As a child: Happy.
First job: Kitchen porter.
Rule for life: Conceive, believe, achieve.
Path to inner peace: Self belief.
Stupidest trend: Skinny jeans.
Best joke you’ve ever heard: Why was six afraid of seven? Because seven ate nine.
Best chat-up line: My mate wants to know if you fancy me.
Favorite Bangkok sound/noise: Ladyboys shrieking.
Most inspirational person: Peter Crouch.
Most annoying thing you have to encounter everyday: My mate Robbie the Pirate.
Favorite website: www.lamebook.com.
Listening to: The Who.
Last lie: The Peter Crouch thing.
Would like to be remembered as: Funny dude.
When you’re not performing: Psychotherapy.
In 20 years: Not living in Pattaya with a much younger lady, hopefully.

Punchline Comedy Show  at The Bull’s Head

What can we expect at your show?
Our show is a journey through the jazz swing era, so expect to hear classic hits from the time when big band music was hot and popular. We’ll be recreating the magical sounds of those big bands and playing well-known tunes like “In The Mood,” “Fly Me To The Moon” and “Tuxedo Junction.” We are also thrilled to have a Thai singer, Passaya Khiewpluang, who will perform some of the jazz compositions by King Bhumibol Adulyadej in unique arrangements by the Biggles Big Band
How did Biggles Big Band come about?
Back in 1985, a group of young enthusiastic big band devotees decided to start a swinging big band performing our favorite music. We ended up with the name Biggles, which is the main character in the adventure books written by Captain W.E. Johns.
Who are some of your musical idols?
My favourite musicians are band leaders Count Basie and Duke Ellington, bass player Ray Brown, jazz singers Frank Sinatra and Anita O’Day.
You have been in the music scene for over three decades, what do you think has contributed to that success?
I’ve always played the music I like. With the Dutch Swing College Band, Holland’s most famous traditional jazz band, we play traditional jazz music and with Biggles Big Band we recreate the music of the famous big bands like Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Count Basie. Our audiences like our music and keep asking for more.
What are some of your favorite pieces to perform?
My favourite piece is definitely “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” sung by our crooner, Arnold Auée.

Catch Adrie Braat at Biggles Big Band

What’s your story, how did you become a party photographer?
I’ve always been a party animal, but back then I wasn’t allowed into clubs because I was too young. So I equipped myself with a camera and told them I was there to shoot the party.

And it worked?
Of course. People just kind of left me alone because they thought I was with the party organizers.

When did you start doing it professionally?
In 2005. Thanks to my raging party habit, Note from Dudesweet asked if I would be interested in doing it on a regular basis. There weren’t many party photographers in those days, so I jumped at the chance.

Who else do you work for?
I also shoot for Club Soma, Moderndog and some alcohol brands when they have an event.

What’s your favorite thing to shoot?
People who go to a party to genuinely have a good time—their feelings are real.

What’s your least favorite thing to shoot?
Celebs and poseurs.

Tell us about Nocturne
Note came up with this project. He wanted to chronicle the Dudesweet parties and show the faces of Dudesweet’s club-goers, which have changed over time. My photos usually capture the peak of the party whereas Peducck’s tend to focus on the before and after.

Check out Nocturne now at WTF Gallery & Café.

How did you start doing this?
This gift has been in my family for generations. My father got it from my grandfather but I am the only female to receive the gift. It can’t be taught, it’s just something you can naturally do. I started predicting for my friend. She felt that I could help people and asked me to come and work here at Tha Chang. That was 17 years ago.

How much do you make per month?
I earn about B50,000 a month. But I do have to pay rent and other monthly expenses.

What factors determine the accuracy of your prediction?
The customers own minds. I always tell them that if you want to know something, bring the leaf that you like and a determined mind.

How good at this are you?
I wouldn’t say I’m good at predicting what’s going to happen but most of the feedback I get is positive. People don’t just say I can predict things correctly but also that they feel comfortable talking to me.

Do people ever claim you’re just guessing?
Of course. There was an engaged couple who came to see me and I told them they didn’t belong together. They were kind of angry and showed me the ring. I told them you don’t have to believe me. Turns out they didn’t get married in the end because of some accident.

What is the major problem of people who come to see you?
Everything: family, love, money, health. But it’s not just people with problems who come see me. Some are perfectly fine and happy. Some ask for the lottery numbers. I tell them that if I were able to tell, I’d rather tell myself first.

What’s the strangest case?
I had a customer who felt there was something following him around. I could tell that there was a spirit following him so I connected with that spirit and asked it to go away.

What’s the worse thing about the job?
I never have time to go anywhere or for myself. For that reason I might stop someday. My father is now 82, but people still come see him everyday.

Any advice for fans of fortune tellers?
That the more often you go, the more you suffer if it’s not what you wanted to hear. Listen with a neutral mind, and don’t believe everything 100 percent. At the end, you are the only person you can rely on. What happens is the result of your own actions.

I used to get tied up by my mom because I was so mischievous. I was the youngest of five sisters and we always played too hard.

My mom never hesitated to hit us when we damaged things. We once broke a water pipe and didn’t have any water for two days.

The most horrific incident was the time I hurled a bunch of nails at my sister and it stuck into her forehead. I don’t know how I had that much power, maybe because I was so angry.

My first job was singing the national anthem with my friends and teacher. We were recorded by the Government Public Relations Department when I was in the fifth grade. After that I kept getting work, either as part of a chorus or as a vocal coach training other artists.

The turning point was when Surachai “Hia Hoh” Chetchotisak of RS promotion heard my voice on demos for other artists. He called me in for a talk and then helped me release my first album in 2000.

I didn’t know how to find my own voice. I used to help other artists find their signature voice but I found it hard to find the right one for me.

I am seen as a straightforward person by my writers. They write songs that are usually about women criticizing men for their actions. They want me to sing songs that mirror real relationship problems in society, like mistresses.

I never thought I would be in this industry this long. I have my 10 year anniversary concert at the end of October. One of the things that has allowed me to survive this long is being honest.

Don’t pretend to always be nice. People will see you are human, not a fake star.

Society has really changed from 10 years ago, especially, the teenagers. Working at night has made me realize that today, people are daring to do things that would’ve been considered shameful 10 years ago.

The generation gap is wider than in the past. If we don’t try to understand what children are saying then they will just ignore us and start to live their own way.

People are willing to do wrong things for the sake of brief happiness or a desire to defeat others. The only way to fix this is to fix your conscience.

Every desire is a sin. If you know you’re committing a sin then at least it means you know yourself and you have the ability to fix things.

Everyone says Thailand is Buddhist but the reality is totally different. I think we should be Buddhist at heart, and not so interested in material things.

You can’t stop people selling things but you can stop yourself buying things.

Women’s rights are getting worse and will force society to change. Women will feel like they don’t want to get married and don’t want to have kids. Our population will decline. That’s a national development problem. Society will be unbalanced.

Seeing bad things happening to women on the front pages is forcing women to realize that they have to take care of themselves better. It reminds us that we have rights. We need to use their rights to protect ourselves.

Women have fought for their rights for so long but there are still women willing to put themselves under the powerful force called love.

Love is like glue. It sticks you to someone. If you know how to love well, that’s brilliant. But, if your glue turns into bad feelings, like jealousy or lack of respect, you will be in trouble.

Everyone has their own idea of prince charming but you don’t need to worry about findings him. It’s hard to find the man of your dreams in real life.

I believe we all have a soulmate. It just depends on whether you have the time to find the right one.

Thailand might have a female prime minister one day. That will be a sign of real change if it ever happens. Women will have an idol that they can follow and help make them stronger.

Don’t think you’re too little to make your country better. Doing your duty and respecting the rule of law is enough to make everybody happy.

I heard you got into music at a very early age.

Yes I was! I remember when I was around eight and my dad would play his records in the house for a little party with his friends. They were making an absolute ruckus, screaming and dancing to the music (laughs). The noise would wake me up from sleep and I’ll be standing upstairs looking down with a frown on my face. All my dad could say was, “You can either go to bed or play some records.” So that was it; I played the records (laughs)!

What kind of tune was it?

Oh, dad was a funk and soul man. He also had a collection of old school R&B lying around and through what he played, I learned how expressive music is and how it affects people. Take a listen to Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman”—that’s the kind of song that releases people into the music. It just opens you up.

How has your experience of music evolved since then?

Early disco music did it for me and it went on to early acid house. Later on in my career, I went all over the musical soundscape, from hardcore breakbeats to trance. It has always been about the 4/4 beat for me. I could branch out to techno and soul and funk if need be because these sounds come from house music anyway.

Do you think music has somewhat lost its organic side?

That’s a really good question. I have to agree. Everything is computerized now and the construct of music is overtly formulated; there’s the beginning, middle and an end. Back then, bands would just jam it out in the studio with all the raw emotions and energy they could muster which you could actually hear on the records–everything still intact. Even if they were drunk, you could probably hear it!

What about the London sound? Gavin Mills and Sam Holt of Copyright told me previously in an interview that the city has lost it.

Ahhh, the London sound … it’s hard to say really. Particularly, if you look at how the music coming out from London have naturally stayed in London. If you look at the industry here, clubs are closing down, pirate radios are popping everywhere and file-sharing is a daily fix.

Care to elaborate that?

See, none of the music happening in London ever crosses out of the city, it stays in the city and therefore no one outside of the city have ever heard of its sound. In the end, there is no “London sound,” unless you do come to London and experience it yourself. People like Laurent Garnier have planted his musical seeds out of Manchester and slowly across Europe. It’s tough for DJs to do that anymore. The whole file sharing thing doesn’t help anyway; people will just be cooped up at home listening to a tune that seems to be representative of a city but unfortunately is not. At the end of the day, good music is just good music.

True. You are known for your discerning taste in music. What about your sets that has been so widely respected for?

I give everything for the music and that’s a start. I like to take people in on a journey and find elements of sound that does that. Picking their senses and ultimately, driving them insane.

I heard about this gig you did in Romania that went absolutely mental.

You mean the beach party? Yes, that was a mental night but I forgot which year it was and I was asked to do the last set from 3am onwards. I asked the organizers how long I had, and they told me however long I want. I went from dropping old school house classics to techno and even dropped a bit of trance. I was initially given two hours but we went on for eight hours!

So what’s new for Carl Cox?

All Roads Lead to the Dancefloor -my latest album after 4 years. It’ll be out in early 2011 and I have been secretly dropping the tracks from the album during my sets. The album sees me collaborating with an incredibly talented list of artists and producers. These same people will be playing with me live in some of my appearances this year starting with Stereosonic 2010 in Australia.

We’ll definitely look out for it at Zouk! What can we expect this time around?

This will be the first time I will be playing outside of the F1 after 2 years, so it’ll be definitely different. Zouk is one of my favorite clubs in the world; the people are just amazing! I’ll be dropping some new and old records and the Carl Cox spirit of course!

Experience the legendary sounds of Carl Cox on Oct 9, 10pm. Zouk, 17 Jiak Kim St., 6738-2988. $28-33 includes two drinks.

My parents were divorced and I changed school in the UK every year growing up, which sucked. School was a total waste of time because by the time you made friends, you had to move on. But that taught me how to make friends easier than most people. Keeping them, however, is another matter.

Studying in the UK, I went through racial disharmony because I was the only Asian looking kid. Most of the guys wanted to see if I could fight like Bruce Lee and, much to their pleasure, I couldn’t.

Being kicked out the house at 16 years of age taught me to be self-sufficient, which is a rare commodity as it teaches you to give 100 percent at work. I didn’t want to lose my job and be homeless. I had to endure crappy bosses.

The most difficult period of my life was when I lost my mom to breast cancer at around 10. It clouded most of my childhood. My dad was mostly not interested in us, so it was just my sister Samantha and I fending for ourselves.

I moved to Singapore because I felt that I needed to get out of miserable and cold London and wanted a big change. I needed to get back to my roots, man.

Some of my best experiences were as a young trainee in my first hotel job. I learned the ropes in many different areas, working as a porter, at the restaurant, reception, room service; learning tons and making some good friends. The other was an event at Ascot, London, as head waiter for Mossimans. I had to look after members of royal family and take care of their lunch. It was exciting, memorable and nerve-racking.

A good manager must possess the willingness to teach, have good leadership skills and take responsibility. A good sense of humor definitely helps. It all comes from my previous experience of having to work hard and learning a great deal. Back then I progressed rapidly, and became one of London’s youngest managers at 21.

My worst memory is ironically also of my first hotel job. I was being driven like a slave to work 60 hours a week for 25 quid.

The funniest thing I ever saw was back in London when a server threw a steak onto the floor in the kitchen and kicked it around before throwing it into the deep fryer after getting pissed off with a customer. It was amusing and horrifying at the same time. When they served the steak the customer said that it was one of the best he’d ever had!

There are flaws in the service industry here but I think there are an amazing number of talented local professionals. People all over the world are pretty much taught the same thing; it’s the conviction of how it’s carried out that’s different. Unfortunately, most locals do not see F&B as a career nor will they put their heart into it seriously.

A food critic has a wonderful job; however it’s all down to personal choice as we all have different expectations and varied palates. As long as the diners
enjoy the experience, why should you care about what others say about it?

The elusive French street artist takes Pop Art to the next level with his depiction of media, politics and cultural icons—like a modern-day Andy Warhol.

French native and LA-based Thierry Guetta is enigmatic in every sense of the word, not least in his guise as street-artist Mr. Brainwash. In the public eye, the mysterious artist doesn’t divulge much about himself; but the irony is that this is the very thing that's made him so popular—just like his fellow cohort Banksy. “I do not shy away from the public,” he says in an exclusive (albeit exceedingly brief) interview with I-S. “I give the public all I have.”
The public have indeed witnessed his mercurial rise: From the controversial Sundance documentary hit Exit Through The Gift Shop, which also featured other underground artists like Space Invader, Shepard Fairey and Banksy himself, Mr. Brainwash is now one of the most acclaimed street artists of his generation. The documentary sees Thierry playing himself: An everyday man obsessed with street art and subsequently calling himself Mr. Brainwash. Controversy raged about a number of questionable scenes, including one in which Thierry was shown to be “working” but was instead haphazardly vandalizing walls with paint and aerosol. The media has speculated that the film was directed by Banksy and even went as far as to say that Thierry is Banksy. “That is their freedom. Only time will tell,” was all Thierry would say on when we enquired about the subject.
Following that, his debut art show, Life is Beautiful, held at a former CBS studio in LA in 2008, made him a star. The show drew over 7,000 attendees on its opening night, and the artist was later commissioned to work on the cover of Madonna’s compilation CD Celebration, along with art for her DVDs and singles—certainly a coup. After that, his second solo show ICON saw his portrait of Jim Morrison, made from broken vinyl records, sell for US$100,000. A few months later, his piece featuring a Charlie Chaplin character with a paint can and roller in hand, with a background of Madonna and a heart image, was given a pre-auction estimate of US$50,000-70,000. So what’s the distinction between high art and street art, with the latter now fetching such extravagant prices? “They both are the same to me, but street art is available to everyone,” says the artist. “Art is freedom, it has no rules.”

Immerse yourself in the world of Mr. Brainwash and other well known artists like Marc Quinn, Damien Hirst and Andy Warhol at the exclusive exhibition Art Beyond Limits through Oct 24 at Opera Gallery, #03-05 ION Orchard, 2 Orchard Turn, 6735-2618. Free.

Many remember the 80s as an era of fashion mishaps. What fashion trend did you regret following the most, or is there one you’d like to revive?
I hate shoulder pads now but those rubber bracelets we used to wear were really cool and still are. I saw a little kid wearing some just the other day!

What is it about the music scene that hasn’t changed?
There will always be artistes that critics hate because they are young and popular. Also, there are still acts who deserve to be heard and aren’t. Showbiz has never been and will never be fair. It is not for the faint-hearted.

Any teen idols you personally admire or can’t stand?
Well, there’s no one I dislike, really. I wish everyone the best. I love Taylor Swift because she writes, plays and carries herself with grace.

Which star has made the biggest impact on you?
Without people like Barbra Streisand and Bette Midler, none of us women would be crossing over into film and theater.

Does any particular concert stand out in your memory?
I remember there was one show at the Radio City Music Hall that was sold out where I ran up a tiny staircase along the side of the theater wall and into the balcony. Fans and security were freaking out!

Thank you for “Foolish Beat”; it is such a classic. What’s the story behind it?
Actually, I had yet to experience love when I wrote it! The melody and lyrics just came to me. I was inspired by music that was popular on radio and my two older sisters who were constantly having drama with boys.

Ah… the joys of youth. Was there anything that was not so joyful; like trouble dealing with fame?
I was very young. I had my share of anxiety attacks and meltdowns, but there wasn’t this media addiction that young stars have now. I wanted attention for my music, not my personal life. On the one hand, I didn't feed the media scandalous stories. On the other hand, the media wasn’t looking for them the way they are now.

Describe a bizarre moment in your life as a star.
Happily bizarre and surreal was meeting Michael Jackson and sharing the stage with Billy Joel and Elton John. But it is always bizarre when people ask for autographs in restrooms!

Catch the multi-talented Debbie Gibson in action at the Retrolicious concert on Oct 9, 8pm at Fort Canning Park, 51 Canning Rise, 6332-1300. $48-95 from Sistic.

BK: How did you become a member of his fan club?
Apismai: My family all love music and I play the guitar. I watch every season of Academy Fantasia and I liked AF4 most. I developed a real crush on Wanthongchai “Tol” Indharawatra. I was just amazed by his talent; he is the first singer or celebrity that I become devoted to.

BK: How did your family feel about this?
Apismai: All my family, my husband, my brother and my mom, also love him. My mom used to get up early just to watch him on the reality show every morning. We saw him 24 hours a day so we felt like he’s our little brother or son.

BK: What did you used to do for a job?
Apismai: I used to be the manager of a private company before I took early retirement last year. Now I’m just a housewife, taking care of my mother and following Tol.

BK: How much money did you spend voting for him by SMS?
Apismai: More than 5 digits.

BK: How did you keep up with what Tol’s up to your artist?
Apismai: There are a lot of fan websites like www.tolaf.com or the Harrypottol room at www.pantip.com. We also have a production fan crew that captures every event that he goes to, but we make sure that we never intrude into his personal life.

BK: How has your life changed after developing a crush on him?
Apismai: Other than following him, I have also been able to make a lot of new friends. We do good things together like making merit, and we eat out or travel together when we follow Tol out of town.

BK: What’s the qualification of being a fan?
Apismai: Your family has to understand what you’re doing and you have to know your limits. Following an artist is not easy. It costs you a lot of money. I used to follow him to three events per day but I’ve never gone abroad like some of the other fans.

BK: Have you ever meet him in person?
Apismai: Yes and he’s a really nice and honest guy. He treats his fans equally and is really strict about his fans’ behavior: no drugs and no playing truant just to come and see him. We also keep an eye out for each other and how we behave.

BK: What do you want to say to other fans?
Apismai: You can be crazy about K-pop or J-pop but don’t forget the local artists. You should really support them as much as you can.