UB Radio for the world

    Bangkok’s most fun music community, UB Radio, is celebrating its six years on the road redeeming the city’s nightlife scene with a bash at the Glow club tomorrow night.
    With 121 DJs and 25,000 registered listeners all over the world, UB Radio has been a great online source for 24/7 underground music. Occasionally it’s hosted DJ workshops and parties that might not be sexy or glamorous but surely satisfy Bangkok’s needs for quality music and “no-attitude” events. This year UB Radio has not only secured its position as a musical institution in the capital but also embarked on an ambitious expansion to spread good tunes all over Asia.
    American co-founder Steve “Manow” Moss chatted with us about the grand plan.

How did it all start?
I had been coming to Thailand for a long time and saw there was a need here to create a platform to bring together the underground artists. My inspiration was a love of great music and my love for Thailand. When I was here in early 2008, as fate would have it, I met my partners-to-be, Daryl Lloyd and Wes Mather, who shared that passion about music, and, six years later, our partnership is still going strong.
It was very exciting at the beginning, and we’ve grown every year since and been constantly into developing new DJs. We’ve kept our vision of heartfelt, non-commercial music 24/7.

Why are you expanding into Phnom Penh and Kuala Lumpur in particular?
We’ve been taking foreign DJs to Phnom Penh for three years and developed a very strong relationship with the main man there, Eddie Newman, and with the local DJs. We’ve had many Cambodia-based DJs on our roster for a couple of years now, so expanding there was a no-brainer. Also, Cambodia is beginning to boom and we found ourselves in a similar situation when we first started out six years ago in Bangkok. We’re in negotiations with sponsors to start a free DJ school there, which to me is very exciting.

In regards to KL, my new partner in Cambodia, Tim Coates, has established a very strong presence in the scene there and we both have been working closely with Nora Haidee, our new director of UB Radio in KL. We’ve recently added new DJs there and are feeling good about future expansion in Malaysia.

What’s going to happen at UB Radio KL and Phnom Penh?
Same thing we are doing here in Bangkok – expand and spread great music.

Where else will you expand to?
The next areas of expansion are Vietnam and the Philippines. We picked them because we have very strong DJs that have been there for a long time and are ready to take the next step and educate people about good music.

How do you see the nightlife in Bangkok now?
Currently we’re experiencing a little downtime because of the closing of Bed Supperclub and the management and music-policy change at Q Bar and what used to be called Bash. Soi 11 used to be a great place to hang out, with cool music, but now it’s turned into a “farang RCA”, with the exception of Oscar. The silver lining is that Glow BKK is stronger than ever and is a hub of great music.

What about the electronic scene in Bangkok?
It’s an ongoing process. The biggest obstacle is that most Thai DJs have to play commercial music to earn a living. That’s why we created UB Radio – to give them a platform where they can play the music they love.
In other cities in Asia the Thai DJs are a little more advanced. For example we have Mody, who has personally taught many Thai DJs not only how to mix but how to create a mix to take people on a journey. Also we’ve partnered with Pioneer for five years, so many Thai DJs have been involved with our workshops and Pioneer DJ competitions.

What’s next for UB Radio?
Our strategy now is to establish UB branches in all major cities in Asia and then do “DJ exchanges”, where we have a team from KL playing in Saigon and a team from Shanghai playing in Bangkok.
Also, if sponsors are willing, we would love to start DJ schools, where we bring in a new generation of cool, hip DJs, and most importantly have fun doing what we love.

Party on

UB Radio’s sixth-anniversary party is tomorrow at Glow on Sukhumvit Soi 23.
Entry with a drink is Bt300. The party starts at 9pm.
Get the details at www.UBRadio.net.