Tanz Talks 007 // More Rice
The Tanz Talks series continues to shine a light on people who share a similar vision to us, nurturing and developing the scene. A prime example is Bangkok record shop and label More Rice, a catalyst for the local movement within electronic music, particularly vinyl culture. Alongside their record shop, they also run events at local hotspots in tandem with their established record label, highlighting their team and fellow Asian artists. Get to know more about the brand and the team, Sarayu, Jirus, and DOTT, and if you're in Thailand, do not hesitate to give them a visit.
Hi guys, welcome to the Tanz Talks series. How has the start of the year been for you?
Hey, guys, firstly thanks for having us, this is Sarayu from More Rice. It’s been great actually, we’ve been super busy travelling a lot for shows. The shops had a busy couple of months, which is usual here, November - Feb is usually Thailand’s high season for tourists.
When did you first open your doors? How did you come up with the name More Rice?
We’re actually coming into our 6th year of the store opening and it’s our 9th year with the label. Time really flies, I’ve actually just had to look back into our Instagram posts because I thought it’s been open for less time! The name More Rice was thought of by DOTT, I guess it’s something really Thai and Asian cos when the food’s good, you always have to ask for More Rice!
Are there any specific genres you focus on? Or is there a broad range?
It’s mainly a focus of a broad range of electronic dance music, both new and second hand. At the time we opened we were the only record store that focused on this, so we wanted to be as broad as possible. But of course we’re still personally buying the records for our shop, so it still very much has a touch of our taste.
We are curious to learn more about the underground and vinyl culture in Thailand. Do you have any key clubs, promoters, and DJs you can share with our audience?
I think you’ll be surprised, we have a lot of great parties and artists here. Clubs wise, for what we do it’s a bit limited at the moment, we opened a venue last year called Bar Temp. it’s a small 120-130 cap venue, with good sound and we do both international and local bookings there. Other venues there’s Elsewhere that’s become super popular over the last year or so also. Horn is another venue here, it’s more Techno orientated. It’s an afters venue with great bookings and always has good vibes and is always fun to play.
Promoters wise there’s so many to check out with a wide variety of sounds some of the ones off the top of my head are Kangkao, Transport, Rom Rom, Karma, Listening Sesh, Club Seven Bells, Highwire, Moor, SUP, Tempo, NonNonNon, Suburb Sound I’m sure I’ve missed someone out, sorry if I did, there’s just so many! All of these parties have their own specific sound and are doing their own bookings as well, it’s great to see that there’s so many parties here with everyone doing their own thing. There’s also a couple of great community radios here like Bangkok Community Radio, Durian Radio and Tuk Tuk, DJs wise there’s just too many to mention, there’s so much quality in Thailand now it’s crazy. I think if you dig through the parties I mentioned you’ll find you like!
What challenges do you face being based in Thailand?
Thailand can be tough. We have pretty strict closing times. The local crowd that goes is always getting bigger, but I guess it’s still pretty limited, all of the parties kind of share a crowd in some way. We’ve recently had some bigger venues close as well, such as Beam and Studio Lam. I guess it’s always been a bit hard to sustain a club here.
Why is it so important to you to create awareness about vinyl culture? Would you say Thailand is more digital heavy?
I think for us it’s very important, I’ve personally been collecting records since I was 18, I’m now 35 and I think it’s a form of music that is still physical, something that you can buy and keep forever. I think as with the rest of the world right now, we’re still digital heavy, but vinyl has made a big revival here. A lot of DJs are playing records now here, you’ll be surprised. It’s refreshing to see, like I said before, the quality of DJs we have here is great both digital and vinyl DJs!
It makes us very happy to see the Asian scene continuing to blossom. Is there something else you think the community could be doing to make it even stronger?
Right now I think Thailand is pretty complete, we have clubs, great parties, great community radios and great DJs. I think for me it would be great to see more people here getting into music production, we already have a few and I know some more are learning, so it would be nice to see more!
You are also making events and have a record label. Do you have any exciting plans for the year ahead you can share with us? Are you also doing in-stores?
This year (as of right now) we have three (maybe four) releases planned for the year. We have two digital releases both from local artists, one from Chalo and the other from DZ. The physical release is from an artist from Japan, Rio Kawamoto. We would probably have a 9 year anniversary event closer to the end of the year.
We do in-stores yes, but not regularly I would say probably only two or three times in a year. Most recently we hosted Karnac On Acid.
Leave us with one track that reminds you of the store?
Sarayu:
Jirus:
DOTT: https://youtube.com/