A Life in Music, A Thai Musician with many Hats Fights for Global Recognition of Thai Music through Creative Rights
Notapol Srichomkwan’s life revolves around music. He writes music, performs it, produces it, acts as a music director for concerts, advises a large music label, and sits on Music Copyright Thailand’s Board, one of the prominent national collective societies, as its chairman.
As a 10-year-old 4th grader, Notapol already daydreamed about performing music on stage. He started the piano, but in the 90s, piano teachers only taught classical music, which was not what Notapol had in mind.
He saved his school allowance money to buy cassette. “It was something I would always look forward to. Discovering new artists and listening to those cassettes was a joy in my life then.” He became a fan of several guitar heroes and decided to become a guitar player. However, after a soccer accident at 14, during which he broke his left wrist, he found it difficult to hold chords. To add to his hurdles, Notapol’s parents were not keen on his idea to pursue a musical career, worried that he would not be able to make a living, and favored business management studies.
Notapol Sricjomkwan’s Calling for Bass Playing Inspired by “Flea”
Notapol’s parents decided to send him to spend his high school years in Massachusetts, in the United States, “as they thought studying abroad would expand my vision of the world.”
After high school, Notapol relented to his parents’ wishes and headed to college in Florida to study business management. “It was the worst time for me,” he said, studying a subject for which he had no interest. He confided in the college counsellor, who declared, “You only have one life, so you should follow your dreams.” That was the defining moment. The young man called his parents and announced his final decision to become a professional musician, go to Boston, and study at the Berklee College of Music.
While in Florida, Notapol had a Brazilian friend who was a bass player. Notapol borrowed it and was immediately drawn to it. Bass plays one note at a time, so his injury did not impact his playing. He watched music on MTV and was inspired by the bass player of the group Red Hot Chili Peppers, Michael Peter Balzary, known professionally as Flea. He decided he wanted to become a bass player.
Notapol started practicing for hours each day. He auditioned at Berklee, was accepted, and got a scholarship.
Bass Player of Modern Dog and Creator of P.O.P Period of Party
Back in Thailand, Notapol heard that a famous alternative rock band, Modern Dog, was looking for a bass player. He auditioned for the position, got hired, and toured with the group for a year, while also working with a music label Bakery Music.
When the 2008 financial crisis hit the country, Bakery Music met financial difficulties and was running short of music albums. Notapol, Montien Kaewgamnoed and Nop Ponchamni decided to launch a pop/rock project, which they called P.O.P, short for “period of party.” What was intended to be a temporary project turned out to be a success from the start. After 27 years, the project is still ongoing.
From Groove Riders Band Member to Music Solo Artist
After the first couple of years, P.O.P members kept arguing and thought it was time to take a break. Notapol, who had always wanted to launch a disco-funk project, started another band in 2000, called Groove Riders, which met the same level of success as P.O.P. Groove Riders’ members disbanded in 2008. On July 12, the group reunited for a one-time concert that drew around 10,000 fans.
After Groove Riders disbanded, Notapol started a solo career. “I did not have to share my ideas with other bandmates and had the freedom to do what I wanted to do.” The solo project focused on retro, vintage, indie rock, and R&B kind of music.
As an artist, “You have to keep developing, otherwise you are not able to catch up with the world and have nothing to say to your audience.” “This is why I have been doing a lot of projects, and going solo was just one of them.” “I have a lot more projects, and each of them has its own set of challenges. They represent different parts of me as an artist,” he said.
Spicy Disc Records Label’s Former Director and Current Music Adviser
Aside from his musical career, Notapol was the label director of Spicy Disc Records for six years. After stepping down in 2024, he became the label’s music adviser.
Music labels had to adapt to the changes brought by technology and the lifestyle of audiences, in particular, the rise of digital platforms and social media. After listening to a song for the first few seconds, people can decide they do not like it and switch to other songs that they might like better, he said. “It is quite different from 20 years ago when we used to listen to CDs or vinyls and listen to the entire set of tracks.” “We would appreciate the art, how the music was created, which songs tell stories, but not anymore.”
Music Copyright Thailand, by Artists, for Artists
Notapol has also been the Chairman of the Board of Music Copyright Thailand (MCT) since 2019. MCT was founded in 1994, soon after the Thai Copyright Act was released. At the same time, Phonoright was established for performing rights. MCT is a non-profit collective society for songwriters. It collects royalties for musical works and is a member of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC). It was created by artists to protect creators’ rights and raise awareness about copyright, mostly overlooked by Thai artists.
Proliferation of Collective Management Organizations in Thailand
However, since 1994, the country has seen a proliferation of collective societies, leading to a growing frustration and confusion from users, who struggle to determine who owns the rights. To add to the confusion, he said, some artists register with different CMOs.
The Thai Intellectual Property Office (DIP) is expected to revise the copyright law. According to DIP, a Code of Conduct for CMOs has been implemented. Those that comply (seven so far) with this Code are publicly listed and eligible to use a certification mark issued by DIP. In the meantime, MCT and Phonoright created a one-stop licensing unit called MPC, where business owners can get licenses for both music and performance rights.
Supporting Thai Pop Music with Thailand’s Soft Power Policy
According to sources, Thailand holds the fifth-largest music industry in Asia behind Japan, China, South Korea, and India. Recent years have seen the rise of Thai pop music, also known as T-Pop, steadily gaining international attention, some dubbing it the Thai music wave.
However, Notapol argues that for T-Pop to achieve the same level of success as K-Pop, government support is essential. “The reason why K-pop became so popular around the world is that the music industry has been working with the Korean government.”
He said he is hopeful about the launch of the government’s Soft Power policy, whose purpose is to support artists, encourage talent development, and host world-renowned music festivals.
Notapol was a speaker in the 5th session of the WIPO Live Chat on August 15, 2025, in collaboration with the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) of Thailand, focusing on copyright in the music sector.
