Interview: Josh Marcy on His Mindblowing Thai Psych Field Recording Adventure

An audio engineer who splits time between working with DJ Harvey and working for Apple’s Media Arts Lab as a music supervisor/editor, Marcy saw a video of Khun Narin’s funky, percussion-heavy Electric Phin Band online. In the video, the band’s large, homemade sound system blares one member’s shredding chords on the phin, a traditional Thai lute with two or three strings, as the rest of the band bangs reverberating rhythms on various drums and symbols. Marcy was hooked.

After researching the band online, he convinced his friends at L.A. based independent label Innovative Leisure to finance his travels and his attempt to record the band. In preparation for the August 26th release of Khun Narin’s fantastic self-titled debut on Innovative Leisure, we spoke with Marcy about his discovery of the band, how he tracked them down, traveling in Thailand, the recording process, and more.

When and where did you first hear about Khun Narin’s Electric Phin Band? Why did you feel compelled to find them?

I read the Daily Swarm, which is a music aggregator that I like a lot. They had reposted the story from the Dangerous Minds blog: “Mindblowing Psychedelia from Thailand.” I read the article and there was a video in there. I liked the video a lot [and] decided to start digging a bit deeper to see what else I could find on these guys.

Eventually, I made my way to Beer. He’s the phin player, sort of the lead shredder in the band. [I found] his Youtube channel and there was just a bunch of even more amazing videos up there. There’s one where they are marching down a road just murdering it [with] amazing drum breaks. They do a great cover of “Zombie” by The Cranberries that shouldn’t work but somehow is just perfect. It’s funny, someone in the YouTube comments wrote, “Who knew that the party of the year was a slow stroll down a back road in Thailand with grandparents and children.” It’s just the whole town walking around them as they push their sound system. When I saw that I was like, “I’m sold on this. I need to find these guys now.”

Were you already a fan of music from Thailand when you saw the video?

I had never heard this more traditional style of music that Khun Narin play before, let alone that sort of instrumentation… It’s so percussive, which I like a lot. The whole band is basically a rhythm section except for Beer, who plays the phin. Everyone else is either playing the drums or the bass. It’s very propulsive in that way.

Did you search for other bands that have a similar sound?

I did. Khun Narin are part of a broader musical tradition that you find throughout Thailand and in their area, which is parade, festival, or party bands that all have a similar setup. But the other bands that I found that are in that same style never got the sounds quite right in the way that Khun Narin did. For instance, [the other bands] would have a digital piano or play in a more traditional western style. They would do the same songs but have a real drum kit, so it would sound more like a western band playing Thai music.

What I liked about Khun Narin and their sound was that it sounded traditional, but it still had those beats and was more of a stripped down sound. They weren’t trying to make it sound modern. They were just trying to make it sound cool and rockin’. They use a few boss pedal effects and it’s sort of simple but rhythmic. That’s why I think their sound out of all those bands attracted me the most… It sounded like a Thai band doing their own thing without trying to reflect what a western idea of that would be.

How did you get in touch with the band?

I found their Facebook page through their videos. When you see the photos of their sound setup, there’s a phone number on there. I was like, “Okay, let’s start there. Let’s call them.” So I called and ended up talking to Rhin. We realized that neither of us spoke a lick of one another’s language. He didn’t speak any English and I don’t speak any Thai.

[From there] I decided to figure out just where these guys were. There was nothing that indicated where they were in Thailand. I knew basically they were in Phetchabun province, but I didn’t know anything more than that. So I went to my local Thai restaurant around the corner and said to one of the waitresses, “Would you mind calling this number just to ask this guy where he is and how I can get in touch with him? Does he have an e-mail? What else can I do to reach him?” She called and he was friendly with her and gave her an address. I sort of built off of that and then eventually, as I kept looking at the Facebook page, I discovered that there was another American guy on [there] named Peter Doolan, who has his own great Thai music blog.

I tracked Peter down [and] it turned out that he works at a library cataloging music in Bangkok and had been in touch with the band. He’d gone up there and met them. He’d played with them (he plays drums). He became my bridge to the band, which was amazing. Not only did he know them and they trusted him, but he also speaks fluent Thai and is a great guy to boot. So he was who joined me on the whole trip. You can see him in some of the videos as well. He became a real linchpin in helping to facilitate the connection with the band. Without him it would’ve been a lot more difficult. He really helped explain things to the band too. They were a little skeptical when it started… [but] after showing Peter and the band that Innovative Leisure is a real label and that we genuinely like their music, they came around. That was really exciting. As soon as I got that confirmation I was on a plane to Thailand basically.

Where is the Phetcuban province? What were your impressions of the area?

Mid-northern Thailand. It’s basically directly north from Bangkok. It’s off the beaten path. There’s really not a lot of tourism there. I looked it up on Lonely Planet before I left and there is almost no information except for a couple hotels in the area. As it turns out, where the band lives is this really beautiful valley between two mountainous national parks. That was where we went in the morning on the day we recorded. We went up to a temple for them to pray at and essentially bless the day, and then came back down the mountain and recorded. It was really a pretty amazing day.

You mentioned the band was initially reticent to agree to being recorded. Aside from convincing them that Innovative Leisure is a legitimate label, what was their primary reservation?

They don’t consider themselves professional musicians. In their minds they just do this as a job on the weekends and because they can play music and enjoy it. They basically feel that they’re a live band and that’s it. Part of convincing them was my saying, “I appreciate that, but I think that if we could record you we could get more interest in this and I think it would actually work very well for you to do a recording.”

I think that helped a bit, and after continuing to talk with them I’d love for this [album] to be a springboard for them to try to come over to the US and do their live show, to do a parade in Los Angeles or at SXSW. I think that would be amazing to bring that energy and that setup here. It would be so different. That was the dream when I saw it. I was like, “Can you imagine this parade going down 6th street at SXSW?” I’m hoping with the interest that this is getting that that will lead to bringing them over here. I know there are a lot of hoops to jump through, but I’m hopeful that we can make that a reality.

It might be difficult to get that sound system through customs.

Yeah, right? [laughs] We’ll have to figure out how to ship that out here. And the sound system is all home made – the big bass cabinet, the horns. Beer built his own phins. It’s a pretty unique setup.

How does it run during a parade?

They have a generator underneath it. That was part of finding the location where we recorded. We were like, “Where can we go that’s quiet enough to record you guys?” We were looking at some different places and they were like, “We can record here, but we’re going to have to run this generator while we do it.” I was like, “Oh, that’s going to ruin the whole recording.”

Eventually [we found] that behind Rhin’s house was this dirt path. We decided that if we pushed the sound system back there then we could run an extension cord from the back of his house over to the road so they could play without having to use the generator. So that was a key part of getting the recording to sound right.

What was your first meeting with the band like?

We drove up there on a Saturday. It was a bit of a haul. It probably took five or six hours to get up there. So we got to Rhin’s place in the evening. It was he, his wife, and his kids. They were all very welcoming and we all sat at a table. Peter started to translate, and I’d brought a bunch of t-shirts and record from the label, just some fun swag for them. I started playing some of that music as well, and some of the other band members started showing up. We sat there and off my phone I played Innovative Leisure artists like Bass Drum of Death and said, “They’re on the label we’re recording this for.” They’d never heard anything like that. The music was totally new to them… It was a really fun moment of blowing each other’s minds. Their music is unlike anything I’ve heard and [our music is totally different for them].

Eventually we started playing some music together. I played bass for a while. That’s the beautiful thing about music. That was the language that we all understood. We started playing and having a few beers and some whiskey. The next day we woke up and recorded them.

Did you stay with Rhin’s family?

We just stayed one night at a local hotel, [but we ate with the band]. Rhin has a small butcher stand in front of his house where he sells meats, so we all ate very well. The local dish, Phetchabun chicken, is what their known for there. We all broke bread, had some lunch together. They made sure that I ate some raw meat because that was going to “make me strong.” They were very insistent that I ate some raw red meat. [laughs] Everything was great.

Did you coach their performance at all?

They started with the sort of big medley that’s the last track on there. I asked them a couple things, like, “We have this medley. Can you try a slower song?” And Beer had shown beforehand that he had the two-string phin in addition to the three-string phin. So I said, “Can you try a song with the two-string phin and see what that sounds like?” That was pretty much it… I just wanted them to do what they do naturally.

Have you considered making another field recording at some point in the future?

If I find another great band on YouTube, I’m more than willing to go out and try to record them. Why not?