NEW YORK (AP) — If you happen to assume your Spotify playlist is getting a bit too lengthy, contemplate the one shared by the members of Khruangbin. It is acquired 51 hours of songs.
“I’m trying to listen to as many different things as possible before they all start to sound kind of the same,” says Mark Speer, the trio’s guitarist and musical explorer, capturing attention-grabbing sounds from Thailand to the Center East.
“We lose Mark sometimes for a small period of time because he’s on an anthropological dig,” says bassist Laura Lee. Drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson finishes her thought: “For the quintessential Chinese funk.”
The primarily instrumental Khruangbin’s sonic explorations have paid off of late, with a warmly obtained 2024 album, “A La Sala,” that reached the highest 40 of the Billboard 200 and a Grammy Award nomination for finest new artist. Not that any of that’s going to their heads.
“I think we’re just going to keep leaning in what we do and keep trying to be more the silhouette version of ourselves as much as we can and let the music speak for itself, because that’s who we are. We don’t like the spotlight in that way,” says Lee.
The Texas trio makes music that is exhausting to explain, a mixture of soul, surf rock, psychedelic and funk that creates a melodic, Afro-pop-inspired, reverb-heavy sound with nods to different cultures. The band’s identify is appropriately travel-related — Khruangbin is the Thai phrase for airplane.
“Mark’s storytelling feels like words, even though there are no words. And my storytelling feels like math even though there are no numbers necessarily. And D.J. is the translator between my language and Mark somehow,” says Lee.
They’re extremely collaborative, working within the studio and performing dwell with Leon Bridges on two EPs, Paul McCartney, Vieux Farka Touré, Wu-Tang Clan, Infantile Gambino, Toro Y Moi, Males I Belief and extra.
For “A La Sala,” Khruangbin centered on the trio, realizing that they did not want anybody else within the studio. They are saying that was empowering.
“I think because we had just been through a process of collaborating quite a lot, it felt important for us to just huddle, just the three of us,” says Lee. “When it’s just the three of us, it’s like a deep breath and a collective sigh.”
Most of their music is instrumental, however vocals — both ghostly or a full-on lyric track — have been employed, like on “May Ninth” from the brand new album, with the lyrics “Memory burned and gone/A multicolored gray.”
“The music comes first,” says Johnson. “And when we finish putting everything together, if we feel that it needs one more thing, something missing, or we just want a vocal texture, then usually we go down the path of adding that.”
The trio, particularly early on, confronted strain from document executives who appreciated the instrumentals however wished there was a vocal on high.
“I think it’s just human nature. I don’t think it comes from like any sort of bad place,” says Lee. “But people just want to sing on top of it. And people are used to hearing a vocal. They’re like, ‘This sounds so good. Let’s add a vocal.’”
“A La Sala” is the trio’s fourth studio album, with Pitchfork saying “each member of the trio has several opportunities to shine while making each track sound individual, and it all comes together cohesively.” The Guardian stated Khruangbin make “their intricate music sound so gentle that it lulls the listener into a newly imaginative state.”
Though they shaped in 2010, the Grammy directors selected Khruangbin as a finest new artist nominee alongside Benson Boone, Sabrina Carpenter, Doechii, RAYE, Chappell Roan, Shaboozey and Teddy Swims. The foundations of the class have modified over time and now affords inclusion for any act that has “attained a breakthrough or prominence.”
The members of the band see their albums like snapshots in time. If their third, “Mordechai,” was the sound of energy and movement as the band toured relentlessly, then “A La Sala” is more sedate, born from the pandemic and with a title that means ”To the Room.”
It is a extra chilled-out sound, even cozy. One track, “Three from Two” even celebrates the house start of Lee’s first youngster. “We wanted some quiet, and it felt good to place out one thing quiet in a world that’s not so quiet anymore,” she says.
The band has heard their music enjoying on the oddest locations, like “Texas Sun” changing into a well-liked tune performed on TikTok by individuals making out in Australia or “Two Fish and an Elephant” heard at yoga studios.
“I hope that our music is malleable enough to communicate to later generations in whatever way it works,” says Speer. “That’s how language happens. That’s how music happens, that’s how cultures happen. So, I’m super into it.”
They do not know what route their subsequent album will take, however they’ve plenty of concepts, like possibly the quintessential Chinese language funk.
“We have a ever expanding folder full of stuff that may or may not ever see the light of day,” says Speer. “When it’s time, it’s time. And if it’s not time for it, it’s not time for it. Don’t dig in your heels — move on to the next thing.”
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The 67th Grammy Awards can be held Feb. 2, 2025, at Crypto.com Area in Los Angeles. The present will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+. For extra protection, go to https://apnews.com/hub/grammy-awards.
