Khruangbin
Khruangbin ( ; , เครื่องบิน) is an American musical trio from Houston, Texas. The band comprises Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar, and Donald "DJ" Johnson Jr. on drums. The band is known for blending global music influences, such as classic soul, dub, rock and psychedelia. Their debut studio album, "The Universe Smiles Upon You" (2015), draws from the history of Thai music in the 1960s, specifically from Luk thung, while their second album, "Con Todo el Mundo" (2018), has influences from Spain and the Middle East. Speer, Lee, and DJ also host "AirKhruang" radio shows on NTS Radio and  Facebook Live. Background. Speer and Johnson met in 2004 while playing in Rudy Rasmus' St. John's Methodist Church gospel band in Houston, Texas. The church employed Speer as the guitarist and Johnson as the organist. In 2007, Speer met Lee through friends, where they initially connected over a shared love of Afghan music and Middle Eastern architecture. In 2009, Lee started to learn the bass with guidance from Speer. After playing for six months, she auditioned and got the gig to be the bassist for Yppah on his upcoming tour. Speer already had the gig as guitarist for Yppah  and had encouraged Lee to audition. In 2010, both Lee and Speer went on tour with Yppah who opened for Bonobo. The tour motivated the two of them to make music together more seriously, leading them to form Khruangbin. Speer and Lee went to a barn where they developed the bass-heavy, psychedelic sound that became the basis of the band's aesthetic. Upon their return, they asked Johnson to join the band as drummer, to play simple break-beats under the guitar and bass. The barn, located in the 300-person town of Burton, Texas, would become the site  of all future Khruangbin recording sessions. The band has a long-term working relationship with Houston-based engineer Steve Christensen. When asked to play their first gig, Lee, who was learning to speak Thai at the time, decided they should use her favorite Thai word "khruangbin" (; ), which means "aeroplane", as their name. Speer said that, had they had the foresight to predict the band's success, they might not have chosen a name that was so difficult to pronounce. The band's name symbolizes the international set of influences that shaped the band's formation. Speer described the band's  creative process as focused."When we first started the band, we wanted to have a formula,” he says. “It’s like, ‘This is what we do, and we’re not gonna try and go outside the box too much. We’re gonna explore the box we’re in. I’ve always been a big fan of that. I used to be in bands where was like, ‘Man, we’ve gotta think outside the box!’ And all I’m thinking is: ‘You guys don’t even know.’ Music should never be just for the sake of being experimental . Before you even start, you have to know what you’re experimenting with first.”A notable part of the band's visual style is the black wigs that Lee and Speer wear on stage, and during promotional interviews and photoshoots. Career. After Khruangbin toured with Bonobo, they featured their song "Calf Born in Winter" on his 2014 "" compilation. The song became one of the most popular tracks on the record, helping create an initial audience for the band's first EP, "History of Flight", and debut record, "The Universe Smiles Upon You", in 2015. Shortly thereafter, Khruangbin were named "The  Guardian"s "New Band of the Week," opening for acts like Father John Misty, Tycho, Chicano Batman, and Massive Attack. They also joined the festival circuit, playing a string of festivals like Lockn, Glastonbury, Bonnaroo, ACL, Outside Lands, Desert Daze, and South by Southwest. In 2017, the band covered "Ma Beham Nemiresim" by Googoosh, a popular Iranian songstress, for the "Philia: Artists Rise Against Islamophobia" compilation, and created a Tehran-specific playlist on Spotify, in addition to many other city-specific playlists, as part of their "AirKhruang" DJ series. In January 2018, Khruangbin released their second album, "Con Todo el Mundo . The title of the album came from Laura Lee's Mexican-American grandfather, who would often ask, How do you love me?" (""¿Cómo me quieres?"") and would only accept one response, ""Con todo el mundo"" or, in English, "with all the world." The band said the title of the record is also a reference to the diverse range of musical influences that inspired it, primarily from the Middle East. In 2018, Khruangbin recorded live for Spotify an arrangement of the Indian song "Khuda Bhi Aasman Se", played by Mohammed Rafi in the movie Dharti (1970), a Bollywood movie classic. They  opened for Leon Bridges on his 2018 tour, as well as Trey Anastasio's Ghosts of the Forest tour in 2019. In 2020, the group was featured on the cover of "Relix". In April 2020, Khruangbin announced they would release their third studio album, "Mordechai," on June 26 via Dead Oceans and shared their lead single "Time (You & I)" In addition to announcing the relaunch of "AirKhruang", they released the single "So We Won't Forget" and the accompanying video directed by Scott Dungate and co-produced by Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo x Nakama in May 2020. Khruangbin released the single "Pelota  from Mordechai" on June 16, 2020, along with a video directed by Hugo Rodrigues Rodriguez written by Alvaro Sotomayor and produced by Glassworks Creative Studio via Dead Oceans. On June 26, 2020, Khruangbin released "Mordechai". Laura Lee said the band wanted the album to sound like "the world, rather than any one particular part of the world,” with influences from West African, Indian, Vietnamese, German, Czech, Mexican and many more cultures. Album released through Dead Oceans. On November 4, 2021, Khruangbin appeared with Leon Bridges on Austin City Limits Season 47 Episode 4706 On Saturday 2 April 2022, Khruangbin appeared  at St David's Hall for 6 Music Festival in Cardiff Style. Khruangbin's musical genre is a hotly debated topic amongst critics. Mostly instrumental, the band's sound has been described as soul, surf rock, psychedelic, rock, dub and funk, with one website even describing them as "electronic". The most commonly used term to describe Khruangbin's music is Thai funk, though the band members themselves challenge the convention of genres, publicly refusing to be pigeonholed into one particular label. As music journalist Rob Shepherd noted for PostGenre, "the [name Khruangbin], which translates to 'flying engine' or airplane in  Thai, is perfect for their music as it often crosses borders and cultures."