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'INSECTS, BIRDS, COWS. THEY'RE ALL IN OUR MUSIC...
The London Standard
|June 26, 2025
They record in a barn in rural Texas, two of them are permanently in disguise-yet they are a worldwide sensation with billions of streams. Welcome to the global cult of Khruangbin.
It's hard to pin down who Khruangbin are. That’s partly due to their sound — wide-ranging, incorporating everything from 1960s Thai funk to surf, soul, psychedelia and rock. It's also partly due to the fact that two of its members — Mark Speer and Laura Lee Ochoa — wear wigs on stage and in any kind of public appearance.
“It’s pretty obvious that me and LL, with the hairstyle, it’s meant to create anonymity,” Speer, the band’s guitarist, tells me. They're wearing them as we chat; Speer’s comes down over his eyes and makes him look like a 1970s hippy. Mystique is their stock in trade; that, combined with their electrifying live performances, has combined to send Khruangbin’s reputation stratospheric.
Despite never having a single in the Top 20, they've been nominated for a Grammy (ironically, for Best New Artist this year), sold out international tours and been streamed over 1.2 billion times on Spotify. They're the ultimate cult band, who just happen to be loved by everybody in the know. And despite being Texas born and bred, they're Londoners too.
“We're very familiar with flats in London,” Speer tells me wryly when I apologise for the clutter visible behind me. “We broke in London.”
“I lived in London for a good while,” Ochoa, who plays bass, chimes in. “In Hackney. Khruangbin got started in London because I was there... our first shows ever as a more established band happened in the UK. It’s like a kind of second home. It feels really cosy to me. I just love it.”
That's good, because they’re here a lot. The trio — completed by drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson — was last here for a two-night stay in Hammersmith late in 2024, which earned them rave reviews and ended up being one of the season’s hottest tickets. This year, they will be taking to Gunnersbury Park in August for the latest stop in their world tour.
This story is from the June 26, 2025 edition of The London Standard.
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