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Music
Serious fun
By Tatat Bunnag, Photos by Varuth Hirunyatheb
Buddha Bless are back with bite
Multi-coloured hip-hoppers Buddha Bless took Thailand by storm with
their first album, Red Light Green Light, a couple of years ago.
Released on Joey Boy�s Gancore Club label, the album broke new ground by introducing dancehall reggae music to the Bangkok scene.
Pretty soon, Buddha Bless were a constant fixture on the radio and selling out concerts all over the kingdom. They won a slew of awards in 2006, including the Seed and Fat Awards, the Season Award for artist of the year and the Kom-Chad-Luek Award for best album of the year.
When Joey Boy and Gancore Club left Grammy earlier this year, Buddha Bless stayed with GMM. The group spent almost a year in the studio producing their energetic new album Gad Mans Du (Bite Fun Furious).
Student Weekly recently caught up with the colourful trio � 27-year-old Kittipong Khamsat (M), 29-year-old Natee Ekwijit (Oui) and 32-year-old Suranan Chumtarathorn (Tong) � to talk about their attitudes and Gad Mans Du.
STUDENT WEEKLY: How did you guys come up with the title Gad Mans Du � does it have anything to do with Kathmandu in Nepal?
M: No, not at all. [Laughs]. We just thought it sounded catchy and funny.
OUI: It�s like our band name � a lot of people think that it sounds like Budapest!
• Did you know • |
 Bodyslam�s
song �Kwam-Chuar (Belief)� inspired Oui to keep working on Gad Mans
Du when he felt like giving up. |
STUDENT WEEKLY: Your album profile contains the advice �have fun, but be sensible.� What do you mean by that?
OUI: Besides making fun dance music, we want to give something worthwhile to the audience. If I could go back and change anything on our first record, I�d add more messages to the songs.
We want to write songs that have thoughtful lyrics and moral
lessons.
STUDENT WEEKLY: Why did you release your new album with Grammy rather than Gancore Club?
OUI: Grammy gave us the freedom to make the record we wanted to make.
Gancore Club is basically Joey Boy, and it was more like a family than a label. When Joey Boy left Grammy, we felt that Gancore Club should stay with him. We�re still good friends and like a family anyway.
STUDENT
WEEKLY: Many of your
lyrics have moral and religious messages. Do you guys consider yourselves to be
religious?
OUI: Not really, but I always try to do good things and live my life to the limit. I used to drink and smoke, but I don�t anymore, and I feel great.
I couldn�t tell young people that these things are bad if I was still doing them.
M: Sometimes we perform in pubs or bars because it�s part of our job. We only go there as entertainers, and we never encouraged anybody to drink or take drugs.
STUDENT WEEKLY: What helps you guys to stand out from other artists and win so many awards?
OUI: I think what makes Buddha Bless stand out is the contrast between our crazy image and the good morals of our music. [Laughs.]
TONG: Yes, it�s a strong contrast!
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constant (adj): happening all the time or repeatedly IDIOM take by something by storm: to be extremely popular very quickly |
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