Keith Nolan, from Ireland to Thailand, a pioneer of music, peace and love in Bangkok
Today Keith Nolan is a solid referring point for musicians in Thailand, expats and Thai too.  A whole life dedicated to piano, keyboards, teaching, composing. A clear experience where you can see that Music has no borders.
di Francesco Tortora
Venerdì 17 Giugno 2022
Dal nostro corrispondente a Bangkok - 17 giu 2022 (Prima Pagina News)
Today Keith Nolan is a solid referring point for musicians in Thailand, expats and Thai too.  A whole life dedicated to piano, keyboards, teaching, composing. A clear experience where you can see that Music has no borders.

When you ask something related to Music in Bangkok mainly but in whole Thailand too, the first and main name you cold be suggested to you about is Keith Nolan. A sure port and shield for expats musicians but Thai too, Music makes everybody similar, no borders, no flesh color, no religious differences, no problems in gender equality. Keith Nolan is a pioneer of Music in Bangkok and herald of Peace and Love. 

Keith, a Dublin native, landed in Thailand on 2000 year. Prior to moving to Thailand he spent many years in Vietnam, where he created music for TV commercials, and before that he plied his craft for 10 years in Australia. The sound of his language allows you to listen his Irish origins but -at the same time- you can argue how much time he had to get relationships with people coming from any corner in the World as in Thailand where quietly he lives ad works. 

IRISH expat Keith Nolan is one of the most well knewed foreign musicians in Bangkok. At the current time you could easily find him at "29 Music Bar Grill", in Sukhumvit Soi 29, in Bangkok where he plays piano and keyboards and invites many musicians, expats and Thai, to play with him. For a long-long time he sat at his Hammond electric organ, belting out classic as well as self-penned blues during his band’s weekly gigs at bars around town, but also he sat at his home studio writing music for corporate clients. And if he’s not doing that, then he has been out shooting video for two cable TV shows –‘Keith Nolan’s Access All Areas,’ in which he interviews local and international musicians in Bangkok, and ‘Beyond The Lines,’ which sees him interview the authors behind Bangkok-based noir fiction. 

Keith’s love of blues stems from his childhood, when his dad, a jazz musician, introduced him to artists such as American jazz maestro Jimmy Smith, who helped popularise the Hammond B-3 electric organ (Keith’s favourite instrument), and Irish blues-rock guitar legend Rory Gallagher. 

 

Why on 2000 year you decided to come to Thailand? Everybody could say Ireland is a fine Country where you can live in, you also moved to Thailand after many years in Australia and Vietnam, what was so attractive to you in Thailand, above all in Bangkok? 

 

When I moved from Ireland I was 21 years old, after many years dedicated to Classic study on piano -as Music always has been dominant in my family and my life- I felt desire to search something different in Music and in World. You know, some people loves adventure and I experienced all of this moving to Australia, to Vietnam where I’ve been playing live music for a so long time. Vietnam cities, as Ho Chi Minh, are not so big as Bangkok, life there is more simple, you can walk in the town and meet local people wondering about the pale color of your flesh, so attractive to them. In Bangkok everything is more frantic, more traffic jam but a great and wider range of opportunities. 

 

In Bangkok you also started your activity as composer too, different from everyday piano player' life in pubs or similar locations around the World where you have been in 

 

Yes, it was a rather random experience, actually. As I recorded in the studio and learned all the stages of studio processing, I began to test my qualities in the dimension of music composition. At that time I began to compose for very particular clients, I produced very successful jingles for television and movie commercials in Thailand, entire advertising campaigns are accompanied by my compositions. In this way, I -for example- started my own experimentation and processing of chill out music compositions that has -step by step- become more and more successful, especially here in Bangkok, in spas, massage rooms, as hold music in big hotel chains, to give examples. In my youtube channel today, you can listen to more than 40 hours of meditation music. 

 

But Blues never left your music life, doesn’t it? 

 

Blues is a special kind of music; it has a sad soul in it. I often have some clients ask me to play blues and I just as often tell them, "Look, the Blues is sad, it's a music that puts sadness!" I play it, of course, but you have to handle it very gently and also recognize when it is the right time and when there is a listening audience or the right location to do it. 

 

At the same time you still go on in your teaching activity too? 

 

Yes, I continue to teach piano here in Bangkok. The long break due to the Covid virus spreading forced us all to stay indoors, during that time I conducted online classes. Now, slowly, we are getting back to a more or less standard of living, so, I have resumed teaching live. I have many Thai students, young and very young, some are from Taiwan. As for the Thai students who take my piano course, I can say that they have high levels of education, speak good English and are very well prepared. The teaching experience is very enriching for me especially from the point of view of human relations. 

 
 
 
 
 
 

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