Thailand's premier ska outfit roused them out of their seats at Singapore's Mosaic Festival. Mix the upbeat tones of ska with some steady reggae rhythms and a dash of smooth jazz, top it off with a distinctly Thai taste and you get T-Bone, one of Thailand's top internationally acclaimed acts. It's barely half an hour before the band is slated to take on the Surf and Ska stage at Singapore's Mosaic Music Festival 2011 late last month.
T-Bone front man Gap greets me with an easy smile, looking every inch the reggae superstar, with his dreadlocks and dapper plaid shirt. After all, he is _ along with the rest of the members of this nine-person ensemble _ no stranger to international performances. In 2005, along with Sek Loso, T-Bone become one of the first two Thai bands to perform at the Glastonbury Festival. They played there again in 2007, and also appeared at the Smiley Festival in 2009 and a tsunami benefit in London among other stops abroad.
It is the band's third time performing in Singapore, a country known for bringing in a wide array of musical acts to suit a culturally diverse audience, but it is also their first time at this particular music festival.
"We heard about it [Mosaic] like four or five years ago," says Golf, the band's lead guitarist. "I thought we would never have a chance to play here ... but luckily we got invited to this major festival in Asia." T-Bone shared the stage with Comic Strip, a Singaporean nine-piece band who also play ska and reggae with a dash of world music, and the Sallys, another popular pop-punk act from the Lion City.
Although the band have performed with the likes of INXS, UB40, Tokyo Ska Paradise, Skatalites, Prince Fatty and the Beat, among others, over a career spanning almost two decades, the members of T-Bone maintain an easygoing attitude.Recalling their first international performance at the Glastonbury festival back in 2005, Golf remains humble. "That festival was huge _ and we were just this tiny band," he says. But whether or not they consider themselves international stars, T-Bone's reputation resonates far beyond Thailand.
The members credit the power of quick thinking for having come up with the band's name 17 years ago. "We auditioned for this club and we got a gig, so we needed a name," Golf says. They took the name from the jeans line that Gap was designing at the time during his art school days.
When asked why they chose ska and reggae despite much of the Thai music industry relying on pop and rock, Gap offers a simple answer. They love ''black'' music, he says. ''We listen to a lot of soul and R&B.'' The fact that most of the band has extensive training in jazz also contributed to T-Bone's eclectic sound.
All members were in agreement that Gap is responsible for fine-tuning the band's musical direction. ''He mainly influences the band _ he's the man,'' Golf says.
However, they acknowledge the role other artists in a variety of genres have played in shaping their brand of music. So what's currently on their playlist? ''I've been listening to Stevie Wonder and Ben Harper lately, and I've also recently picked up Radiohead,'' Golf says. ''And some Chemical Brothers too,'' Gap adds. They also name Thai rock superstars Asanee Wasan and Carabao as acts they admire back home.
The band admit that developing such a unique sound has not been easy. ''The problem in Thailand is that there aren't a lot of sound engineers who specialise in reggae and ska _ normally they only do pop or rock, so we have to learn a lot ourselves,'' Golf says.
But the band members say that recent years have been favourable, as demand for reggae and ska has grown. They say 2010 especially busy, with the band headlining many reggae fests throughout Thailand.
But capping off T-Bone's recent successes will be the upcoming release of their next album in three months.
Golf says the album is bound to be phenomenal due to the involvement of an industry legend.
''We are working right now with Prince Fatty from the UK,'' he says, referring to the sound engineer and producer also known as Mike Pelanconi, who has been a permanent fixture in the reggae and dub scene since the mid-'90s. What can listeners expect from the new album?
''It's going to be very danceable,'' Gap says with a smirk. ''You can definitely move.''
While wrapping up their latest recording, the band is also busy touring, with an upcoming performance in Hua Hin on May 14 for the Honda Summer Fest.
Golf admits that there is a big difference between performing in Thailand and doing shows in Singapore. ''The problem is they don't dance _ last time, people were just sitting still,'' he says.
But T-Bone are hopeful that they can bring the crowd to their feet this time around.''We get our energy from the audience ... I just do my thing and be myself, but if we can move the audience, then we get more energy,'' Gap says.
And true enough, their mission to get the crowd dancing was a success as soon as they took to the Mosaic stage _ as many youths dressed in mod and punk were spotted grooving to the ska and reggae beats, with the more conservative ones bobbing their heads in their seats, taken by T-Bone's original Thai compositions and lively stage presence.
The third time worked its charm, indeed.
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