Desktop Error (Thailand): The interview

First a big thank you to Desktop Error. They were very kind to spend the time to work with Noise Artists on this interview. We overcame the translation hurdle from Thai to English and vice versa with patience and good humor.

Noise Artists (NA): Can you tell us how the band started and how your musical project got together?

We're Desktop Error from Thailand. The story of our band has begun when we were in the college. We studied at the same college in faculty of fine arts, except Tui and Lek who came from somewhere else.

We got to know each other when playing at the Lulla Bar as a cover band. It was a small community of indie music listener in Thailand at the time, and it was easy to meet people who had the same musical tastes. It was how our band got together.

At first, we started as a cover band. We mostly played Radiohead, Stone Rose, Pink Floyd and other 90's band. After a while, we found that being a cover band was not enough to fulfill our passion for music. That’s when we decided to make our own music.

We had no plan about what style of music we will do and will evolve in time. We only wanted to create and play our own musical pieces. Our music was of course influenced by what we had listened and played over the years.

(NA) Could you tell us more how your music is created and how you work on your creative process together?

First on how we write our songs. Our process of creating our music varies a lot because we always cut, add and insert something more as our work develops. We do not have a fixed methodology. It is more an organic process and include all members of the group. We love to share our ideas together while we write the lyrics. The main purpose of our songs is to give the force and spirit to whomever has dreamt it and never lose their way.

(NA) It appears that Desktop Error is now very popular in Thailand. Was it your objective?

After several years, our band become quite popular. We were really surprised by the positive reaction and never expected it.

We just do what we love, what we believe in. We always try to improve, try to create and add something different in each new album to make it as close to our masterpiece as we can.

(NA) Is it easy to be an indie band in Thailand and how is you work with Koichi Shimizu, you record label manager and sound engineer?

In our opinion, Thai Indie music community has become bigger than it used to be. This is good for us because it makes it easier to make our music. We can now find many good studios, especially in Bangkok, that is very helpful to do an album.

There are many good producers in Thailand, even for indie rock band, but the difficulty is finding the producer who fit for the band and we fortunately found "Koichi" who understand what are we doing, so we don't have to find someone else.

Koichi is a great producer, he helped us a lot when we were doing the album, he arranged and gave us the guidelines and many things that we didn't even notice at the time. It's really a team work. We've learnt many, many things since we've formed the band. We have tried to adjust and put more details in each song and each album since we have started.

(NA) In your concert video you appear to be a Fender band when it comes to instrument. Could you tell us more about it and about your concerts?

As you see that our members mainly use Fender on the stage but actually, when we're working on our record, we use many different guitars. It depends on what sound and style we want our song to be. However, in the show we choose the one that fit well for us, so the feeling that you've got from our show and the sound that you've got from our CD is, on purpose, very different.

We do many gigs each year. The size of our performances varies from small gigs in an art gallery to large concerts at music festivals. We've got many experiences from our tours, both good and bad (some events had very, very bad sound and management)

There are many places that we would like to go, maybe if we have a chance we'd like to play in Europe. Nevertheless, our first goal is touring around Thailand in all provinces.

 (NA) Could you tell us about the Tai Indie scene?

The Thai music industry has grown bigger and bigger in the recent years especially "Indie music". New technologies and social media have been beneficial for making music. New indie bands can use these technologies on their recording and they've got a sound that is fresh and new. They have more skills and more technics than in the past and they can also use social networks to share their work with the audience. This is a good chance and it's a time for brand new indie bands in Thailand. 

There are many good indie bands in Thailand like "Solitude is bliss" and "Super unknown", you can check them out on Youtube.

Thai indie music has changed, and has become more popular, staying in a small community. Thai indie musicians and audiences take Thai indie music into a more mainstream era. There are many places for Thai indie bands now.

Indie music has become a large market, not only in Bangkok, the Thai capital, but also in Chiang Mai, a province in northern of Thailand. Chiang Mai is a very arty town, with many art galleries, art spaces and the city itself is more quiet, not as busy as Bangkok, so people can enjoyed their free time with art and music better. "Solitude is Bliss" is one of many young blood indie bands from Chiang Mai.

(NA) do you live only from your music or do you have day jobs?

We do not hope to live from our band. "Desktop Error" is not our main career and we all have different job and responsibilities. Lek has his own portrait studio, Meng andBird are working in music industry and music label, Tui has his own business and Aof is a music composer for ads and movies. 

However, we couldn't say that our music is just a hobby. "Desktop Error" is our job as well, because when we work and when we play, we attend to every little details of our music. We make it step by step, improving, searching for any new process and ideas that could make our music better. It's like we do the job that we love with our passion.

(NA) Where can fan around the world find your music?

Now you can check our recording on an online music store like itunes. We also sell our album on our Facebook fan page, music festival and market in Thailand.

(NA) Do you plan to continue together for another while?

We don't really know how far will we play as Desktop Error, because there's always an end to everything. One day our music and our band may reach its peak. However, we're still doing what we love and our new album will be release sometimes this year.

We want say thanks for all your support to our band and please keep watching for our 3rd album.