Ten years in the electronic music scene is an eternity. Musical generations really only last about five years, which makes them like dog years compared to a regular generational cycle of 20 years. So if you can make it a decade in this world, you’ve officially unlocked OG status. Bask in the glory, uncle (or aunty). Local party boys and girls recently helped to celebrate the big ten-zero for team Tempo, with two parties at De Commune and Never Normal. A lot can happen over the years, and Tempo’s identity has certainly evolved with our rapidly changing world. They started as a magazine and ended up as party promoters. For some perspective, we sat down with cofounder WINKIEB and asked her what’s up.
When Tempo began, it was originally a digital magazine covering Thai electronic music, art, and culture—something we’re also quite fond of here at Blaq Lyte Mag. WINKIEB, whose real name is Phakavadee Deechuay, has a degree in journalism, so it was a fitting place for her to start. “My passion for electronic music was intense, but the scene in Thailand was still relatively small,” she says. “I’d been working in the clubs and we saw the potential for expansion. We wanted to showcase Thai artists to a global audience.” The magazine was launched alongside their Tempology festival featuring an all-Thai lineup, and they drew an unexpectedly large crowd of about 1,500. It made an immediate splash.
WINKIEB’s name is inspired by Tinky Winky from Teletubbies, the elder of the group who’s always giggling and loves dancing as much as her. It’s pronounced Winky B, and the B is short for her nickname Bill. She was raised in Bangkok and got into music during high school, starting with stuff like metal, grunge, and indie rock. But when she heard DJ Dragon and DJ Wen’s dnb radio show Homebass, it changed the course of her future, sparking a lifelong love for electronic music. After a trip to Berlin seven years ago, she decided to try her own hand behind the decks. “Everything there felt like an assault of emotions as if I were falling in love all over again,” she says. These days, her sets revolve around industrial techno, but with a healthy dose of experimentation and influence from UK ‘nuum sounds like jungle, early dubstep, and more. Her sound fits well alongside fellow Tempo cofounder Marmosets and his hard techno edge. (We talked to him earlier in the year as well.) The two frequently play back-to-back sets.
Events were always a part of the Tempo playbook, but over time they began to lean more and more into that side of things, eventually leaving behind the written content they began with altogether. “People spend more time on social media than on websites now,” WINKIEB explains. “So we chose to transition into party promotion.” But she doesn’t view this as a bad thing necessarily and says that younger generations are exposed to even more musical styles because of the internet than she ever was. “It’s simply evolved into something new.”
To celebrate their tenth anniversary, the Tempo fam handed the reins over to a young party promoter, You Said You Like Dancing. “It’s a way to bridge the generational divide and showcase the evolution of the Bangkok scene,” WINKIEB explains. They organized the weekend into two nights, one with an all-dude lineup and the other with all women. “The concept is to transport everyone to the ‘men’ and ‘women’ planets to experience the diversity in music.” By putting all the girls on one bill, people can discover them more easily—it’s like a cheat sheet for quick reference. “You can really tell there’s a growing presence of women in underground music by listening to the radio showcases in Thailand. I can sense the passion and talent of this new generation. Everything is new for them, and I feel the energy in their eyes and music.”
“Tempo turning ten feels like my child is growing up.”
