Not a country, more a way of life

They cleared the first hurdle on the road to fame by winning the Thailand leg of the 2014 global battle of the bands Hard Rock Rising,  Now post-hardcore rockers Ugoslabier are keeping their collective fingers crossed that they receive enough votes to propel them into the global  round of the competition.

All bands will compete for the deal of a lifetime: the chance to perform at Hard Rock Live Rome for an audience of 40,000 people in Italy or new gear valued at $10,000 (Bt330,000).

“I guess winning the chance falls between what we do and what we are capable of doing,” says bandleader and guitarist Whittavat “Oe” Pisuttisup.

“Nobody expects a band playing post hardcore to take part in this contest.”

Ugoslabier was formed two years ago by five friends with the aim of playing music without boundaries and songs with English lyrics. In addition to Whittavat, the band features guitarist Anawat “Oat” Pisuttisup, vocalist Paul Solis, formerly of Housetrap, drummer Narongpon “Mon” Kespratoom from the southern metal band Empty Glass Means Nothing; and bassist Kun Thonglua from Break the Kids.

“We got our name quite by accident. We were rehearsing for the first time at a recording studio and when we finished, I asked our youngest member Kun to buy some beer. I said to him, 

‘Hey, Kun, you go and ‘sue’ [buy] beer for us’ and realised that by mixing Thai and English, it came out sounding rather like Yugoslavia. And so we decided to call ourselves U-Go-Sla-Bier,” says Solis, who was born to a Spanish-Irish father and a Chinese-Laotian mother.

That same rehearsal produced their first song, “Open Water”.

“Most of our stuff evolves from jamming in the recording studio,” says Whittavat. “I came up with the riffs and the others pitched in.”

They have since produced a 5-track, self-titled EP on Banana Records. The numbers are “Meanwhile Back on Planet Earth”, “I Don’t Know”, “Highest Leap”, “Levelling” and “Closer Than Ever” featuring Ebola’s singer Kittisak “Aey” Buaphan. “Open Water” is a bonus track.

“I really care about the environment and ‘Meanwhile Back On Planet Earth’ has a strong ‘save the earth’ message,” says Solis, who says his songwriting in inspired by aRage Against the Machine.

“I wrote ‘I Don’t Know’ after breaking up with my girlfriend. ‘Closer Than Ever’ recalls my disappointment when Housetrap disbanded and ‘Highest Leap’ came about when I managed to get my life back on track after drinking all night and sleeping all day. ‘Levelling’ is inspired by the thrillers I enjoy watching.”

 

Vote now!

_ You can vote for Ugoslabier to be one of 25 bands taking part in the global competition by clicking at this Facebook.com/HardRockBangkok/app_205164529573076?ref=ts then pressing sort by “Vote”. The deadline is Wednesday.