Our innocence helped us come this far. Muey [the other half of Scrubb] and I never studied music. We didn’t really know what we were doing. We just created music we liked and we could play.
Don’t make music the only thing you base your life on. Muey and I have always talked about doing other things if making music didn’t work out.
We didn’t want music to be a burden, so we worked for a living, while patiently making music on the side. I got a job in GMM’s A&R division [which seeks out new talent] as we tried to promote our homemade album at music festivals like Fat Fest.
Twenty-seven was the worst year of my life. Thais believe that at age 25 something bad must happen to you before you pass through to the second half of your life. But for me, at 27, our music wasn’t going anywhere and I broke up with my girlfriend.
Help always arrives when you need it most. I was counting down to quitting my job in three months when Black Sheep, a new record label, signed us to be their artist. We put out our first album, SSS..S..S, the following year [2003].
I don’t like constant touring. It’s good that we have a lot of gigs, but we can’t go everywhere. We always take a break for 3-4 months a year to produce our work. We really appreciate the free time to focus on creating music.
Touring gives us the inspiration to create great music. The first five years of touring, everything was exciting. Each place was different with different venues and demographics. We had to find the right way to work each crowd. There were failures and successes.
Doing the same things over and over can help you stay calm. The later years of touring have been quite serene for me. Seeing things come and go— pubs that we’ve played close down, people we’ve met shift careers—has made me understand that all
things must change in some way.
Jobs will always find you, if you’re good at what you do. I used to think that it would be hard to get work in A&R here in Thailand. You can’t use all the A&R theory you learn from abroad because the biggest record labels are all Thai. You must build up local expertise. I’m lucky to be able to draw on my experiences to run Believe Records.
I am lucky I have experience as both an executive and an artist, so I know how to bring about compromise between people on the creative side and management in order to survive in the industry.
What I’m most proud about in running Believe Records isn’t just how I’ve helped create famous artists, but that I’ve been with them since day zero. If one day they leave our company, we will all remember what we’ve been through together.
Always aim to push yourself to another level. Thailand has only 4-5 big record labels, which is a pretty small circle. I try to go to as many music festivals abroad as I can. I want to see the crowds, the management and the energy. It drives me to create something greater.
Life in the fast lane made me stumble. I was busy making a name as an artist and running a business. It was stressful handling everyone’s problems. I thought I could handle it but, in fact, I couldn’t. I felt down. I couldn’t work as I wanted to.
Accept that you can’t fix everyone’s problem. I was lucky, I talked to a psychologist friend who told me to pay attention to myself. In that way, you will understand the problem more clearly.
Life in Bangkok is fast. Everyone is getting from one point to the next. People are used to living their life flying somewhere on the back of a motorcycle taxi.
Riding a bicycle made me realize the limitations of life. I started riding after my doctor told me to do some exercise. Bicycling fits in with my unscheduled lifestyle. After riding for years, I’ve learned that no matter how much of a hurry you are in, you can only go as fast as your body allows. Stick to the speed where you can take care of yourself.
Bad traffic creates the illusion that Bangkok is big. But riding a bicycle made me realize Bangkok is actually small. I can ride from Rama 9 Road to Central Ladprao in just 20 minutes!
Silpakorn University, Nakhon Pathom campus, is everything to me. I lived there for 22 years as I was born there, studied there and even learned how to play music there. I hope to go back to live in Nakhon Pathom when I get older. It’s more than just a
home for me.
Keep doing what you love, getting better and better. I believe that everyone has the chance to do what they love and it will bring them opportunities someday.
