Thai folk-rock My Life As Ali Thomas
Hi guys! I'm back. For the last 2 weeks, I was talking about the American ambient pop band called "Cigarettes After Sex", how amazing their songs are and also my wonderful experience in their live performance. Today, I am going to talk more about the Thai indie band which I think that 70 percent of you would never hear of.
Check out this great folk-rock band called My Life As Ali Thomas from Thailand. The band, led by the very talented Kanyapark "Pie" Wuttara, has been doing the rounds for a few years now.
My Life As Ali Thomas didn’t have a beginning, though it took up to early 2013 for ‘Pie’ Kanyapak Wuttara to fully realize it was always there. The true meaning of Ali Thomas lies in Greek roots, which translates to "another twin", so the band name technically reads as “My Life as Another Twin”. This is the name she gave to the songstress in isolation, which she felt was in true contrast her waking life.
In 2014, Kong Suvarnapradip, founder of Bangkok’s legendary indie bar Cosmic Café, introduced Pie to Rack Wipata Lertpanya. This is when My Life As Ali Thomas took shape into its genre-bending form, combining Rack’s ambient, Brit rock style, to Pie’s folk sensibilities. Rack then brought over a drummer, and together with Pie formed a trio and was ready to perform live acts.
Three months later after a few shows in between, they played at Cosmic Café’s last event before they closed down. That same night, My Life As Ali Thomas was approached by Tigger Twins and invited to be a part of the burgeoning music label.
It wasn’t until later that bassist, Oak Chotiwat Phuripun, joined the band and transformed the scattered bits of folk and country rock into a more experimental sound. His smooth clouds of bass vibrations melded the sound together like glue. At that point, My Life As Ali Thomas had stretched its final folk form and began to emerge as something else, something different. Though, it wasn’t until Taw Wannaphong Jangbumrung who was later introduced as the band’s new drummer that finally finalized the band’s true sound. Taw’s strong sense of rock and stability have brought My Life As Ali Thomas a whole new sound and a whole new genre.
Mid 2015 after the release of two live sessions; "Lover to Lover" and "All My Inventions," the road with Tigger Twins music label fell through, My Life As Ali Thomas was set to being an independent music group once again.
My Life As Ali Thomas just released their first album, Paper, at the end of September 2016 with their first single "Daughter and Son" which was selected as a lead single for the band's first album. The songs definition lies in the phrase our bones were given, the soul is ours to forge. In the original version, the song was crafted in an acoustic arrangement and was later revised by My Life As Ali Thomas together with its producer, Danai Thongsinthusak, to give it a larger perspective and emotion.
It is NOT very often that you find a decent Thai band singing and performing in English. This one, however, definitely deserves the attention. Not only does the singer stay true to her folk-style sound, but their songs are empowered with a modern twist of post-rock guitar effect that you don’t often find in indie folk bands. Their songs are certainly a treat for the ears!
That's it for today. Stay tuned for the next week. I will show you more details about this band. Thank you for reading my blog. See you soonnn!!
