The Owl is back with a Bang

AMERICAN ONE-MAN band Owl City returns to Thailand on August 24 as part of the gigantic indoor music festival Sonic Bang. Singer-songwriter Adam Young showed us what he can do on a multitude of instruments at last year’s Silver Lake Music Festival in Pattaya, displaying loads of energy, electronica pop and feel-good vibes.
“I’m so eager to be back!” Young told The Nation this week. “I’ve actually been on a break, but I’m about to do a short run in the US and then will be heading straight to Asia. Looking forward to coming back!”
The poor guy was toiling on the loading dock at Coca-Cola in his hometown, Minnesota, and suffering from insomnia, so he stayed up composing tracks with a C-1 Behringer Microphone. In 2007 he dubbed his “moonlighting” project Owl City and people started noticing the tunes he posted on Myspace. A mainstream following bloomed in 2009 when he released the album “Ocean Eyes”, with the single “Fireflies”, which went quadruple platinum.
It’s nice to have final say on absolutely everything. Being a one-man operation means Young is the singer, the keyboard programmer, the pianist, the synthesiser master, the guitarist, the bassist, the drummer and the percussionist. Oh, and he plays the vibraphone too.
“I’m still happy being a soloist because I get a good mix of creating solo and then performing with my awesome band,” he says, “but I look forward to a lot more collaborations down the road. If I could choose, I’d love to work with Enya.”
After the sensational success of “Fireflies”, Owl City conquered the music charts all over the world with more synth-pop hits like “Gold”, “Good Time” (featuring Carley Rae Jepson and Justin Bieber), “Shooting Star”, “Deer in the Headlights”. There have been two more studio albums, “All Things Bright and Beautiful” and the latest, “The Midsummer Station”, released one year ago.
Owl City has also recorded tracks for the animated films “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole”, “Wreck-It Ralph”, “The Croods” and “The Smurfs 2”.
“It’s been an incredible year so far,” he says. “I got to go on tour with Maroon 5 and Neon Trees, which was such an honour and a lot of fun. I got to experiment in writing for a lot of animated films and hopefully I’ll have more of those projects coming up. I’m also in the middle of creating stuff for a new album – maybe next year.”
Young says he “can’t wait for you guys to hear what the Midsummer Station World tour has in store for you. It will be a fun mix of old and new songs. Thailand hasn’t seen any of the stuff off the ‘Midsummer Station’ record yet, so you should be prepared for an epic rock show.”
Owl City will share one the many stages at the event with foreign headliners from both East and West, including Placebo, Jason Mraz, the Pet Shop Boys, Pitbull, Rain and the JAM Project.
Thai pop sensation Baitoey R-Siam will be there too. The 26-year-old’s modernised luk tung hit “Rak Tong Perd (Nan Oak)”, on which she collaborated with rap group 3.2.1, dominated YouTube right after it came out and caused quite a stir thank to her trademark raunchy moves and micro-shorts.
“I’m thankful for the success this track has brought,” Baitoey says. “It took us only five minutes to record and yet it’s probably the biggest hit of my life so far!
“I’m so excited that I will get to perform in such big line-up of international artists at the festival. Of course you’ll get to see me in my trademark outfits and I’ll be entertaining you with my hits such as ‘Rak Tong Perd’, ‘Check Rating’ and ‘Ched Laew Ting (Rok Oak)’.
“Some people might think me being at the festival doesn’t fit the overall vibe,” she admits, “but I know I have fans who will always support me. I’ll do my best as an entertainer and we’ll have a lot of fun!”

GIVE A HOOT
Owl City and Baitoey R-Siam will be at the Sonic Bang Bangkok festival at Impact Arena and Impact Exhibition Halls 1-4 on August 24 from 10am till midnight.
Passes cost Bt4,000 and Bt5,000 at www.ThaiTicketMajor.com www.ThaiTicketMajor.com and (02) 262 3456.