There’s a lot of noise in Bangkok.
The sweltering Thai capital is home to almost 15 million people, close to 10 million cars and motorbikes, two international airports, an estimated 300,000 stray dogs, hundreds of crowded canals, over 50 commuter trains, and more wildlife than you could ever hope to quantify.
It can be difficult to be heard against that kind of action — even for an amp-rattling shoegaze band like Death of Heather.
“It requires a lot of effort for a band to stand out [in Bangkok],” Thanakarn Tangjaiyen, the founding member of the four-piece band, told ALT-MART. “It takes diligent work, performing, and consistently putting out merch so that fans can support.”
Of course, it helps when your band is part of an exploding scene.
While shoegaze is commonly associated with countries like the United Kingdom, Japan, and the United States, it has become very popular in Thailand, too – and across the rest of Southeast Asia, with bands like Motifs and Cosmic Child making waves in Singapore, and the likes of Go With Strangers and Dive Collate writing out of Malaysia and Indonesia respectively.
“There are a lot of good shoegaze bands in Southeast Asia now,” Tangjaiyen said. “It’s happened very fast in the last few years.”
“I feel that shoegaze music is almost mainstream nowadays. Many bands like to combine the sound of shoegaze music in their songs quite a lot.”
Tangjaiyen and his bandmates — Patchanon Dodsamer, Pakpoom Harthong, and Boonpradit Keatchay — have been playing together for over 10 years. However, they’ve only playing as Death of Heather for a few, making them one of the newer arrivals on the Southeast Asian shoegaze scene.
Despite that fact, they have enjoyed some pretty substantial victories so far.
In 2020, they put out their first full-length record – a 10-track, self-titled tidal wave of tremolo, fuzz, and washed-out vocals that was inspired by the work of My Bloody Valentine, Diiv, and Slowdive.
Like many bands, their momentum was slowed by the pandemic, but they bounced back in a big way in 2022, putting out two singles — Pretty Things and Head in the Sand — and opening for the likes of Deafheaven and Softcult on home turf in Bangkok.
“Last year was really good,” Tangjaiyen said. “Being able to open for [Deafheaven and Softcult], we were very happy – and they played really well.”
Tangjaiyen and his bandmates are keeping their momentum going in the first months of 2023.
The band has kickstarted the year by setting off on an ambitious, three-country tour. Their first dates took them to the Taiwanese cities of Taipei, Tainan, and Kaohsiung. They will next head off to the Philippines for shows in the capital of Manila and the mountain city of Baguio, before wrapping things up with three dates in Japan — in Kyoto, Nagoya, and Tokyo.
The tour is a reflection of the overarching goal for Death of Heather.
While the band’s first challenge was making themselves heard amid all the chaos and distractions of Bangkok — a feat they have undoubtedly achieved — the real mission is bringing their music to fans the world over.
“We will try to tour as much as possible,” Tangjaiyen said. “We really want to go [to the United States]. We will do our best.”
ALT-MART 