed to #6 on FAT Radio 40’s Charts. Later, we won a FAT award, for the Bedroom of the Year [for home-recorded music] and went on FAT’s 10-year anniversary concert and the FAT north tour where everyone was singing our songs. That was brilliant. But we still don’t have much time to go on tour because everyone still has their day jobs.

BK: What are your day jobs?
Tul: I work as a graphic designer.
Pop: I am a musician and playing music by night.
Ton: Mathematics tutor.
Toon: I have my own business, called Doller, producing resin dolls that are copies of real people. Most of my customers do it as a gift for someone.
Tor: I do handmade drums.
Tul: He’s a rare drum maker in Thailand!
Art: I am a guitar teacher for music academies.