Aluna and the new sound

Aluna Thavonsouk was featured on inflight magazine of Lao Airlines January-February 2011 issue.

Aluna and the new sound: She is one of the most awarded Lao pop stars in 2010, has published her first book and also runs the family business: a resort in Vang Vieng. As if that wasent already enough, she is now on the hunt for a brand new sound combining pop with traditional Mua Lam, seeking to distance herself from Thai and K-pop by adding some completely new and original features to her music. You would expect that a young woman working as hard as this was driven by a strong desire for ultimate success,
yet it turns out to be something very different that drives Aluna forward these days!

It all started back in 2002: “I was just really bored with life”! Aluna says in her regular straightforward way. “ I wasn’t happy at all. It seems like life was just so predictable. I had finished my bachelors and all that was ahead was a masters and the onto making money and getting married…

So I took off for Europe to study French. I never got to study much but just ended up travelling around Europe. I did 5 countries alone, and my friends back home said to me that I wasn’t acting like a Lao girl at all; actually more like a westerner. In hind sight it was pretty crazy, but it ended up changing my life!”

As it turned out Aluna attended a music festival in France and suddenly a whole new world had opened up to her: “When I heard all that music playing it got me really curious… all those instruments. OMG is that what I have been missing”?

When Aluna returned to Laos with her newfound inspiration it just happened to coincide with a major change
in the entertainment scene of the country as the MoIC (Ministry of Information and Culture) decided to allow
the publication and playing of songs with lyrics about romantic love in 2003.

“After the music festival experience I just kind of grabbed a guitar and started writing a song in Lao. I had written songs that I had played for friends before, but this was somehow different”.

In the beginning Aluna was writing traditional pop music but recently something new has happened: “It has become something of a mission to me to do contemporary music. It can be pretty hard, because the record companies are really not very interested in new music because it does’nt really sell. My fans love candy words and sweet music. They, like me, are afraid to come out of the box and get used to something new”.

When asked what this whole “new thing” is about she pauses for a moment, and it is clear that this is something very personal and not just part of a career move for her: “You know… the Aluna package has become less fake lately. Each day she tries to educate her fans to love the real her. She is pulling down the curtain more and more. It is a general problem in pop culture: we please our fans but suffer inside”.

Faced with the Possibility that her fans are not ready to accept this new approach to her music she is very clear: “I am quite prepared for that! At the end of the day it is all about love for me. I just want to express myself. In the past I felt like I had to be beautiful everyday. I had to put on make up everyday even when I didn’t wanted to. Now I just have to ask: you love me or you love the make up”?

Source: Champa Holidays – Lao Airlines Inflight Magazine