Acclaimed artist Phum Viphurit returns with a funky, cosmic pop track that marks his riveting transition in sound and character.
His new single “The Other Side” finds the Bangkok-born singer-songwriter exploring creative inspiration in different disciplines that encompass and connect storytelling, dance music, and humor. Phum himself will also debut a music video on the official Phum Viphurit YouTube channel.
The Loverboy act recently teased the arrival of “The Other Side” on his Instagram page, leaving his feed completely blank. He also dropped a couple of cryptic videos that show him transitioning into a different creature—a metaphor for a shift in musical direction and songwriting style for his new era.
Enter Paul Vibhavadi, the loveable anthropomorphic sloth you might recognize from the cover artwork of Phum’s second album. The Greng Jai Piece that has also become his logo and the main character of “The Other Side”. “He’s basically a hybrid of Sloth and human who tries his best to fit into city life and the pacing of it. But he’s a sloth, he’s not meant to be in the city,” says Phum, who’s so in tune with Paul that you can see him literally turning into the sloth in his recent hilarious Instagram posts. (That’s also Phum dressed up as Paul in The Other Side’s music video.)
“The Other Side” traces Paul’s quest to find somewhere he truly belongs. “He finds a mythical map to Himmapan, this magical forest in Buddhist culture that is neither heaven nor hell. It’s a peaceful limbo where time doesn’t move and he can just exist in peace and solitude, and that’s all a sloth wants,” says Phum. “He decides to leave everything behind and follows the directions, but before he makes it to the forest gateway, he stumbles across a tribe that worships sloths and they think he’s the Lisan al Gaib. He’s not, but he fakes it because he loves the attention even though he knows it’s wrong and he’s not the one they’re looking for. So ‘The Other Side’ is an introduction to the world of Paul Vibhavadi and the lyrics speak about the rules of the tribe and how a sloth should be.”
Besides introducing the audience to the world of Paul, “The Other Side” also showcases a musical style that Phum has always been a fan of but hadn’t had the chance to explore in his material until now. “For the longest time I’ve been into an early 2000s house and I always knew that I wanted to incorporate my guitar playing into that type of BPM,” he says.
This combination of new approaches makes “The Other Side” the perfect choice as the first single from Phum Viphurit’s upcoming EP PAUL VIBHAVADI VOL. 1, which is due for release on October 17. “I think it’s the perfect introduction that brings the audience gently into this weird and wacky world. And it also introduces the new sonic elements, the house music element of it all,” he says.
Overall, “The Other Side” is just the beginning of the surprises that Phum Viphurit has in store. Along with the other new tracks he will soon unveil, it’s sure to leave a deep impression on old and new listeners alike. “It feels like Act 1 of a movie I’m making, to look at it from a creative perspective,” he says. “I hope people interpret it however they want. That would be my greatest wish.”
