Khruangbin (pronounced Krung-bin and means flying engine in Thai) are an American musical trio from Houston, Texas, with Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar, and Donald Ray “DJ” Johnson Jr. on drums. The band is known for blending global music influences, such as classic soul, dub and psychedelia. Speer and Johnson met in 2004 while playing in St. John’s Methodist Church gospel band in Houston, Texas. The church employed Speer as the guitarist and Johnson as the organist. “When we first started the band, we wanted to have a formula,” he says. “It’s like, ‘This is what we do, and we’re not gonna try and go outside the box too much. We’re gonna explore the box we’re in. I’ve always been a big fan of that. I used to be in bands where was like, ‘Man, we’ve gotta think outside the box!’ And all I’m thinking is: ‘You guys don’t even know.’ Music should never be just for the sake of being experimental. Before you even start, you have to know what you’re experimenting with first.” Speer said.
In 2007, Speer met Lee through friends, where they initially connected over a shared love of Afghan music.] In 2009, Lee started to learn the bass with guidance from Speer. Speer and Lee went to a barn where they developed the bass-heavy, psychedelic sound that became the basis of the band’s aesthetic. Upon their return, they asked Johnson to join the band as drummer. The barn, located in the 300-person town of Burton Texas, would become the site of all future Khruangbin recording sessions.
When asked to play their first gig, Lee, who was learning to speak Thai at the time, decided they should use her favorite Thai word “khruangbin” which means “flying engine”, literally, or “aeroplane,” as their name. Speer said that, had they had the foresight to predict the band’s success, they might not have chosen a name that was so difficult to pronounce. The band’s name symbolizes the international set of influences that shaped the band’s formation.
A notable part of the band’s visual style is the black wigs that Lee and Speer wear on stage, and during promotional interviews and photoshoots. Originally this was to help them move from the stage to the merchandise stand without being recognised during early tours.
In 2015 Khruangbin were named The Guardian’s “New Band of the Week”. They also joined the festival circuit, playing a string of festivals including Glastonbury. In January 2018, Khruangbin released their second album, Con Todo El Mundo. The title of the album came from Laura Lee’s Mexican-American grandfather, who would often ask, “How do you love me?” (“¿Cómo me quieres?”) and would only accept one response, “Con todo el mundo,” or in English, “with all the world.”
The band has been quoted as saying the title of the record is also a reference to the diverse range of musical influences that inspired it, primarily from the Middle East Shortly before the release of Con Todo El Mundo, the band also covered Ma Beham Nemiresim by Googoosh, a popular Iranian songstress, for the Artists Rise Against Islamophobia compilation, and created a Tehran-specific playlist on Spotify, in addition to many other city-specific playlists, as part of their AirKhruang DJ series.
We finish with a concert for Pitchfork Live in 2018, which features many of their songs.
