Muey music

Popdub pops up

By Tatat Bunnag
Photographs are courtesy of Popdub.

After being the frontman of Scrubb for more than a decade, singer-songwriter Thawatpon Wongboonsiri (Muey) recently launched a new musical project called Popdub.

Muey started Popdub as a solo project in 2011 when he found that some of the songs he was writing didn’t suit his main band. Since then, Popdub has developed into a proper live band comprised of Muey on guitar, Adun Ratchadaphisit (Dun) on guitar, Siwat Homkham (Kluey) on bass and drummer Somsak Kunrojpanya (Zane).

The quartet plays quirky instrumental rock with layers of guitar and strong dynamics. Popdub recently released their four-song EP Dhamadha online, and have been playing regular live shows around Bangkok.

Student Weekly recently asked Muey to tell us all about his new band.

Student Weekly: How did you come to form Popdub?

Muey: Over the past few years, I’d written songs that I didn’t have a chance to use. They were unfinished songs without lyrics, and some of them seemed to sound better without singing. Eventually I had the idea to form an instrumental band based on musical improvisation. That was how Popdub started.

Student Weekly: Can you tell us about the line-up of Popdub?

Muey: At first it was just me and Zane playing live together as a duo. But I’m not a great guitar player, so I decided to recruit more members to make the band sound better. We invited our friend Kluey to play bass, and Dun from the band Friday recently joined on lead guitar. There’ll be more members joining soon, but we want to keep that a secret at the moment.

Student Weekly: As a singer, what inspired you to form an instrumental rock band?

Muey: I wanted to do something completely different from Scrubb or anything else I’d done before. I was also inspired by seeing the great Japanese instrumental rock band Toe when I visited Japan few years ago. Around the same time, there were a few Thai bands on indie labels like SO::ON who were playing a similar style of music, so I thought we could try to do it in our own way.

Student Weekly: Can you tell us about your Dhamadha EP?

Muey: It’s our first release and features four new songs. It’s available for digital download at the iTunes Store. The songs were mixed and mastered by Wannarit Pongprayoon from Stylish Nonsense. We still haven’t decided whether to release it on CD or not. We’re mainly focusing on playing live shows at the moment.

Student Weekly: Can you tell us about the musical collective called Dood that you co-founded with friends?

Muey: When I started playing gigs with Popdub, I managed to make more friends in the local underground music scene. I met people who played weird indie music and didn’t care about getting played on the radio or being on the charts. We teamed up with artists like Lolay Thaweesak, who has a group called Happy Band, and other like-minded performers like Wednesday and Before Champ to tour together. It’s the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced while working in music.

Student Weekly: Do you have any upcoming plans for Scrubb?

Muey: Scrubb is still my main band, and it’s still going strong. We plan to release a new single soon. Popdub is something that I’m really into at the moment, but it’s totally different from Scrubb. Scrubb have lots of fans, but I want Popdub to be a new band on its own, without using Scrubb’s name to advertise it.

 

comments powered by Disqus