http://www.junkonline.net/articles/1543-One-Up-In-The-Gene-Pool-Gene-Kasidit-talks-about-life-after-FutonOne Up In The Gene Pool: 
Gene Kasidit talks about life after Futon.
 
So...Futon...what happened?
Well, I got bored with myself and I wanted to change my little, meaningless existence so I moved on. It was the right thing to do at the right time for me.

Futon was together for a good few years. Are you all still friends?
Yes, of course! We still hang out and talk to each other. It's like a family with Futon, but someone had to move to the other city.

Did you find being in Futon a positive experience?
Being in Futon is probably one of the best experiences I've ever had, but you know, I feel that the best is yet to come. I really got so much out of the band. It’s brought me to where I am now.

What have you been doing now that you are a solo artist?
I've been messing about making demos for months, but now I've just started recording the album. Some of (Bangkok record label) Smallroom's producers have been helping me, which is great. I'm also rehearsing as much as I can to see where the songs’ directions can take me. Definitely loads of gigs are on the way. It's what I'm living for. Live performance is really important for me.

Can we expect a new direction?
Nothing is really new anymore, I guess, and there's no certain direction I’ve decided to take. But at the moment I’m still indulging myself, so you can expect pretty much everything, really. It’s great not having to restrict myself to one thing or another!

What else are you up to?
I'm currently writing a novel at the moment–it’s called Siamese–and I also grow vegetables almost every weekend.

What music are you currently listening to?
Massive Attack, Portishead, Björk, Hole, Madonna, PJ Harvey, The Prodigy, UNKLE, Talvin Singh… But I'm playing them all at once.

What are you influenced by?
Where do I start!!  Life, love, music, sex and good food–that’s a good start!

You run a club night as well…
It’s called Whatever! and the theme is totally whatever! We might change it to "Whatthefuck!", hahaha. We're sort of taking a break at the moment and will come back when the time is right, so watch out! We’ll be in your face soon…very soon.

What are your feelings about music in Asia?
To be honest I don't know that much about Thai music, let alone the overall Asian music scene. I'm sure there are loads of decent bands out there waiting to be discovered. I guess we still need loads of independent organisations to put them together in one big festival so they can get more exposure. In the end, I believe people still believe in the music and that’s what moves them.

You're hosting a dinner party and you can only invite three guests. Who would they be?
Me, myself and I. I'm better off alone. Just me–Gene Kasidit.

WORDS PAUL PHOTO GENE KASIDIT
www.myspace.com/genekasidit

*Taken from Junk's May 2009 issue