When the Breeders reunited in 2013 to mark 20 years since “Last Splash”, it looked like a straightforward nostalgia tour for an album that had become an alternative rock cornerstone.

“We had a great time and people responded and loved it. And then we started getting calls to do shows in 2014 and so, hmmm, that was technically not a 20th anniversary anymore,” Kim Deal, the Breeders’ frontwoman, says with a robust laugh.

“People would say, ‘We don’t care, we just want you guys to play’, We could do any songs. And it just opened up a whole new thing.”

The fruition is “All Nerve”, which comes out next Friday and is the first album to bring back together the Breeders’ classic lineup from 1993’s “Last Splash”.

Despite the Breeders’ enduring influence on a generation of artists, the intervening 25 years produced their share of internal friction, as well as substance abuse struggles, that inhibited the band’s rebirth.

“All Nerve”, to be accompanied by an extensive tour, manages to revive the Breeders’ brand of insouciant grunge that struck such a chord in the alternative rock era while still sounding fresh.

Deal – until 2013 also the bassist of alternative rock icons the Pixies – infuses the music with reverbhazy guitar and her distinctly sandy yet warm voice.

The Breeders initially started as a side project for Deal, who shares guitar duties with her twin sister Kelley. Josephine Wiggs plays a dominant bass – so exemplified by “Cannonball”, the signature song off “Last Splash”, whose bass salvo slinks both high and low – while Jim Macpherson cranks up the band’s volume with his vigorous drums. The lyricism is both self-reflective and surreal.

“Good morning!” Deal bellows at the start of the album on “Wait in the Car”.

“Consider, I always struggle with the right word. Meow meow meow meow meow meow,” she bellows with a force more punk than housecat.

The title track on “All Nerve” manages to be tender and bellicose at once. “You don’t know how much I missed you,” she sings, before the guitars crush forward and she warns: “I won’t stop. I will run you down.”

Deal says the song’s lines came into her head spontaneously one morning before she presented it to the band for one of its decidedly low-tech jam sessions.

“It was very organic,” she explains. “We’re not a laptop band. There is never a laptop in the room.”

The Breeders recorded the album in three studios including Chicago’s Electrical Audio with Steve Albini, the producer known for his raw, heavy sound, most notably in his work with Nirvana.

“Blues on the Acropolis”, the album’s closing track, reflects sadly on how so many world monuments are also known for drunkards and rabble-rousers.

“Walking with a Killer” eerily recounts the fright strolling the outer stretches of US Route 35 that cuts through Dayton, the military city where Deal was born and returned to help care for her Alzheimer’sstricken mother.

“I think every town has their creepy backroads. They have cornfields that come right to the side with cars whizzing past,” Deal says.

“It’s a summer night with the crickets and the headlights are coming your way. It really writes itself, doesn’t it?” she adds, her voice building with enthusiasm.

If “Last Splash”, which made the Rolling Stone and Pitchfork lists of best albums of the 1990s, came out when alternative rock was entering the mainstream, “All Nerve” coincidentally appears at a very different moment – with rock arguably losing prominence and much of the broader entertainment world galvanised by activism.

Asked for her thoughts on the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, Deal – one of the most prominent women in alternative rock – pauses to reflect. Small incidents, she recalls, in retrospect reflected the double standards for women.

She recounted an incident when Wiggs needed bass equipment while in Dayton and the store owner insisted on a hug – behaviour Deal doubts any man would encounter.

But women, Deal adds, have always been part of rock – just that power brokers, from concert bookers to journalists, did not always embrace them.

“Just because you don’t find woman bands in festivals this year doesn’t mean there aren’t any women in bands. They’re just not getting invited,” she says.

It was a close fought battle until the very end but Silpakorn University freshman Washiravit “Maimhon” Geenkerd finally pipped vocal instructor Benjamin James Dooley to the post, becoming the winner of the sixth reason of reality television singing competition “The Voice Thailand”.

While Maimhon was overwhelmed by his victory, Dooley was far from disappointed, telling The Nation: “My main reason for taking part in ‘The Voice’ had nothing to do with becoming a star but was the best way of presenting my new vocal work.”

The former vocalist with pop-rock outfit Gear Knight who now teaches at Mahidol University’s College of Music, adds that he is now on a journey of discovery.

“These days I don’t perform the same type of music as I did with Gear Knight, but am focusing on a blend of rock and opera, the two genres I grew up with and love. While I am not sure it qualified as what is known in the West as ‘rock opera’, it was great being able to present my song during the Blind Audition. And looking at the result of the public vote, it seems that the audience was impressed,” Dooley continues, adding that he was inspired by Andrea Bocelli’s “The Prayer”.

“When I was a teenager, I really wanted to be popular and knew I could only achieve that kind of fame if I sang about love and broken hearts. These days, I focus on my voice and my new music style. For ‘The Voice’ I chose to concentrate on presenting my skills and technique so didn’t perform any rock as such other than in the finale when I sang Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. I usually sing Italian operatic works but that is such a niche market that I’m planning to write my own operatic songs, which will be more easy-listening and therefore appeal to Thais. The result of public votes was good feedback as it showed that some voters care more about vocal quality than music. I’m not trying to make a comeback because I need fame or money but I would like to make music I believe is good. ‘The Voice’ was my way of telling everybody that I’m back,” adds the 33-year-old instructor, who is now married and a father of two.

Maimhon is also on a journey of discovery but his path is very different from Dooley’s. As winner, he takes home the tidy sum of Bt3 million and a contract with Universal Music (Thailand).

The Mukdahan native, who moved to Bangkok as a child with his father, a railways official, and his teacher mother, started his musical career playing bass guitar then switched to drums while studying at Sangsom Elementary School. He turned his attention to the songs-for-life genre after listening to his mother’s recordings of Pongsit “Poo” Kamphee’s songs.

“Phi Poo is my favourite artist,” says the 19-year-old winner with a smile. “I like the way he sings and the way he conveys the meaning of words. I appreciate the meaning behind songs-for-life as well as its moral messages, which are applicable to the way we live. My mum was also a major Carabao fan and used to listen to ‘Loong Khi Mao’(‘Old Drunkard’). I remember her explaining to me that the ‘uncle’ in the song is a good guy but follows the wrong path in trying to solve his problems and ends up dying homeless under a footbridge. I also grew to like the Bodyslam song ‘Yapis’.

At high school, Maimhon formed a band called Wowpup with his classmates, playing mainly rock covers by Bodyslam, Flure, The Yers, and Silly Fools. And Wowpup entered several music contest, the band never won a prize. Now a student at Silpakorn University, he has formed another band, Lynchee, but says it’s more of an adhoc outfit that performs at various university activities.

“This was the first time I applied for ‘The Voice’, although I have been watching the show since it started. This year, for the first time, applicants were invited to submit a video clip. My clip showed me singing Pongsit’s ‘Fah Soong Ya Tum’ and it won me a place. I performed the song again during the Blind Audition and coach Singto Numchok was the first to press his red button. Saharat ‘Kong Nuvo’ Sangkapricha was second. I selected Singto,” says the young man.

“I love this song because the lyrics relate to my own life, especially the bit about raising my hopes too high. That happened to me at high school when I fell in love with a senior female student who went on to break my heart. I was like ‘ya tum’ (low grass) while she was more ‘fah soong’ (high sky). I love everything about the song – the lyrics, the melody and Phi Poo’s voice. Before singing it in the Blind Audition, the music director suggested that I use my voice to express my emotions on the words ‘fah soong’ and ‘ya tum’. I found it hard at first to get my feelings across but after lots of listening and practising, I got it right,” recalls Maimhon, who got a congratulatory hug from his parents, his sister and his girlfriend.

“I liked it. He sung the number like he was telling a story. I see him as a new voice in the songs-for-life genre,” coach Singto noted during the Blind Audition.

Maimhon, who sang Hugo’s “Bandai See Daeng” in the Knockout round, went from strength to strength as the competition continued. Unlike other teens, his voice was always clear and his articulation perfect, especially in differentiating between the R and L sounds.

“I love the lyrics and listened to this song from the day it was released, long before the music video was banned. To put across it properly, I worked hard on making my voice more powerful and controlling my breathing. It was rearranged with a 3 chas tempo and the music director told me I should sing it like I was inviting guests to come to the ‘bandai see dang’, which is this case is a brothel. The lyrics are clear: you don’t look for love here but for sex. That was difficult for me to imagine because I have never experienced such a place,” he laughs.

The next step for Maimhon was a vocal battle with Rotbus on LoSo’s “Jai Sang Ma”, with coach Singto picking Maimhon as the winner.

Coach Joey Boy was also impressed, saying: “You are more attentive to the lyrics and make listeners understand the story you are singing.”

During the live show, Maimhon surprised his coach by singing Natthawut “Max” Jenmana’s “Wan Nueng Chan Dern Khao Pa.”

“Maimhon, you aren’t here for the contest but to showcase your work,” Singto told him admiringly.

“This song also tells a story and compares love to being in the forest. I particularly like the verse that refers to a tiger: ‘One day, I go to the forest and find a tiger, who asks me ‘Are you scared of me?’ I answer, ‘no, because you are better than someone without a heart’. I think the guy must have been so badly hurt by love if he is no longer afraid of anything, least of all a tiger,” Maimhon says.

For the finale, Maimhon chose his mother’s favourite song “Loong Khi Mao” by Carabao.

“Now I know songs-for-life will not disappear. A new wave of artists is coming,” said Singto.

Phuket’s annual food & music festival returns for a second year to Laguna Phuket from April 27-29. With its “East-Meets-West” theme, the three-day extravaganza will once again heighten the Pearl of the Andaman’s status as a “City of Gastronomy” and attract food and music lovers from around the world to the resort complex located alongside the pristine Bangtao Beach of Phuket, Thailand.

Bodyslam and Sweet Mullet will be on the stage on April 27, Russian pianist and opera singer Ivan Sharapov on April 28, and Jo & Kong on April 29. Entry is free and proceeds go to the Children First Fund in support of Phuket children. Online booking is now open at http://www.LagunaPhuket.com/ foodandmusicfestival.

Just born to beat

South Korean boy band BtoB heads back to Thailand for a fan meeting at Thunder Dome, Muang Thong Thani, on March 24 starting at 5pm. The group, which features Seo Eunkwang, Lee Minhyuk, Lee Changsub, Im Hyunsik, Peniel Shin, Jung Ilhoon, and Yook Sungjae, released its debut EP “Born to Beat” in 2012 and its first full-length album “Complete”, in 2015. Tickets costing from Bt1,800 to Bt5,800 are now on sale at Thai Ticket Major counters and online at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.

Bangkok, full of grace

Bangkok City Ballet School collaborates with Bangkok City Ballet Company (BCB) in presenting its annual school performance, “The 21st Junior Ballet Concert”, at the Thailand Cultural Centre on March 24 at 6pm and March 25 at 3pm. The purpose of the concert is to contribute and expand performing arts in Thailand while demonstrating BCBS students’ performance skills. The programme includes classical ballet pieces, “Coppelia Divertissement” and contemporary dance pieces. Tickets priced at Bt800 are available at Thai Ticket Major.

Music for the holidays

Pom Autobahn – a pop pianist much loved for his mellow vocals – welcomes the holiday season with the concert, “Vacation”, at Chalermkrung Royal Theatre on March 25 at 2pm. A former member of pop band Autobahn, hence the name, he turned solo in 1993 with album “Phu Chai See Nam Thalay.”  He’ll be backed at the concert by the Chalermraj big band. Tickets cost Bt700 and Bt1,000 at Thai Ticket Major and at the door.

Move in with Room 39

Acoustic pop trio Room 39, featuring Issara “Tom” Kitnitchi, Chutimon “Mon” Vichitrissadee and Olran “Wan Yai” Chujai, take to the stage of Hall 105, Bitec Bang Na on March 31 for the concert “The Truth in Room 39”. Tickets starting at Bt1,500 are on sale at http://www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.

When the Breeders reunited in 2013 to mark 20 years since “Last Splash”, it looked like a straightforward nostalgia tour for an album that had become an alternative rock cornerstone.

“We had a great time and people responded and loved it. And then we started getting calls to do shows in 2014 and so, hmmm, that was technically not a 20th anniversary anymore,” Kim Deal, the Breeders’ frontwoman, says with a robust laugh.

“People would say, ‘We don’t care, we just want you guys to play’, We could do any songs. And it just opened up a whole new thing.”

The fruition is “All Nerve”, which comes out next Friday and is the first album to bring back together the Breeders’ classic lineup from 1993’s “Last Splash”.

Despite the Breeders’ enduring influence on a generation of artists, the intervening 25 years produced their share of internal friction, as well as substance abuse struggles, that inhibited the band’s rebirth.

“All Nerve”, to be accompanied by an extensive tour, manages to revive the Breeders’ brand of insouciant grunge that struck such a chord in the alternative rock era while still sounding fresh.

Deal – until 2013 also the bassist of alternative rock icons the Pixies – infuses the music with reverbhazy guitar and her distinctly sandy yet warm voice.

The Breeders initially started as a side project for Deal, who shares guitar duties with her twin sister Kelley. Josephine Wiggs plays a dominant bass – so exemplified by “Cannonball”, the signature song off “Last Splash”, whose bass salvo slinks both high and low – while Jim Macpherson cranks up the band’s volume with his vigorous drums. The lyricism is both self-reflective and surreal.

“Good morning!” Deal bellows at the start of the album on “Wait in the Car”.

“Consider, I always struggle with the right word. Meow meow meow meow meow meow,” she bellows with a force more punk than housecat.

The title track on “All Nerve” manages to be tender and bellicose at once. “You don’t know how much I missed you,” she sings, before the guitars crush forward and she warns: “I won’t stop. I will run you down.”

Deal says the song’s lines came into her head spontaneously one morning before she presented it to the band for one of its decidedly low-tech jam sessions.

“It was very organic,” she explains. “We’re not a laptop band. There is never a laptop in the room.”

The Breeders recorded the album in three studios including Chicago’s Electrical Audio with Steve Albini, the producer known for his raw, heavy sound, most notably in his work with Nirvana.

“Blues on the Acropolis”, the album’s closing track, reflects sadly on how so many world monuments are also known for drunkards and rabble-rousers.

“Walking with a Killer” eerily recounts the fright strolling the outer stretches of US Route 35 that cuts through Dayton, the military city where Deal was born and returned to help care for her Alzheimer’sstricken mother.

“I think every town has their creepy backroads. They have cornfields that come right to the side with cars whizzing past,” Deal says.

“It’s a summer night with the crickets and the headlights are coming your way. It really writes itself, doesn’t it?” she adds, her voice building with enthusiasm.

If “Last Splash”, which made the Rolling Stone and Pitchfork lists of best albums of the 1990s, came out when alternative rock was entering the mainstream, “All Nerve” coincidentally appears at a very different moment – with rock arguably losing prominence and much of the broader entertainment world galvanised by activism.

Asked for her thoughts on the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, Deal – one of the most prominent women in alternative rock – pauses to reflect. Small incidents, she recalls, in retrospect reflected the double standards for women.

She recounted an incident when Wiggs needed bass equipment while in Dayton and the store owner insisted on a hug – behaviour Deal doubts any man would encounter.

But women, Deal adds, have always been part of rock – just that power brokers, from concert bookers to journalists, did not always embrace them.

“Just because you don’t find woman bands in festivals this year doesn’t mean there aren’t any women in bands. They’re just not getting invited,” she says.

The tailored programme of master classes, one-to-one and duet lessons and concerto classes, as well as general musicianship and composition training is available to participants of any age and ability.

Headed by British concert pianist Samantha Ward (founder and artistic director) and Polish concert pianist Maciej Raginia (creative director), the festival is full of high calibre performances from the in-house team of concert pianists. In April, the award-winning pianists and pedagogues Maiko Mori (Japan), Yuki Negishi (Japan) and composer Neil Luck (UK) will join he faculty members.

The origins of the festival go back to the summer of 2013 when it was launched in Bangor, North Wales. Since then Piano Week expanded to Germany, Italy and China with further invitations to set up international residencies in Japan and Hong Kong.

During the past five years, it has welcomed world-renowned artists such as Stephen Kovacevich, Leon McCawley, David Fung, Chenyin Li whilst attracting an growing faculty of concert pianists and pedagogues at the top of their profession from all over the world.

In 2018, the festival will travel three times to Weston Rhyn (UK), twice to Beijing (China), Bangkok (Thailand), Sankt Goar (Germany) and Foligno (Italy).

Participant fees are from Bt56,000 to Bt80,000. A special discount of 10-percent off Piano Week fees is offered to all readers of The Nation. Apply for a place by March 19 directly online at http://www.PianoWeek.com.