Villa living

Jay's pop project returns

By Tatat Bunnag

Many music fans know Jetamon Malayoda (Jay) from his work with cult indie band Proud, as well as for his successful solo music under moniker Penguin Villa. The 35-year-old artist is also one half of Bua-Hima, a project with award-winning novelist Prabda Yoon (Koon), as well as one of the founders of popular indie label Smallroom.

After his successful debut album Going Out was released in 2004, Jay took a break from Penguin Villa to focus on creating music for commercials with the Smallroom production house. Now Penguin Villa is back with a brand new single called "Good Morning," a song that maintains Jay's bright pop sound and innovative guitar work that defies duplication.

With the new album Live in Penguin Villa soon to be released, Student Weekly recently caught up Jay at Smallroom HQ to chat about his new music.

Student Weekly: Why has it taken so long to make a new Penguin Villa record?

Jay: Penguin Villa is just a hobby for me. My main job is recording film soundtracks and writing jingles for TV and radio commercials. That's what Smallroom does besides releasing pop albums. When I made Going Out, I had to ask my partner Rungroj Uptampotiwat if I could take a month's leave from work to finish the album.

Student Weekly: Student Weekly: Is Live in Penguin Villa made up of songs that you wrote over the past five years?

Jay: Some of them are, but most of the songs I wrote during that time were too dark and inaccessible. They didn't fit with the theme of the new album, because I wanted to make a pop record. I picked a couple of old songs and wrote some new songs more recently.

Student Weekly: Why did you call the new album Live in Penguin Villa?

Jay: The album was recorded at my house. Most Smallroom albums are recorded at the Smallroom studio, but I recently built a recording studio at my house and I wanted to try it out. My home is also very far away, so coming back and forth from my place to Smallroom is a bit difficult.

Student Weekly: Can you tell us about your new single, "Good Morning"?

Jay: It's a love song about missing somebody. I wrote the song one morning when I went to my friend's house. The atmosphere that day was incredible - nice weather in a beautiful garden, drinking coffee. Then, I suddenly thought of the line, "This is a great moment, so why aren't you here to enjoy it with me?"

Student Weekly: What can your fans expect from the new album?

Jay: I'm so happy with the great feedback I've received for "Good Morning." It means that I still have some fans! I just want them to try listening to the rest of album. I hope they listen to the other tracks that aren't love songs and that they can get something good out of it.

Student Weekly: When you play live, you usually have cartoonist Tum Wisut Ponnimit playing drums. How did you guys first start working together?

Jay: We've been playing together since the early Penguin Villa singles, and I've always liked his style.

On the new album, Penguin Villa is more like a band than a solo project, because the other musicians helped me through the whole recording process.

Student Weekly: Do you think you'll ever make another Bua Hima album with Prabda Yoon?

Jay: A couple of the tracks on Live in Penguin Villa were actually written by Koon. They're songs that we originally planned for the second Bua Hima album. But Koon is very busy working on his writing at the moment, so we've dropped that idea for now. I'm looking forward to working with him again in the future, though. He's a great songwriter!

Vocabulary

cult (adj): very popular with a particular group of people

moniker (n): a name

founder (n): a person who starts a company, an institution, etc.

maintain (v): to make something continue at the same level, standard, etc.

innovative (adj): introducing or using new ideas, ways of doing something, etc.

defy (v): to successfully resist something to an unusual degree

duplication (n): the act of making an exact copy of something else

jingle (n): a short song that is easy to remember and us used in advertising on radio or television

dark (adj): mysterious or frightening

inaccessible (adj): difficult to understand, to reach, to get, etc.

atmosphere (n): the feeling or mood that you have in a particular place or situation

drop (v): to stop doing something; to not continue with something