There are so many images associated with Thailand and Bangkok, but most of the time the mainstream media only portrays our country from a traditional, high culture point of view. Surely, we’re proud of our heritage, but that is not all there is to our multi faceted culture. Thai indie music has survived a lot of turmoil over the past ten years but it is still kicking. New music and bands keep it alive and continue to contribute to this exciting and ever fresh part of Thai culture.

The Diet Pills is one of the bands that is changing the indie landscape in Thailand. It started as a laid back project between me and long time friend Ploi Horwang who was a former teen idol. Ploi told me one day that she wanted to have a band that had an 80’s electro pop sound mixed with a fashion sense that would make people pay attention. We came up with the name Diet Pills because Ploi and I are so different in size, it’s an obvious contrast that we find really funny. We also know that people are quite obsessed with their bodies these days, so our name and our message challenge this part of our society.

The most important thing for us as artists is the sense of humor and point of view that comes out in our music and style. We thrive on silliness, references to pop culture and individual experiences. We want to be personal and universal at the same time. We were born and raised as Thais, so our perspectives come accordingly. We sing about Bangkok and the people here but we mix and match it with a lot of Western influence. It might not make sense all the time but I am sure listeners will get something fun out of it.

We create our music by throwing in a lot of ideas and bouncing them back and forth with our collaborators. We have a lot of discussions about the direction and content of the music. Anything goes as long as it is true to us. What comes out is a sassy, 80’s electro pop madhouse. We try to incorporate all the stuff we love from other music into our own sound of synthesized beats, electronic overtures, and a little guitar to rock it up. We don’t sing like nightclub singers who belt out every note, we try to let the feel of the track dictate and convey the message through our voices.

For the style, it’s all about us. We love to dress up and grab people’s attention. Some people criticize us for paying too much attention to our clothes. But we know that audiences don’t go to shows just to listen to the music, they go for an overall live experience. So, as artists, we do everything in our power to give an audience the best live experience we can. Presentation is so important and for us, so fun.

But being in an indie band is not all fun and games. It’s hard to be financially viable since we don’t operate within the business model of the big record labels. The exposure is rather limited when you are not signed because so many listeners have been brainwashed to love only manufactured music. A lot of us have to have full time jobs to support ourselves since we can’t rely on music alone for our income. The good side is that this drives us to work harder produce better music which can have a more lasting effect. The secret is loving what you do, playing a lot of gigs, and not depending on physical record sales so much.

As relatively new faces, we take on as many gigs as possible to become more known and established. We’ve played fashion shows, festivals, big clubs and small dingy pubs with 10 patrons. They’re all the same to us; a gig is a gig and we always do our best. We are full of energy running and dancing the entire show. We love to play with the audience to get them into the set feeding off their energy while feeding them ours. So far it’s been a crazy ride.

To be honest we don’t have too many plans for the future of The Diet Pills as of now. We want to concentrate on finishing our debut and we will take it from there. We will work as hard as we can, play as hard as we can, and do our part to keep indie music in Thailand fresh and exciting. That should be good enough for now.