Thxa Soe
Thxa Soe (Burmese: သာစိုး) is a Burmese electro musician popular for his blend of traditional blend of traditional Myanmar folk songs with contemporary electronic music since 2006.
Among his album's songs such as, Saing Kyite Teh Maung, Taung Paw Ka Shan Ka Lay – Remix (2006), Na Ban San, Yay Geh Yay (2007), Ko Gyi Kyaw, Pyaw Yeh Lar Hay Maung Doh Yay (2008), Sar Ou (2009) are popular by most young people during Thingyan festival. While pleasing the crowd with his music, it is often controversial to some people.
"Music was conceived inside me when I was 10-year-old, my father bought me a cassette player. I was inspired by the English songs from the radio and also me and my brothers loved the music my parents listened to."
Thxa Soe is the eldest son among three brothers. He started doing music when he was in seventh grade and became involved in local underground hip-hop scene after the high school and formed a group called W.Y.W with friends. At that time, there were a number of other hip-hop groups and Acid a local hip- hop band which is credited with introducing hip-hop to Myanmar in 2000 was preoccupied with another name. W.Y.W disbanded in 1998 and Thxa Soe joined another group called Fi Gi-D which was formed another hip-hop musician Barbu.
In 1998, Thiri Swe, a member of Fi-Gi left the group and Thxa Soe and another female hip-hop singer Kwi Kwi became the band members. In 2000, with the help of singer Alex, the group changed their name to Theory and released their first album.
Thxa Soe studied at the School of Audio Engineering Institute in London in 2001 and started to learn about electro music. "Back in England, dance music was more popular than hip-hop. So, I wanted to create Myanmar music like that. I did a lot of research on Myanmar folk and Nat-Doe, the music for the spirits," he said.
After studying for three years in England, Thxa Soe returned to Myanmar and took a risk by giving his new music to Myanmar music fans. His eagerness could not stop him from taking a journey to Mandalay and Sagain divisions to study spirit music and visit all the traditional spirit festivals.
His first album, Yaw Tha Ma Mhwe, was released in 2006 with the help from Myanmar orchestra musician Sein Hla Ngwe and Sein Bo Syint and a remix expert, Okka Oo Thar.
Since this album, Thxa Soe was under the interest of foreign media due to his combination of traditional Myanmar songs with contemporary music. His second album Yaw Chin Yaw Ma Yaw Chin Nay was released in 2009 and followed by his third album Pha Eh Tu Ma Eh Tu, was released with his youngest brother, Bon Von. The fourth album is A Mway and fifth albums Mhwe Loh Ma Wa Loh and sixth album Yaw Deh Mhwe Deh were released in 2009 and 2010 consecutively. For 2011, the singer is planning for his last album, Ngwe Myin Yin Lin Loke Myi. After releasing five solo albums and seven group albums.
Introduction to Nat-doe
The music of Burma (or Myanmar) has similarities with and is related to many other musical traditions in the region, including Chinese music, Indian music and Thai music. Traditional music from Burma is melodious, generally without harmony, and usually in 4/4 time (na-yi-se) or 2/4 (wa-let-se) or 8/16 (wa-let-a-myan). Among the eight major ethnic groups in Myanmar, Burmese people have their own music which contains a variety of folk traditions.
The traditional folk ensemble, typically used in the nat pwe (festival of the spirits) is called the hsaing waing. Although its origin is unknown, it is believed to have come from the Ayutthaya kingdom, or in the least been heavily influenced by the Ayutthaya gong and drum ensembles in the 18th century through repeated invasions by the Konbaung dynasty and has many similarities to other Southeast Asian ensembles. The music played by hsaing waing during every festival of the spirits is called Nat-doe. Since the institution of the official 37 Nats was founded by King Anawrahta (1044–1077) of Bagan, the first songs of Nat-doe music may have developed during that period.
The sounds made by hsaing waing are mostly based on the sounds of nature. For example, pa zin taung pan khat than is the sound based on the flapping of the dragonfly’s wings. The music of Nat-doe is based on the story of how each nat died. Therefore, most of the Nat-doe music is the sound of joy as most of the nats were into gambling and pleasure before they died. Around 90 percent of the nats have their own style of music and most of them are created to make the listener happy or to feel like dancing. The number of singers needed for each music also depends on the nat and index.jpgeach music at least requires a soloist.
Brief Biography of Thxa Soe
- Name: Thxa Soe (aka) Thar Soe (aka) Ther Soe
- Real Name: Soe Moe Aung
- Birth Place: Yangon, Myanmar
- Date of Birth: Nov 04, 1980
- Marital Status: Married
According to Wikipedia, Thxa Soe (Burmese: သားစိုး) is a Burmese electro musician popular for his blend of traditional Myanmar folk songs with contemporary electronic music since 2006. He started doing music when he was in seventh grade and became involved in local underground hip-hop scene after the high school and formed a group called W.Y.W with friends. W.Y.W disbanded in 1998 and Thxa Soe joined another group called Fi Gi-D which was formed another hip-hop musician Barbu. In 1998, Thiri Swe, a member of Fi-Gi left the group and Thxa Soe and another female hip-hop singer Kwi Kwi became the band members. In 2000, with the help of singer Alex, the group changed their name to Theory and released their first album. He studied at the School of Audio Engineering Institute in London in 2001 and started to learn about electro music.
After studying for three years in England, Thxa Soe returned to Myanmar and took a risk by giving his new music to Myanmar music fans. His eagerness could not stop him from taking a journey to Mandalay and Sagain divisions to study spirit music and visit all the traditional spirit festivals. His first album, Yaw Tha Ma Mhwe, was released in 2006 with the help from Myanmar orchestra musician Sein Hla Ngwe and Sein Bo Syint and a remix expert, Okka Oo Thar.
Since this album, Thxa Soe was under the interest of foreign media due to his combination of traditional Myanmar songs with contemporary music. His second album Yaw Chin Yaw Ma Yaw Chin Nay was released in 2009 and followed by his third album Pha Eh Tu Ma Eh Tu, was released with his youngest brother, Bon Von. The fourth album is A Mway and fifth albums Mhwe Loh Ma Wa Loh and sixth album Yaw Deh Mhwe Deh were released in 2009 and 2010 consecutively. For 2011, the singer is planning for his last album, Ngwe Myin Yin Lin Loke Myi. After releasing five solo albums and seven group albums, in 2012, he ended his music career, citing music piracy as a major factor in his decision to quit.
The Evolution of Thxa Soe’s Music
The following is the translation of Thxa Soe’s brief response on how the idea of creating his own music evolved, why, when and how it evolved, and to which audience he targeted his music to (purpose).
“I used to listen to English songs only on the radio when I was young. My father bought me a cassette player for my birthday when I was in seventh grade. I started listening to a famous Rock singer from our country and by listening to the English Rock songs on radio I found out that his songs were copied from English songs. I started to hate copy songs since then. I started to like only those who can create their own music styles like Saya Myo Ma Nyein, Doe Lone and Htoo Ein Thin. I was also influenced by the music my parents listen to and I also read a lot of books.
I started a hip-hop band in 2000 and I also tried to mix music starting that time. The first song I tried to mix was a song by Sein Bay Dar and Eminem’s ‘My Name Is’. People didn’t accept that. Then, I started to think if I should continue to be just a singer in Myanmar or if I should go abroad and study since I was still a youth. I sold the car my father bought for me after I passed my matriculation exam and used the money to study in England. At first I enrolled at a school to study Creative Arts but then I found out about the School of Audio Engineering where I chose to study instead of the former one.
I have wanted to create a style of music which will be called ‘Thxa Soe’s style’ since I was young. While I was studying at SAE, one of my lecturers explained to us about ‘beats’ for all kinds of music styles. With ‘beats’ come ‘tempo’. My lecturer talked about all kinds of tempo and also tapped the beat with his hands. While he was tapping and talking about dance tempo, which has tempo 130-150bpm (beat per minute), I recalled the music played for the spiritual worship done by my neighbor when I was young. I found that these two music beats were quite similar so I thought about doing a research on these two music styles which no one had ever really done before.
I went to the British Library, near King Cross station, for doing my research with the help of some authority from Burmese Embassy as only students starting from the third year of university can only go to that library and I was only doing a diploma course. I came across some research done on our traditional music during 17th century especially on the Nat-doe music. An idea came to me which was about how it would sound if I put some Nat-doe music into the synthesizer and create some music.
I tried to continue my own research on Nat-doe music but it was very hard for limited resources in England. One day, my lecturer asked all the students to do a research, and bring and show the most popular music in our country to the whole class. The class has students from around the world and everyone bring the music of their own. It was 2003 and almost all the most popular music in Myanmar was copy songs. I would have lost face if I showed those songs to my classmates. Fortunately, I had the songs by Saya Myo Ma Nyein with me at that time like, ‘Mya Nandar’. My lecturer was very much interested in hybrid music and he loved the songs I presented. So, I was more encouraged to create some music like that.
After that, I took leave from my studies and came back to Myanmar for a while as I had to do some music videos for my Theory album. I visited Mandalay often at that time and I also went to Sagaing where the sound of Nat-doe played by the hsaing waing was quite interesting. The sound of music by different hsaing waing has their own different style. While I was going around Sagaing, I had the opportunity to listen and record a live Nat-doe at a house I visited. I also got some old recorded Nat-doe from Hlaing Recording Studio in Mandalay and a recording studio at the way in of Sagaing.
At first I only listened to different Nat-doe music I have collected. My idea for creating new music started in 2001 but I was still in researching process until around 2003 and 2004. In 2004, I couldn’t stay in England anymore and I decided to come back to Myanmar for good and started doing my own music. I found DJ Jay at that time and he helped me with my music as he was interested in fresh ideas. I faced many difficulties at that time as there was no one to get reference from as there was no one who had done the same music style.
I searched for some people who could help me with Burmese music and I found Ywar Sar Sein Hla Ngwe. It was very hard at the beginning as the musicians from that saing waing didn’t understand what I wanted them to play. However, we managed to make a song for Bon Von which was in the top 10 for BBC’s the Next Big Thing song contest. The original version wasn’t released in Myanmar but it was released as Bon Von’s ‘Min Thi Par Dal’ in a different version. I wasn’t satisfied with my music at that point.
I asked Ywar Sar if there was anything we could do and he told me about music used to call the nats. The first he played was music used to call Ko Gyi Kyaw nat. I liked it so much so I put it in my ‘Fruity Loop’ computer software and arranged for music at tempo 135. We did a demo for many Nat-doe music on the spot on that day. To make each song better, we had to arrange it for more than a hundred times. It was Okkar Oo Thar who helped us in the final stage and it took him around fifty times to make each song perfect. Finally, the album ‘Yaw Tha Ma Hmway’ was released.
The story of how the name of the album came into being was quite funny. The songs for the album were finished but I still haven’t found the name for the album title. It frustrated me especially when I do music. So, one day I went out to eat hot-pot. I was thinking about the process for eating hot-pot. We have to put things there, mix them and stir them. From that I got the idea to give the album title as that process, ‘Yaw Tha Ma Hmway’. It took me about two years to do that album, 2005 and 2006.
So, the main idea of doing my music is because I wanted to have a music style of my own and I wanted to create a music style which can be shown to the world. Another idea is because the creativity is weak in Myanmar and I want to encourage people by being creative. For me, being a musician means being able to create something of his or her own.
The main purpose of my music can be seen from the time my first album was released. It was released close to the celebration of Myanmar New Year. My music style is dance. My album would not be a hit during other time of the year. During the Myanmar New Year (Thingyan Festival), people want to have a good time. So, the main purpose of my music is to make people happy. Before my music came into existence, people used to have a good time during Thingyan Festival only with dance music from other countries, especially English dance songs. Now, they can enjoy the Festival with our own traditional style dance music.”
Retirement
In 2012, he ended his music career, citing music piracy as a major factor in his decision to quit.[1]
References
- ↑ Yadana Htun (5 March 2012). "Musician Thxa Soe ends career to make money". Myanmar Times. Retrieved 5 March 2012.