Dragon is Mongkorn

A few weeks ago I received a surprise phone call from Khan the CEO/producer of Thaitanium. If your not familiar with thai hip hop, Thaitanium are considered to be one  of Thailand’s most famous rap groups. They have worked with everyone from Teryiyaki Boyz, Blaze’ Blaze’, Tata Young and just recently Nas. Khan informed me that his crew would be performing  a live concert in Koh Phangan and, they wanted me to DJ at the concert after party. The complete line up was  Thaitanium, Bangkok Invader’s DJ Ono and Buddha, from Yaak Party was DJ king Kong and, last but not least  little old me.  Khan’s office sent King Kong and I our tickets on Thursday and by Friday morning we were sitting in a plane hell bound for Koh Samui. From Samui airport we were escorted VIP style  to the pier, there we boarded a boat headed towards world famous party spot Koh Phangan. When we arrived on the island  friday afternoon. Although upon arrival  I didn’t feel like we were in some far away island, something like you would see in movies like the Beach. I’ve been to the full moon dozens of times and this time it certainly didn’t feel like it did 5 years ago. King Kong mentioned that he thought he was at a beach in Bang San rather then at Koh Phangan. I think I knew all along that the island would be developed into a modern tourist trap so I wasn’t really suprised to see how much it had changed.  A few years ago Koh Phangan had dirt roads, no ATMs and definitely not  a single 7-11 in sight. Just to stay there you really had to make a big effort, as there were only cheap bungalows with no air conditioning. You were even lucky if you could find a place with a bed, as most places will just give you a mattress. The place we stayed at had air con, cable TV and even a swimming pool! Even still with the modern conveniences. I don’t have any regrets going to the island especially when it gave me the chance to hang out with Khan.

I remember when I was 12 and my parents moved from Singapore to live in Bangkok. We used to live in a place called Soi Ari, it was about 10 minutes from Jatujak market and also very close to central Ladprao. When I was at that age I used to love skateboarding(still do) and there was a friend that used to have a  mini ramp in his house. In those days skateboarding was starting to blow up in Thailand and there were only a few people riding.  Because of this everyone knew each other.  Some other guys that would hang out at the mini ramp were Joey boy, Carlo ( DJ Dema), Nat from Dujada, T and of course Khan. Back then we used to skate together all the time. Most of my fondest childhood memories were from hanging out with those dudes. I remember Khans dad used to own a bar which was right next to his house.  I used to sleep over at Khan’s place on the weekends and we used to secretely drink tequila with him and his older brother. As we got older and most of us had to go to school abroad. I was sent to Canada and I think Khan was sent to live in Kansas. All of us  would come back to Bangkok  during the summertime. We would hang out and skate together. All of us would  talk about our dreams and, what we wanted to do  when we got out of school. Khan of course always talked about making it big  in the music business. Life was simple for all of us. In khan’s case that simple life changed when  his father died from a heart attack. To make things worse for him and his familly, Khan’s father passed away right when Asia had its biggest stock market crash. I think those years were really hard for Khan because he was very close to his father.  After he graduated high school Khan came back to Thailand and started working on his music. The first project he put together was a group called Khan T. His first album  did get him recognized in the music industry but still he wasn’t too happy with the results as the music for that album had to be watered down to suit the mass Thai audience. Mind you this was back in 94- 95 so there really wasn’t much of a hip hop scene in Thailand either. Khan finally achieved the success when he formed Thaitanium. There first album Thai Riders is considered to be one of Thai  hip hop’s most ground breaking albums. The reason I write this because  when we were kids talking about our dreams, the only person that I know that has done everything exactly they way he said he would is Khan.  I really have a deep respect for him because of this. Of course pretty much all of us Joey boy, Carlo, T, Nat and myself are now working in the music industry doing music/dj/fashion etc.

The night of the event saw Thaitanium taking to the stage around 9pm.  After that DJ Buddha and DJ Ono got the night going with there party style hip hop cuts. Second to get on the decks was DJ King Kong and last was me. Normally the crowd at Koh Phangan is usually mixed with locals and tourists but, this is only when there are Full moon parties at Haad Rin beach. Our location for the party was  on another  beach  whose name I can’t remember ( I was smashed the whole time). It was near some markets and was more of a local beach rather then a hang out spot for drunk tourists.  It was really cool to see the locals getting into the  music, dancing and having  a good time. As for me though I think I might have gotten a bit too wrecked. I think my new years resolution should be  to not get  smashed on booze! The whole night literally went  by with flying colors and, next thing you  know King Kong and I  were headed back to Samui with the biggest dam hangover you can imagine. On the boat ride back to Samui I couldn’t help thinking about  all the choices that I made in my life.  I think I made the right choices in  because  I always wanted to be a DJ. I worked and am working to be the best DJ that I can be. Its not glamorous and the money isn’t great but this is what I love to do. I guess the rest of our crew from the old neighborhood must feel the same way with all of the things that they are doing now.

shouts to khan,day, way, petchy, dj buddha, dj ono, king kong and p kaew much love to you all!

What made last Friday different from the other sessions was that people were starting to show up since 10:30. By 11 oclock is was starting to get busy inside the club. Warming up the night was DJ Red I from the Philippines. He played a wicked selection of dance hall reggae, dnb and dub step. After him was DJ Jo Stitch. One of the great things about Jo’s set was that he  had just recently bought some new tunes from the UK and was dropping them in his set. By the time that he was done the crowd was already warmed up and ready to go. Which was unfortunate for me because the set that I had prepared at home started very deep and mellow and proved not to be satisfying to a room full of party people. Usually punters don’t start coming til after 12 so I had naturally thought  that I would be playing to an empty dance floor. It was because of this I chose to start my set with a more mellow selection. The first few songs were Highland spring by Benny ill, Techno dread by 2562 and Go and tell em by Benga! I should also mention that hours before the party,  Sinamon (our MC)  just arrived on Thursday from Koh Samui and, he bought with him a huge bag of mutherfuckin’ mushrooms. We ended up taking a few shrooms before the party and, when it was time for me to play play I was tripping my nuts off! My knees were all wobbly and of course I was starting to get paranoid thinking that the crowd  would not like the music. What made things worse was that standing behind me in the booth was a man who hated the very ground I walked on – Mr. Buffalo.  A few years back I was interviewed on TV, I can’t remember exactly what the interview question was but in one of my answers I said using a CDJ is not as good as using real vinyl. When Mr.Buffalo watched the interview on TV he was not too pleased with my comment. He  thought I was dissing CDJ’s but I wasn’t. I was just making a point that CDJ’s aren’t as good as using Turntables and will never ever in a million years even come close(kidding). The lighting guy at Club Culture had just quit his job and Mr.Buffalo was there to fill in for him. The lighting controls are in the corner of the DJ booth so Mr.Buffalo was sitting there behind me the whole time. I think I made him angry when I asked him if I could use his chair because my leg was just recently broken and, judging by the look on his face he didn’t seem to want to give it up.  I did end up getting his chair but he probobly  got even more pissed when I didn’t even use the chair at all and I ended up dancing in the booth like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. Either way he had that look in his eye like he was waiting for the right moment to pump me with bullets. It was frightening! I managed to calm myself down by drinking a shit load of beer and also few shots of vodka….ok well not a shit load but it was more like a 3 beers  and a shot of vodka(im a cheap drunk). Oh and Mr.Buffalo got his nickname because back in the day he used to spin club trance on CDJS while wearing his Buffalo brand moon boots. In the end I did manage to get through the set and finish the job. The tunes that got the best reaction  this time (past the 1am mark) were Killed it dead by Trg, Shoalin style by Bar nine, Jahova by Rusko, and Take me (reso rmx) by Dubchild. To end things off nicely, when 2am rolled around I was having so much fun mixing, dancing, drinking and tripping  I didn’t want to get off the decks and, for the first time in my life had to forced off the decks by the security gaurds. In the end I gave a speech about how our Government fucked up our right to party and blah blah blah sorry I can’t remember the rest what I said and hopefully nobody else can remember either. In all I had my set all planned out which didn’t work as expected. So I just started from scratch and just focused on creating a vibe that was fun for everybody including myself. And maybe just maybe Monsieur Buffalo also had an ok time as well.

shouts to Jonny Votek for designing the flyer and also much love to all the ravers that came to the party.