JPBS是一支來自曼谷的器樂/實驗搖滾樂隊，2023年發表首張專輯《Waiting Room》，以多元的音樂風格，建構神秘而迷人的世界，創造關於生命與死亡的故事。這次很高興能邀請他們進行訪問，分享樂隊的創作理念，讓大家更了解這支泰國炙手可熱的樂隊。
JPBS is an instrumental/experimental rock band from Bangkok, released their debut album “Waiting Room" in 2023, with diverse musical styles, constructing a mysterious world, creating stories about life and death. We are excited to have the opportunity to interview them, sharing their creative concept and to provide a deeper understanding of this popular Thai band.
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JPBS are :
JIRAPAT VATANAKULJARAS (Jay) – Guitar / Synthesizer
PHAWIN PHUMMARIN (Win) – Drum Sets
SAWETTACHAT PUAKTES (Wade) – Guitar
NATTHAWUT PHROMMA (Tong) – Bass
RACHCHAPOL JAREONTANANAN (Name) – Synthesizer
PONGPAT POLSORN (Sans) – Percussion
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【Interview with Thai indie band JPBS 】
【泰國獨立樂團 JPBS 專訪 】
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Q1. Can you introduce us to the process of forming the band and the origin of the band’s name?
可以跟我們介紹一下樂隊的組成經過及樂團名字的由來嗎？
> This band started since high school (in 2012) Jay and Win are friend and are in the band together since we are 13 years old (Now we are 31), at that time (2012) in Bangkok music scene some promoter started introducing Post-Rock to audience Jay have been concert from Mono (Post-Rock band from Japan) and those wall of sound shake his interest hard, after those concert we try to started a Post-Rock band and its called ‘Jia Pa Bor Sue’ which name originated from my family, which are Teochew Chinese diasporas in Bangkok. We released one single called ‘Rainy Days’ in 2012, and then disappeared from the scene because it was very hard to make music during university, especially in design school. During university we met new friends (Tong – Bassist, Wade – Guitarist, Sans – Percussionist) and also an old friend from high school (Name – Synthesizer) and invited them to be a part of a band. In 2019, during the pandemic Jay and Name back in business and started writing demo for ‘Waiting Room’ with the whole new concept and sound.
> 這個樂隊始於高中時期（2012年），Jay和Win是朋友，從13歲時就一起組樂隊（現在我們都31歲了），那時（2012年）在曼谷的音樂場景中，一些宣傳人員開始向觀眾介紹後搖滾音樂。Jay看過 Mono（來自日本的後搖滾樂隊）的演出，那些音牆深深地震撼了他。在那些演出之後，我們嘗試成立一支後搖滾樂隊，並取名為「Jia Pa Bor Sue」，這個名字源於我的家族，他們是居住在曼谷的潮州華僑。我們在2012年發行了一首單曲《Rainy Days》，之後就從音樂界消失了，因為在大學期間很難創作音樂，尤其是在設計學院。在大學期間，我們結識了新朋友（Tong – 貝斯手，Wade – 結他手，Sans – 敲擊樂手），還有一位高中時的老朋友（Name – 鍵琴手），並邀請他們加入樂團。2019年，在疫情期間，Jay和Name重新開始創作，以全新的概念和聲音開始為《Waiting Room》寫Demo。
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Q2. Listening to your songs, I can feel a mysterious and charming feeling. Can you share with us the concept behind “Waiting Room"?
聽著你們的歌曲，能感受到神秘而迷人的感覺。可以與我們分享《Waiting Room》的創作概念嗎?
> It initially started from my home environment, I live in a big family and surrounded by old people – some of them were disabled – waiting for those days to come, and this triggered a question about life, death and in between. As I do grow up in Buddhist Chinese family in Thailand, and graduated from Christian high school, So,This album is more like a collection of a story and belief about ‘Afterlife’ that circulated around me since I was young, with all those belief it’s also question me which is the most enduring torment—eternal bliss, eternal suffering, or eternal waiting?
> There is some text i write about this question and want to share with you below:
In many religions and beliefs, the concept of life after death is often divided into good and evil, white and black, heaven and hell. This raises the question of the existence of a ‘grey area,’ and the Waiting Room is a representation of that question. In the realm of evil, the black, it speaks of depravity, suffering, and punishment for sins committed. In the realm of good, the white, it speaks of goodness, happiness, and eternal bliss, reaping the rewards of virtue or belief in God. But the grey area speaks of an in-between, a stuck process, an ‘In Limbo’ situation, waiting for judgment, not knowing when or if it will ever come—an eternal waiting. This leads to another question: what is the most enduring torment—eternal bliss, eternal suffering, or eternal waiting?
> 這一切最初源於我的家庭環境，我住在一個大家庭裡，周圍都是老人—有些還是殘障人士—他們都在等待那一天的到來，這引發了我對生、死以及兩者之間的疑問。由於我是在泰國的佛教華人家庭長大，並且畢業於基督教高中，所以這張專輯更像是我從小到大都流傳著關於「來生」的故事與信念的匯集。在這些信念中，我也在思考，哪一個才是最持久的煎熬——永恆的幸福、永恆的痛苦，還是永恆的等待？
> 關於這個問題，我寫了一些文字，希望與你分享：
在許多宗教和信仰中，對死後生命的概念常被分為善與惡、白與黑、天堂與地獄。這帶出了「灰色地帶」是否存在的問題，而「等候間」就是這個問題的代表。在邪惡的領域裡，黑色代表墮落、苦難和對所犯罪行的懲罰。在善良的領域中，白色代表善良、快樂和永恆的幸福，以及因美德或信仰上帝而獲得的報酬。但是灰色的領域則是介於兩者之間，是一個停滯不前的過程，是一種「不確定」的情況，等待審判，不知道審判何時或是否會來──一種永恆的等待。這帶出了另一個問題：什麼是最持久的煎熬──永恆的幸福、永恆的痛苦，還是永恆的等待？
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Q3. I find your music not only an auditory experience but also a visual one. When you create songs, do you aim to create that experience for the listener?
我認為你們的音樂不僅是一種聽覺體驗，也是一種視覺體驗。當你們創作歌曲時，是否想要為聽眾創造這樣的體驗？
> For us we feel that our music itself is also a very visual one, during the process of making an album we feel that all of this music includes a sense of storytelling, it feels like we are creating some film or novel about a place for life and death – and we do think a lot about a new way to presenting and experiencing a music, So, with a collaboration with BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLERY and DuckUnit a Bangkok based scenographer we all work together to expanded those music to become more visually and become more like an experience for the audience.
PS. But the show in Hong Kong did not include the visual and lighting, but we tried to experiment and prepare something new for the Hong Kong audience too 🙂
> 對我們來說，我們覺得我們的音樂本身也是非常具視覺性的，在製作專輯的過程中，我們覺得所有的音樂都包含了一種敘事感，感覺就像是我們在創作一些關於生死之地的電影或小說 – 而且我們確實思考了很多關於以新的方式來呈現和體驗音樂的問題，所以，透過與 BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLERY 和 DuckUnit（一個來自曼谷的舞台設計師）的合作，我們一起努力將這些音樂擴展為更具視覺性，並使其成為給觀眾的一種體驗。
PS. 在香港的演出不包括視覺和燈光，但我們也嘗試為香港觀眾準備一些新的東西:)
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Q4. Where does the inspiration for your songs mainly come from? Is making music a way to express your inner emotions?
你們的歌曲靈感主要來自哪裡？對你們來說，創作音樂是一種表達方式來抒發內心的情感嗎?
> As we already answer in question 2 for the inspiration of the songs, But in the music terms for ‘Waiting Room’ we made it in 2019 and feel that many music in the market are kind of soft, easy listening and chill – which we actually don’t hate it and also listen to those kind of music but we feel like that we need something else – so as a producer we try to make something more crazy and more extreme and exploding, so it’s become why its sounds like that.
But we do think that we are more creating a world, like a world building and more like storytelling than an express our inner emotion, especially for the performance we are focussing more on creating a particular space and telling those story through our music.
> 我們在問題 2 中提到歌曲的靈感來源，但是就《Waiting Room》的音樂而言，我們是在 2019 年製作，我們感覺市面上有很多音樂都是比較柔和、輕鬆、舒適 – 其實我們並不討厭這些音樂，也會聽這些音樂，但是我們覺得需要一些不同的東西 – 因此，作為創作人，我們嘗試創作一些更瘋狂、更極端和更具爆炸性的音樂，這就是為什麼它聽起來會是這樣的原因。
但我們認為，我們更像是在創造一個世界，就像一個世界的建構，更像是在說故事，而不是單純表達我們的內心情感，尤其是在演出的時候，我們更專注於創造一個特定的空間，並通過我們的音樂講述這些故事。
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Q5. Can you tell us a little about the band’s song writing process? Are ideas fleshed out through jamming or some other method?
可以分享你們的歌曲創作過程嗎？你們是透過即興演奏還是其他方法來創作？
> It normally started with Jay writing a sketch as an idea for the songs, and then we do a jamming session together in a rehearsal room, to be fit with everyone’s influential style of playing. But sometimes it can be a reversed process, jamming together also producing some interesting ideas and then Jay goes back to develop and construct those ideas into a song. But one thing we want to share is we never finished the songs, it’s always fluid since if the concept of the songs are solid we can transform it into many form, and we always do this for every live, we always selected and design the show to fit the context of the show together.
> 通常是先由 Jay 寫一個草圖作為歌曲的構想，然後我們一起在排練室進行即興演奏，以配合每個人有影響力的演奏風格。但有時這個過程也可以是反向的，一起即興演奏也會產生一些有趣的想法，然後 Jay 再回去將這些想法構建成為一首歌。但有一件事我們想分享的是，我們從來不會認為歌曲是完成的，它總是流動的，因為如果歌曲的概念是堅實的，我們可以將其轉化為多種形式，而我們在每場演出中都這樣做，我們總是選擇和設計演出，以配合演出的情境。
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Q6. What is the independent music scene like in Thailand? How do you think the local environment affects your sound?
泰國的獨立音樂場景是什麼樣的呢？您認為當地的環境對你們的聲音有何影響？
> Independent music scene here are growing interestingly for me, for past 10 years there are some gap in the middle which we called ‘Indy-mass’ growing fast and very influenced the market, also many small-mid size live house has been established increasingly which very interesting, but also what we feel lost for 10 years is also an underground scene community, since many old school underground music label has stopped – Independent / Underground spread into many pieces and feels like the community has lost this feeling of strong for a decade. Which we also influenced by these old school underground music label (so:on dry flowers, panda records) – but in another way like what I just mentioned in previous question, most of the songs that got spotlight here are always be something soft, chill and easy, so it’s inspired us to make something different too.
> 對我來說，這裡的獨立音樂場景逐漸變得越來越有趣。過去的十年中存在一些間隙，我們稱之為“Indy-mass”，這一部分發展迅速，並對市場產生了很大的影響，同時也有牽許多的中小型live house紛紛成立，這是非常有趣的。然而，我們感覺在這十年中也失去了一些地下音樂社群，因為許多老派的地下音樂廠牌已經停止運作 – 獨立/地下音樂分散成許多碎片，社群似乎在這十年間失去了強烈的凝聚力。我們也受到這些老派地下音樂廠牌的影響（例如：so:on dry flowers, panda records）- 但另一方面，正如我在上一個問題中提到的，這裡大多數受到關注的歌曲總是柔和、輕鬆和舒適的，這激發了我們也要做出一些不同的東西。
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Q7. What artists / bands have most influenced your work?
有哪些藝術家/樂隊對你們的音樂創作路上產生影響？
> Actually many artists / bands influence us all the time, not just music but also Visual artists, Film directors, writers etc., like this ‘Waiting Room’ album we also got inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s painting – Satoshi Kon’s film and many more.But we are all growing up in different background so it’s a very mix in our creative process.
> 其實許多藝術家和樂隊一直影響著我們，不僅是音樂，還有視覺藝術家、電影導演、作家等等，例如，在這張《Waiting Room》專輯中，我們也受到了希羅尼穆斯．波希的畫作、今敏的電影以及許多其他作品的啟發。但我們都是在不同的背景中成長，因此在創作過程中呈現出非常多元的風格。
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Q8. Can you tell us a little about your current areas of interest (books, films, art, etc.)?
能否向我們簡單介紹一下你們目前感興趣的領域（書籍、電影、藝術等）？
> We are working on new tracks and interested in Machine / Human / Nature, so we are kind of researching this, the relation between these 3 words. And we always discuss random things during rehearsal like sometimes it’s about Music gear, Stocks markets, AI and Technology and memes.
> 我們正在創作新歌曲，對於機器 / 人類 / 自然很感興趣，所以我們正在研究這三者之間的關係。我們在排練時會討論一些隨機的話題，例如有時候會談到音樂器材、股票市場、人工智慧和科技，以及迷因。
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Q9. In terms of music creation, do you have any direction or goals in the future?
在音樂創作方面，你們未來有什麼方向或目標嗎？
> We are now starting something new, but it’s hard to tell where and which direction we are on, like an exploration, but ideally we want something more synthy, electronic, fresh and iconic, and expect more surprises but still the sense of storytelling and extreme music.
> 我們現在正在開始一些新的東西，但很難說我們處於何處以及朝哪個方向發展，就像是一種探索。不過理想中，我們希望能有更多合成器的音色、電子感、新鮮、且具標誌性的音樂，期待更多驚喜，但仍然保有敘事感和極端音樂的元素。
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Q10. You will be performing in Hong Kong soon. What do you think of this city?
你們很快會來香港演出了，你們對香港這個城市有什麼想像？
> We like Hong Kong, have been there a few time for traveling and working, it’s quite fun and good time there, but only thing is a small hotel room and quite expensive for living hahaha.
> 我們喜歡香港，去過幾次旅遊和工作，那裡非常有趣，度過了愉快的時光。不過唯一的問題是酒店房間細小，而且生活成本相當昂貴，哈哈。
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JPBS – 《Waiting Room》
試聽 :
Bloody Mary 