At the Neon Countdown pre-party at Void Club in Bangkok, we caught up with Thom, representing Blasterjaxx, to talk about their return to Thailand, his solo venture into techno with the Thomm Project, and how the duo continues to push boundaries with their Big Room sound. From unforgettable stage moments to advice for rising talent, Thom shared a thoughtful perspective on their journey and creative evolution. Let’s dive into the conversation!
The first question I have for you has to do with Neon and just performing in Thailand. So you’ve performed here multiple times and you’re back in Thailand but this time you’re back for Neon Countdown’s pre party. How does it feel to return to such a vibrant fan base and bring your energy to a unique event but this time at Void club?
It’s always a good time. I’ve never played at Void so let’s see how it will be. As tonight is part of Neon Countdown, it’ll be good and the crowd in Bangkok is good as always.
Now, the next question I have is for you Thom. So, you’ve recently ventured into Techno with your solo project Thomm. What inspired the creative exploration and how do you balance it with the high-energy sound that is Blasterjaxx?
It’s funny cause so far we’ve released only one track but we also uploaded a live set. It’s more up-tempo. The older we get, music changes, it evolves and sometimes we just enjoy making different sounds. We’ve been doing that for sometime now but with Blasterjaxx you’re a bit stuck in a commercial bubble so you have to deliver things that hit an X amount of streams or an X amount of targets. But with the Thomm project, we’re starting from scratch and starting something new. For the past 7-8 months we’ve been making a lot of music and mostly music for Thomm because we had finished many Blasterjaxx tracks already so we had some time to focus on the Thomm project. Other than that, I would say that it’s like going back to basics for us because we had no expectations and no rules. We just did whatever we wanted without any pressure.
You’ve actually been doing this whole thing of making music for a very long time.
Yep. That’s true. Sometimes it happens where we’re in the studio and working on Big Room, where it happens where we’re like we’ve done a lot of the classic Big Room stuff, we’ve played it out so sometimes it’s very difficult to come up with something new. That’s why I love exploring a new sound and just seeing where it goes. Honestly, we will see wherever it will go. Maybe after a year we’ll say this is nothing for us and we’ll pull back but we don’t know yet. For now everything looks good and we have a lot of great tracks coming up and a lot of great collaborations coming up with Techno artists for the Thomm project so let’s see how it goes.
I’m intrigued now to see how things turn out because I’ve never been a techno fan, but lately I’ve become super interested in hard techno, is that something you’ll be incorporating too?
The hard techno thing is something I personally like but to make it, we’re more along the lines of being somewhere in between big-time driving techno and a bit of hard here and there but I wouldn’t say we’re hard techno..
Now since you’ve talked about your music evolution, I’d like to talk about how Big Room has remained as a cornerstone of your identity so what I’d like to know is how you keep the genre evolved, and there’s also the expectation that fans have so how do you stay true to that?
Well it’s funny because the fans consider it Big Room, but I think we don’t really identify the name as Big Room as we’ve sped up the BPM, used different kicks and changed directions where we’ve used less of the classic Big Room elements but people still say it’s Big Room. I would say that we are Big Room that way, we never made it to sound like Big Room that way, but we just love music that’s energetic and over dramatic and stuff like that. It’s how we like it but for some reason, some people call it Big Room.
The next question I have is about how you’ve played all over the world at many legendary venues and festivals, so can you share one unforgettable moment from the stage that has stuck with you even if you look back 10 years from now, it’s still going to be a core memory?
One of my best memories was when we played on the EDC mainstage in 2014. It was funny cause we were so new in the scene and had no idea what EDC was back then and we were playing peak time on the mainstage at EDC with 60-80 thousand attendees and we had no idea what to expect. So we prepared the set the way we usually do and I remember when we walked on stage, we were in shock. We were like what is this. It was great. Other than that, Tomorrowland Brasil was great. We felt like we were on a natural high because it was so good. But at the same time I would also have to say that Tomorrowland (Belgium) was great last year because we played on the mainstage after a long time and we played early. We were like we’ll see how many people show up cause it was pretty early during the day but it was packed for that time and it gave us goosebumps.
This is my last question for, so I would like to know what’s your advice for rising talent seeing as you’ve been in the scene for a while now and you’ve had a lot of collaborations so what’s one piece of advice you could give to new talent?
Well I have two pieces of advice that I think are very useful. First of all, I would say make sure that whenever you get a contract for anything that’s longer than one release, make sure you have a lawyer to look over it. It might cost you a bit of money but trust me, it’s worth it because before you know it, you might end up being stuck in a 360 deal for the next ten years and it could stop or slow down your career. Other than that, my second advice would be to make music according to whatever you are feelling. Don’t think that just because this sound is hype right now so I’m going to make it but by the time you get really good to release some stuff, the genre might no longer be in trend. As long as you make something you really like and it gives you joy, one day it could become something and then that’s your moment to shine.
So in short you’re saying to take a risk but also to be careful of the risk you’re taking?
Basically, don’t follow the hype but do what you feel like doing and what you feel like making such as whatever genre you feel like making music in because one day that genre might be taking over the world.
Well, thanks so much for speaking to me on behalf of EDM House Network.
You’re welcome.
