Happy to be flying high

PATEE SARASIN, the chief executive of budget airline Nok Air and occasional musician, is breathing easy these days having scraped enough spare time together to finish recording his debut album, the appropriately named “Feels High”.

“I’m a businessman not a professional musician,” laughs Patee during the recent press conference held at CentralWorld to launch the album, which is part of his PP Project.

“We are pushing our airline into taking part in entertainment activities. I don’t think the chief executives of other airlines are amateur musicians, at least I’ve not heard of any singing and writing songs or playing the guitar. I guess I’m just different.

“I’m very much a night owl. I get home around 2am and go to bed around 4. My ideas for songs come from everywhere including the shower! But my Thai language is so bad. I tried to write my songs in Thai but my wife Bee Patipat said they were hard to understand and suggested I write them in English instead,” Patee continues.

“And then I came up with the idea of arranging the music, switching the tempo from jazz to rock and from rock to swing. We even had the chance to play some of the songs on stage,” adds jazz master Tanapat “Prode” Mathayomchand, the other “P” in the project partnership.

“In fact, Patee is being modest. He’s a very capable songwriter. It’s just that he rarely has time.”

Patee and Prode teamed up with musicians Vorapat Charusorn, Chatchawan Piyawongprapas, Romwong Srichaiyant and Amphol Tautanonda to record the album, which features 12 tracks including a fast and a ballad version of “Look into My Eyes.”

The first song the pair worked on together was “Khon Derm Khong Ther” though it wasn’t the first Patee wrote. That honour goes to “Sew Med Yai” (“Big Pimple”).

“I got the idea for the song when Bee was messing around with a spot on her face in the bathroom,” Patee laughs. “It was such a small thing but she told me a pimple is a serious problem for an actress.”

The CEO adds that he was inspired by looking at a beautiful blonde when he wrote “Just A Dream”. The number was later used for Nok Air’s TVC commercial.

“And ‘Thing Ther Pai’ came about after Bee and I had words. She sulked for ages afterwards. Boy Peacemaker’s songs are also an inspiration even though they are about broken love and mine are quite the opposite.”

“Make It Right” is one of the five songs written for the soundtrack of “Khun Chai Ronapee”, a sequel to Channel 3’s top-rated series “Suparburoot Jutathep”. Patee made his acting debut in the sequel back in 2013.

“Actor-cum-director Chatchai ‘Nok’ Plengpanich gave me a call and invited me. The TV series was airing and the song became No 1 in iTunes and sold well worldwide. My friends in New York actually paid for downloading my song as well as ‘Just A Dream’,” says Patee. “I was so blown away that wrote ‘Feels High’, the title track of the album, in just two minutes.”

Chatchai didn’t only direct Patee in “Khun Chai Ronapee” but also came on board for his music video of “Look into My Eyes”. He also shot the music video of “Make It Right” featuring many artists and singers including Jirasak “Maew” Panpoom, Attapon “Noom” Teemakorn, and Pachara “Bank” Panyayong. The MV of “Sew Med Yai” features Joey Boy and the Wattanasin brothers, Jo Jirayut and J Jetrin.

 

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Hear "Just A Dream" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ttdzjkIklM