Songs start and stop in odd places.
That’s a beautiful thing to keep in mind
when crafting a record, to not feel like
you have to do anything to please anyone
–Laura Lee Ochoa, from Uncut interview
l-r Donald “DJ” Johnson, Laura Lee Ochoa, and Mark Speer
Khruangbin symbolizes the international
set of influences that shape our music.
–from 2015 interview at The Guardian
Khruangbin is an American musical trio from Houston, TX. The band consists of Laura Lee Ochoa (bass guitar & vocals,) Mark Speer (guitar & vocals,) and Donald “DJ” Johnson (drums, keyboards, & vocals.) The trio is known for blending global music influences, such as Thai rock, Iranian pop, and dub, with American soul, rock, and psychedelia. In 2024, the band was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
Band beginnings
Speer and Johnson met in 2004 when they played for Pastor Rudy Rasmus’ St. John’s Methodist Church gospel band in Houston, Texas. The church employed Speer as its guitarist and Johnson as its organist. The two musicians went to a bar after Tuesday-night rehearsal, where Speer revealed his extensive knowledge of music from around the globe. Johnson calls him “a music encyclopedia,” and Speer told The New York Times Magazine that as a child, he was obsessed with the Microsoft Encarta CD-ROM’s catalog of music samples from around the world.
In 2007, Speer met Ochoa through friends, and the two initially connected over a shared love of Afghan music and Middle Eastern architecture. In 2009, Ochoa, who had trained on guitar and piano, started to learn the bass with guidance from Speer. After playing for six months, she auditioned and got the gig to be the bassist for Yppah on his upcoming tour. Speer already had the gig as guitarist for Yppah and had encouraged Ochoa to audition. In 2010, both Ochoa and Speer went on tour with Yppah who opened for Bonobo.
The tour motivated the two of them to make music together more seriously, leading them to form Khruangbin. Speer and Ochoa 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, to play simple break-beats under the guitar and bass. The barn, located in the 300-person town of Burton, Texas, would become the site of many future Khruangbin recording sessions.
Style and Focus
When asked to play their first gig, Ochoa, who was learning to speak Thai at the time, decided they should use her favorite Thai word “khruangbin,” which means “airplane”, 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.
Speer described the band’s creative process as focused.
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 it 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.
Tao-Talk 