In the 1980s, when Thai music was about predictable pop and copycat rockers, what Taneth Warakulnukroh, then a 27-year-old radio DJ turned singer, brought to the industry was verging on avant-garde.
Exciting listeners with songs packed with guitar riffs, crisp and thick synth-rock beats, as well as a hint of rapping, Taneth's first album Dan Civilize (Civilized Land), released in 1985, was one of the first progressive rock albums ever heard in the Thai language. The second album Kon Kian Pleng Ban Leng Cheewit (A Man Who Writes Songs That Talk About Life) in 1987 was the singer's first foray into making a concept album. In 1989, his popularity peaked when he became an artist under the record giant Grammy Entertainment and his third album Kod Poom (Pressing A Button) was a challenge for him to find the right balance between what he wanted as an artist and what kind of music could sell. The fourth album Rock Gratob Mai (Rock And Wood Clapping) in 1992, gave birth to a number of classic songs that are still played on the radio to this day.
In the later decades as indie music boomed, Taneth started his own record company Music Bugs, hoping to gain more free rein in creating music. He ended up becoming a producer who was behind the massive success of many bands including Body Slam, Big Ass, and Labanoon for 10 years instead.
As a result, his fans, however, never heard any of his new material again.
In July, out of nowhere, Taneth released the mid-tempo single Wang (Free) on YouTube and announced he had just started his new record company Rock Opera House Records and had been working on a new album after 23 years since his last album in 1992. The second single, Dee Jai (Glad), featuring with Thanachai "Pod" Ujjin, was released last month. Taneth will also give his first concert in decades next month.
Life sits down with Taneth, now 57, to clarify that his latest offering is simply just the "fifth album" of his and not at all the kind of nostalgic comeback album aimed squarely at his fans who have lain in wait all these years.
You've been out of the scene for a long while. Where have been?
I had a child. It's as simple as that. Where did I go? I didn't go anywhere. I was home, raising my son for 13 years. Now he's turning 14.
What do you feel about all the bands you've had a hand in making so popular?
Pleased. Rejoiced. Proud. It's always just good things. I always send them my moral support.
So how come now is the time to come back?
Firstly, my son is old enough. Secondly, while I was raising him, I did a lot of things during my free time. I jotted stuff down on paper such as short stories, movie plots, as well as songs, which I also recorded. Then, one day, a few people in the industry that I respect saw those things and told me that I should work on them for real. At first, I told them that I didn't want to make a big deal out of it. But they kept telling me again and again that what I did was good and should not go to waste. So I finally decided to do it.
What style is your new album?
My style hasn't changed. If you listen to my singles carefully, you will already know the answer. There are love songs, heartbroken songs, songs that retort, and many more that evoke thinking, whatever you want to call it. This is once again a concept album and the style, the way, and the concept are just clearer. Everything I used to do is still the same with this album. But it's also not the same, in that it's even more intense. But I'm not good at defining that. I have never felt my style is limited to just one thing.
And what is your work all about exactly?
My music is mostly abstract. Concrete things only make the abstract easier to digest. That's the core.
Is your voice the same?
No way. How could it be the same?
So what is it like working with people from the new generation?
I didn't feel that I would have to adapt myself or anything. I'm quite laid-back, accepting everyone how he or she is. But truth is, there is something about them that requires me to adjust myself, not to be like them, but to understand them. That something is the fact that everything about these people is super fast. Nevertheless, most of the things they do have quality, but there are a few things, when processed too fast, that have less quality. So for that, I might need to use the hands of people from my generation instead.
As an outsider looking into the music industry, do you think it has evolved into how you would like to see it?
I never thought about how I would like to see the music industry evolve. In the past, when I was a teenager, of course, I would have liked to see the world change into the way I wanted it to be. But today, I don't have those kinds of thoughts anymore. All I have to do is try to stay with what it is. I try to understand it. If there's anything I don't understand, I just accept that I don't understand it. I look for a place where I can stand, a place that is most suited to me that I won't be suffocating from standing. A place where I'm happy.
Many singers have risked a comeback but most of them have never made it, why were you brave enough to do it?
That doesn't mean that nobody will ever succeed in making a comeback. It depends on how you want to define the word "reborn", such as how popular you want to be and how much money you want to make. But actually, I don't focus on that. I just do it because I want to do it.
What do you want fans to expect from you?
Embrace me as a new artist. I'm just a person who tries to work his best in making music. It may not be something familiar to people following the present style of music. It's experimental in a way. I'm doing it, learning from it, and experimenting with it. For what? So something fresh and new has the odds of emerging.
