What appealed to you about working on the Horse’s Mouth project?
Our client was a long-time collaborator so we had an understanding about what we wanted to achieve. They own three associated establishments: Uma Uma Ramen, which had to look casual, Horse’s Mouth, which is a little mysterious and fun, and formal kaiseki joint Yoshiyuki. The project was challenging because we had to integrate three very different spaces and make it work.

What influences did you draw from in designing the space?
We looked at temple roof tiles because of its origin in kaiseki cuisine but also wanted to add a little sparkle to the space with color. That’s where the origami flowers came into play; we had to find enough people to fold thousands of them!

What’s foremost in your mind when you’re designing a secretive space?
The space cannot be too large or it’ll feel faked. Secretive places have secret entrances that lead to small spaces so that the secret can be kept intact.

Do you think secret bars are here to stay in Singapore?
Well, it depends on the quality of the bars. Good bars will always be around because the secret gets out. Bad bars should remain a secret.

What were the projects Asylum worked on in 2012 that you’re most proud of?
Horse’s Mouth and Yoshiyuki of course, plus the Johnnie Walker house in Beijing and a pop up store for Hublot.

Any exciting projects coming up?
We’re working on the branding of a major art museum that’s opening in 2015 and a few hotels in Jakarta.

I was an unwitting follower of fashion. I loved it before I even knew what it was. I always kept an eye on my elementary school teacher’s fashion sense and would sketch details down in my textbooks.

I studied fashion design at the University of North Texas and discovered a real passion for fashion history. After I graduated, I came back to work in Bangkok as a junior designer for a small brand before becoming a freelancer for the Thai edition of Elle Magazine.

1997 saw a big change in the fashion industry. All the big names like Gucci, Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton altered their marketing strategies, giving chances to new designers, installing head offices in the Far East and pouring money into advertising. I was lucky that this was when I started up as fashion editor at Elle Thailand.

You never know what your passion is until you start doing it. I’m lucky to have found what I love to do. I still get excited every day when I drive to work.

Fashion is not entertainment; it’s a business. People always ask me if I had fun at international fashion weeks, and I tell them there’s a whole lot of not-so-fun work to do to get a show up on the catwalk for only 10 minutes.

Working in fashion is like getting dressed up. It doesn’t need to be as stressful as some people make it.

My life is quite surreal with all the exclusive treats and luxuries I receive as a fashion magazine editor. So it’s really important that you surround yourself with the right people so as to not forget who you are and abuse your power and everyone around you.

Hanging out with those you love helps keep you grounded. I love to balance my fancy work life by spending time with my family. There are no exaggerations when I am with them. At the end of the day, even the editor of the Vogue’s US edition, Anna Wintour, is a mother to her daughters.

Vogue’s arrival is an indicator that the Thai market is ready to expand. People are spending more money on luxury brands. Vogue Thailand will change the local fashion scene immensely over the next six months.

Becoming Vogue editor is my biggest challenge yet. I’ve always said that you learn something new every day and this confirms it. Just because I have worked for Elle Thailand for 15 years doesn’t mean I know how this job is going to turn out. We’re starting from scratch so I’ve already met with the editors who took Vogue to Britain and Spain.

Each edition of Vogue must reflect its country’s culture. I love that the Vogue team doesn’t have a template for us to follow. We can create what we want so long as it matches Vogue’s standards. It’s up to us to portray Thai sensibilities in such a way that people know they’re reading Vogue Thailand.

I want to celebrate Thai talents; not only designers, but anything related to fashion, from photographers, models and make-up artists to Thai craftspeople. I want Vogue to be a platform for them to shine.

A top fashion magazine doesn’t need to be avant-garde. My ideal magazine is easily accessible and has the power to inspire every girl on the street to express their own sense of fashion.

I’m one of the biggest fans of HM Queen Sirikit. I can recall accurately what she wore at any number of ceremonies. I achieved one of my great goals by being a part of the creation of the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles. I’m enchanted by Thai textiles and hope to keep developing them for the Thai fashion scene.

Thai fashion labels are being run by rich kids who oversee both the design and business aspects. That means there’s no real focus on designing clothes, unlike in global fashion cities where investors pour money into allowing designers to get creative.

I consider it my next duty to encourage investors to see the good opportunities in Thai fashion and to help expand it.

I pride myself on moderation. I never believe or like anything too much, until I’ve looked at it from another perspective. It pays to have an open mind. Reading and traveling will polish your thoughts.

Deadlines are the scariest thing in my line of work, much harder than dealing with people or keeping on top of trends.

Acknowledge your mistakes and move on. Don’t look back and don’t let it happen again. My big errors of judgment include choosing covers that didn’t sell.

Everyone has trial-and-error moments in fashion, myself included.
I have no noble philosophy. I just live with the truth. Even if one day I don’t have everything I have now, I’ll have no regrets.

Other Vogue editors have told me to live my life to the fullest now, because my social life will all but disappear once the magazine’s first issue is released.

Be prepared for everything that life might throw at you. You can never know how bad things are going to be.

How did you come up with ShowbaTV?
Ben: We all studied communication arts so wanted to go into either film or TV production, but we couldn’t find a way to get work in that field. We also share the trait of bugging and driving people crazy, so one day Jent asked, “Why we don’t turn this into something productive?” Many people see the problems in society, but are afraid to talk about them. We are curious to know how much reality Thai society can really take.
Jent: The name is derived from the Thai word for “basic” because we want to portray the basic problems that need to be discussed.

How do you come up with your topics?
Jent: Mostly it’s simply when we find a story and think something’s not quite right. For example, I used to work in Siam and I would have trouble finding a taxi home, so I decided to take up the subject and it turned out to be one of our most popular videos so far.

How do you feel when authorities don’t do anything to solve problems like these?
Ben: I was shocked at first. We, the citizens, rely on them when something goes wrong, but often the law doesn’t adequately address these issues. For example, in our “Ghost tickets” episode we found that middlemen were charging outrageous prices for normal tickets, meaning real football fans couldn’t afford them. But the police said they could not arrest the scalpers because there is no specific law against selling overpriced tickets. They can only charge them for nuisance.

What has been your favorite episode so far?
Ben: My favorite one is called “Handicapped people or handicapped society?” Life is not so easy here even for the able-bodied, so things are much more difficult for the handicapped. The authorities don’t do a lot to help. In Japan, the handicapped get very good treatment from the government and people, which reflects the development of that society.
Jent: The government here gives them 500 baht a month instead of helping them find careers that can benefit them in the long-term. They don’t have a sustainable solution for these people.

What do these problems say about Thai society?
Jent: People always want to cover their eyes and ears. They want to live in an imaginary world where everything is beautiful. But we want to present the truth. Problems at the individual level impact all of society.

What are your plans for the future?
Jent: I want to have my own internet channel with many programs that open people’s eyes and ears.
Ben: We all quit our jobs to start doing our show. Although we are a small group, we want to really change the state of Thai media. I want to dispel the commonly held perception that quality programs get low ratings.
 

Who came up with the nifty idea?

It came from a conversation I had with INSEAD Asia Campus contact Chua Seng Teong, who’s now the vice-president for strategy at Kezaar. We both had our own networks of vivacious and multi-talented friends who always made time outside of their day jobs to develop skills such as sports photography and even wine pairing. We called them “amateur-sionals”, and thought it’d be great to come up with something where they could showcase their talent.

So Kezaar is a skills-sharing platform?

It is, but it’s also a great way to give back to society—with every booking made on Kezaar, we’ll contribute 50 cents to a charity the user has selected. It adds a feel-good element to the user’s overall learning experience. Users can pick up new skills and contribute to a cause they care about—how cool is that?

Women in business—what’s your take on it?

For a start, I don’t see myself as a female CEO, just a CEO. Why should women be straitjacketed in this way? I’m “gender blind”—to me, merit speaks loud and clear, be it in pants or a skirt! I’ve never felt different from a man in terms of starting and managing a business and I’m not particularly sensitive about my gender; I focus on my expertise, experience and vision. The only circumstance where my gender gets more attention is perhaps in the technology sector, but that’s only because a tech-based business is expected to run by a roomful of software engineer-type blokes in T-shirts and jeans.

What kind of mad skills do you need to have to be an entrepreneur?

Plenty! Entrepreneurs need to be “shameless”—not take “no” for an answer—and be prepared for grueling hours. They need to have lots of stamina and tenacity.

Any role models?

I admire Olivia Lum a lot. She started building Hyflux at the age of 28, and it turned into a billion-dollar regional business. In addition to an inspiring personal background, Lum challenges the notion of women slanting towards “softer” industries, as Hyflux deals in water and chemical infiltration.

Starting a fun initiative like this must be hard—what’s been the biggest challenge so far?

We faced many skeptics from the investors’ circle, who had difficulty visualizing our product and understanding our hybrid business model that supports charities. We recognized the positive impact Kezaar could have in the social enterprise and learning space, so we went ahead without external funding.

How do you define success?

I’m very unimpressed by the clichéd definitions of success out there that are almost always related to financial achievements. Our lives are multi-faceted. There are many who have accumulated great monetary wealth but are emotionally bankrupt.  It’s not about what we own, but what we do with what we have. To me, success is about how strongly a person’s positive impact can be felt after his demise.

The most bizarre request we’ve had was… a 50 Cent song.

Dutch boys are...mostly DJs.

We call ourselves Showtek because… we make a show during our performance, otherwise we would call ourselves Sh*tek and no one will show up.

Our greatest music influences are… Prodigy, Faithless and Tiesto.

Electronic dance music has the power to… get a lot of girls dancing.

Our proudest moment was when… we sold out 5,500 tickets in a gig in Sydney Australia all by ourselves.

I’m ashamed to admit that… we sometimes complain like little kids on the plane but it's always worth it when we get to the party!

If we weren’t DJs, we would be… in the police force or commercial business.

When did you first get into music?
Gralvan: When I was 9 or 10 years old, my older cousin was making music with a friend and I highly looked up to him. I downloaded Fruity Loops and I’ve been messing with music programs ever since. I had no idea what I was really doing; I just played around trying to be creative. I never had any musical training apart from some drum lessons when I was 14.
snack|BOT: I was kind of born into it. I have a very musical and eclectic family. I was exposed to literally every form of music. My grandfather was a jazz musician who played in bands with musicians like Buddy Miles. My mom was really into hip-hop and alternative rock. My dad loved funk and the oldies, but was a huge hip-hop fan as well.

How did Strange Blanket come into being?
snack|BOT: Gralvan and I met in our teenage years through a mutual friend. After a few years we finally got together at my home studio and worked on our first track together. We didn't really do anything with it but it was a good start and we kept in touch over the years. More and more we'd start tossing ideas back and forth about starting this collective of fellow musicians and making compilation albums, but we never got anybody to commit. Finally we decided to just do it ourselves until people caught on. After a while it just became a duo.

How would you describe the Strange Blanket sound?
snack|BOT: With Strange Blanket, it’s less of a sound we try to capture and more of a feeling or a vision we try to create. Our sound is pretty much a collection of everything we experience in life. That said, we like to blend more electronic hip-hop with ultra-melodic sounds, while bringing in hard-hitting drums at times over synthy soundscapes. It’s something that will hopefully forever keep evolving.

How did Creatures of Leisure Vol. 1 come together?
snack|BOT: It originally started off as the beginning of a series of compilation albums, but since we never could get anybody else to commit, we just went it alone. It was an interesting process. We locked ourselves in the studio with a few synth keyboards and midi controllers and just pieced it together. A few tracks incorporated other influences. For the most part it went pretty smoothly and we built the confidence needed to get out there and start sharing it with the world. It’s the first of many to come. We don't have a set number on how many exactly we want to put out, but we just intend to keep going until life doesn't let us anymore. We’ve started on Vol. 2 over here. We’re really trying to soak in as much of Thailand as we can to pour it into this next installment. The Thai people and culture in general are extremely inspiring.

You’ve known each other for a long time; what’s it like working together?
snack|BOT: We're both a couple of freakshows, so it's an interesting and unorthodox process! We usually see eye-to-eye, though. When we add it all up, we haven't really been working on music collectively for very long. We made about three random tracks over the course of a few years and then didn't start on Creatures of Leisure Vol. 1 until August of 2012. When you work with people you're comfortable with its not hard at all to make whatever you can to the best of both of your abilities.

Your remix of ASAP Rocky got some hits on YouTube; is remixing something that interests you?
snack|BOT: Honestly, we're not really interested in doing remixes. We understand them and their purpose, but don't really feel the need to make it a habit. That ASAP Rocky remix was just a straight-up marketing tool. We were in the studio and just dropped that track as we were working on a more trappy kind of sound. We were like, "Why not? Let’s see how much traffic it will bring..." and on Soundcloud we got into the thousands of hits in a few days until they pulled it for copyright infringement. Then we just tossed it on YouTube and forgot about it.

snack|BOT, you’ve worked with Phife Dawg (of A Tribe Called Quest); what was that like?
snack|BOT: It was pretty crazy. I grew up listening to A Tribe Called Quest just like every other hip-hop head around. My dad would sit me down when I was six and school me on the whole Native Tongues collective and explain to me how much of an impact they had on their generation and how it went beyond the music. So to grow up and get the opportunity to work with him, let alone have him ask me to be on his production team, was insane. He really taught me a lot of the dos and don'ts of the industry. I started DJing for him when his manager and DJ Rasta Root couldn't make it, and eventually I just became his fully-fledged hype man. They started taking me on tour around the States and then we started booking world tours once his health was back to 100%. The whole experience was the greatest thing ever and I'm eternally grateful for it.

Are there any artists you’d particularly like to work with?
snack|BOT: The internet makes it easy to connect with people who without it would seem almost impossible to get in touch with. However, when it comes to collaborating we believe it goes beyond the music. We would prefer to work with very open-minded and forward-thinking people. The list would almost be endless. We got to catch [French producer] Onra while out here in Bangkok. We were fans of his music and now being able to have interactions with him just solidifies our appreciation of his creativeness. From a purely musical perspective, we would like to seek out those unique artists like Mr.Oizo, Neon Indian, Free The Robots, Ariel Pink, Tame Impala and D-Styles.

What can people expect from your upcoming gig at Jam?
Gralvan: We pretty much roll with the bare minimum, so our live sets consist of laptop and Midi controllers. When it comes to a Strange Blanket show expect the unexpected. We like to keep it as fresh as possible, and to leave no stone unturned.

Any plans for future releases?
Gralvan: We just plan to keep making music that pushes our limits. We want to take Creatures of Leisure Vol. 2 to that next level. Also, snack|BOT has a solo project he's working on right now, titled The Facts of Life, with some pretty cool guest appearances from the likes of Anya Kvitka and Maestro Gamin to name a few. snack|BOT is also producing Anya Kvitka's debut album, alongside the one and only Bobby Ozuna.

LISTEN: http://strangeblanket.bandcamp.com/album/creatures-of-leisure-vol-1

I dreamed of being in the navy. Samut Songkram province is the home of the navy and my uncle was also in the navy. I fell in love with the white uniforms and wanted to wear it someday.

I decided to study an unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP) program as I saw it as a shortcut to wearing that white uniform as I would get a job after I graduated. My family was poor so they didn’t have much money to send me to school.

Being a success isn’t solely determined by studying at school. I went to a non-formal school to get a certificate for a nursing scholarship, and look where it got me. I believe that you can achieve your dreams regardless of what system you are put in.

Being a nurse pushed me to be a politician. I was never interested in politics until I found out about the corruption at schools. I would tend to children who were hurt while using playground equipment that had been bought on the cheap so that politicians could make a big profit.

Politicians don’t send their kids to study at poor schools, so they don’t understand how we feel.

My nursing colleagues encouraged me to become a politician. I kept asking how we could get rid of all those corrupt politicians and they told me, “Go for it and don’t be corrupt.”

As a female MP you must be resistant to sexist taunts. That’s what Chuan Leekpai, ex-prime minister and then-head of the Democrat Party (DP), warned me about when I told him I wanted to run for the DP in my hometown. I told him I’m not even afraid of guns, so why the heck would I be afraid of such filth. He laughed and gave me the green light.

I was nearly killed after I lost my first election. I believe that my rival was upset that I didn’t give up and was still going out to meet people in the area. One day I switched cars with my brother and he was shot by gunmen and critically injured. Luckily, he survived and I succeeded at the next election.

Being an MP involves high expenses. My monthly salary of B113,511 pretty much goes towards my team and travel expenses. I barely have enough money left to do anything else.

I never give money to people. Other politicians might buy votes or give out money when they show up at local events like funerals, weddings or monk ordinations. But I just go and dance with people.

The public image of politicians is at its lowest. People disdain politicians as they see them as corrupt.

Thais have themselves to blame when it comes to corruption. People love to ask for money from politicians, which only leads to more corruption. With all that dirty money, our roads could be paved by gold!

I curse corrupt politicians to death. I swear loud and clear that I have never been corrupt. I dreamed of getting rid of corrupt politicians when I started this job, but there are just too many of them. It seems that all I can do is curse them.

I’m not a political whore. I was once offered B40-50 million to change parties, but I refused. I’m poor but I’ve got more pride than that.

Don’t be greedy for things that don’t belong to you. If you want something desperately, be patient, work hard and save up. You can then be proud of what you achieve.

There’s no point having money without happiness. You may have billions, but you can’t take any of it with you when you die.

I live alone in a tiny knock-down wooden house that has only one TV and a bed. Thieves would cry if they broke in because there’s nothing there.

The sexual harassment case in parliament with the Pheu Thai MP [Prasit Chaisrisa] didn’t affect me because I think he’s just a crazy person. But sharp criticism makes me downhearted.

People were so mad when they saw me take a picture with Prasit at the news station. They called me a liar. I was so stressed I got a nosebleed!

There will always be people who hate you. I want to make it clear that I haven’t called a truce with Prasit; I just feel you don’t need to fight with your rival every time you meet. Anyway, I’m willing to give up my MP status if people really don’t want me anymore.

I love cooking. I used to have a restaurant called Baan Ransima at Amphawa but I sold it after a year because I didn’t have time to take care of it. If I’m no longer an MP, I might go back to doing that.

My dream is to be Minister of Social Development and Human Security. I love this ministry because it’s involved in people’s lives from the day they are born until the day they die.

I want to be a role model for women aspiring to enter politics. Some people see women in parliament as just making up the numbers, but I want to show that we have brains.

Keeping your word is the most important thing in life. If you do what you have said, people will respect and believe in you.

Why are you against the demolition of the old Supreme Court building?
Although it is an example of modern architecture, the building was built in 1941 so it is actually old enough to be classified as a historic building under the heritage law, which protects anything built more than 70 years ago. The construction law also bars any new buildings in the Rattanakosin area being taller than 16 meters. But the design for the new Supreme Court is 32 meters tall—twice that height! The old building also symbolizes the victory of the Thai court in winning back jurisdiction of the court after losing it for nearly a century under the Bowring Treaty. Simply put, it’s part of our heritage.

How is the protest going?
We’ve filed the case with the police to stop the demolition but nothing has been done. They said they accept our complaint but that we will just have to compromise with the court. As the protest has dragged on for so long without any action from the law enforcers, one part of the building has already been completely razed, and another part might follow soon.

What next?
We will continue fighting, even though this case will eventually end up in the hands of the Supreme Court anyway. It seems we have no hope of winning. But if we do, we want them to reconstruct the whole building as it was before.

What does this controversy reflect?
It’s a failure of our law enforcement agencies. The police are afraid to deal with the problem because our litigant is the Supreme Court who breaks the law themselves. Their reputation for upholding justice is tarnished. Who can we rely on now? This whole sorry episode also reflects that people want to delete their dark history, as the building was built in the era ruled by the dictator Field Marshal P. Piboonsongkram.

Is your social networking campaign helping?
In creating hype, yes. It’s like lighting fireworks. But in the long-term, it really depends on how many people make the leap from the virtual society to the real world. We must translate their “likes” and “shares” into real action.

What can we learn from this conflict?
Thais have a very narrow interpretation of the value of art. Many people have the old-school idea that there is only one way to represent Thai culture and that’s in the so-called traditional style. We need to rethink this approach and start preserving things with both historical and architectural value.

Since I started doing theater, I’ve became more confident and comfortable in my own skin. I used to have low self-esteem when I was in school because of my size.

In a word, I am full. Apart from my size, I think I’m full of love, energy and fun.

My best attributes are that I’m open to things and disciplined. I think it’s important because my line of work requires me to research and play people with different backgrounds and issues.

I most admire Karen Tan. Not only is she a versatile actress, she’s one of the most sought after in Singapore theater, a mother to two lovely girls, a wife, and she does community work! It amazes me how she manages her time and how she’s good and generous with everything she does. She inspires me.

I would like to meet Amy Winehouse. She’s one of my favorite singers and it’s sad that she’s gone, at a young age. Despite her messy life, she had amazing talent and I know she had so much more to give had she not surrendered her life to drugs.

I cannot imagine not being able to see. I appreciate beauty in a lot of things, and I’m thankful for the beautiful places I’ve been and people I’ve met.

I had a crush on Kevin Richardson from The Backstreet Boys. I grew up listening to boy bands. They were the thing then.

The craziest thing I’ve ever done was jumping out of a van in India in the middle of nowhere and running away from the creepy driver who—my friends and I suspected—was taking us to a dodgy place instead of our hotel. We crossed crazy traffic and got lost but we managed to find our way back. It was scary and exciting at the same time. Like a real life Bollywood film! And no. No regrets about that one. 

I’m like a polar bear. I like cold weather and raw fish like sashimi. I can be all soft and cuddly, but mess with me and I’ll growl back at you.

All the notes in my wallet must face the same direction and be arranged from the smallest to largest amount.

I’ve never ever acted in a role where I’ve had to cross-dress before, so that would be interesting.

If I didn’t act, I’d be working at an architecture firm.

I would like the power to be invisible: to just disappear anytime I want and be able to do anything naughty without getting caught. It makes traveling a lot easier too. No need to pay for flight tickets!

My greatest fear is going stagnant in my performance. I have to constantly make sure that I’m improving with every show and learning different techniques.

There’s no right or wrong in theater. So never be afraid to try.

In 10 years I see myself being involved behind the scenes. Probably directing, teaching or even producing.

How did the idea of doing Future Music Festival Asia (FMFA) in Malaysia come about?
Livescape Asia’s three directors are major festival kakis. We’d also been in contact with the Future Entertainment guys in Australia and they were looking to extend their iconic festival into Asia. The timing, mutual admiration for each other, plus a stroke of luck and a pinch of good fortune allowed us to pull off the first show really quickly.

How did you go about finding and securing a suitable site?
One of the biggest challenges was to find a venue and site that could not only accommodate more than 25,000 people but also allow us to put on the level of show we wanted. The options were limited but fortunately, our main choice the F1 track (Sepang International Circuit) is a world class setup that has the needed infrastructure to stage FMFA. 

Were you nervous about whether it would be a success?
If any organizer tells you they are confident about the success before any show, then they are either delusional or on some serious meds! There are far too many factors at play to say that anything would be a success before it starts. Sometimes “success” has to be measured up to a month or months after the event. 

What’s the biggest challenge in putting on an event like this?
There isn't one particular challenge that I would say is the biggest. As you can imagine, it's just a crazy logistical puzzle that needs to be solved. Take for example the artiste liaisons. We had a team of over 60 liaisons, drivers and ushers to coordinate the movement of the more than 60 artistes we had. From airport pick-ups, hotel check-ins, sound checks, dinner, interviews, performance time and getting them back to the airport and on the flights, it was run like a military operation. But we have a great team of people working every single aspect of putting this show on and the results spoke for themselves last year. We're very confident that we will raise that bar even higher for this year's edition.

What was your favorite moment from last year’s festival?
When we knocked off work at 7am the next morning! The whole festival was a massive blur for everyone who worked on the show. But I have one memory that still makes me smile. It was seeing one of my heroes Grandmaster Flash dropping Duck Sauce's Barbara Streisand to about 8,000 people on the helipad stage just as it was hitting dusk. The sight of all those bodies jumping up and down, fists pumping in the air will stick with me forever.

And the most worrying moment?
Any promoter will tell you that the worst moment of any show is the last half hour before the doors open. That’s when doubts creep in and there’s a mountain of work still left to do. I guess you would call that the necessary pains of the job. 

The best set you’ve seen at FMFA to date?
For crowd reaction, Pendulum absolutely smashed it to bits. They seriously took everyone by surprise. Musically I loved Jalebee Cartel's live set. For sheer pride and admiration, it was seeing our local and regional heroes holding their own against the big boys. Goldfish and Blink (Malaysia), Bud Culture (Malaysia) and Agrikulture's (Indonesia) sets went down well.

Who are you most excited about seeing this year?
I would be lying if I said that I wasn't really looking forward to seeing PSY. We caught on to this very early on and recognized the sheer immense potential this performer and song had. I'm also really proud that we were the first festival series to take the out of the box approach in booking him. I am immensely excited to see Armin and the ASOT600 show happening. Not because it is an Asian debut but he has long been one of the top DJs. The fact that he is the most consistently voted #1 DJ in the world speaks for itself.

What’s going to be different this year from before?
We're closer to realizing the complete festival this year. We took a lot of lessons learnt from last year to improve things this year. The festival lay-out is a lot better planned. There are a lot more things going on in different areas. For example, we're curating a food village to feel like a Malaysian version of a village summer fair. There's also going to be better chill out areas this year for you to take a breather in between sets from acts you want to see. I also am personally much happier with the acts on offer this year. At the end of the day, a music festival's most important aspect is the music. And we have some great music this year.

How would you compare the live music scene in Malaysia to that (a) in Singapore and (b) elsewhere in the world?
Every country and every region has great things going on with the live music scene. I guess that's what makes going to gigs in different shows so interesting. If things were the same everywhere, this would be a very boring world. What's important is keeping an open mind and enjoying that diversity!

Future Music Festival Asia (FMFA) is on March 15-16 at Sepang International Circuit.

For more details, check out our news piece about the Future Music Festival Asia.