Scooping up the prizes

Favourites in the nominations, progressive rockers Liberty lived up to expectations at the 30th Season Awards held at the Grand Ballroom of Swissotel Bangkok Ratchada on Monday night, picking up four awards – Best Rock Artist, Best Rock Album for “Master Niche”, Best Producer and Best Instrumental for “Liberty” – of the five for which they received nods. 
“To tell you the truth, I really only expected us to win two awards, one of which would have been for Best Rock Song for ‘Sang Sawang’, which is my favourite song. My thanks go to Season for honouring us with Best Rock Album, which recognises all our songs. I joined Liberty from Crescendo and from the beginning, we set ourselves a goal of making an award-winning song, So, we are so happy that it has gone as expected. Including an instrumental is a tradition when it comes to Liberty’s albums, as we they are not directed at the mass market,” drummer Aekpong “Ake” Cherdtham told The Nation after the ceremony.

“Our keyboard player [Puris ‘Tum’ Thongplengsri] composed this instrumental, which started out at 10-minutes long but was later arranged and cut to 3 or 4 minutes. We made it to show off our musical prowess and to encourage other musicians to try to do something different,” added singer Arvin “Id” Raviyan.
“Winai Panthurak [former member of The Impossible, who announced the award for Best Producer] is my idol and role model in the music circle,” said Sutee “Kai” Sangsareechon, former member of Grand Ex’. “I’d like to thank Season Awards for presenting this honourable award though I think it should have gone to Id for his production work on this album.”

Liberty’s miss on Best Rock Song was Chanudom’s gain, with the band being recognised of “Mai Muen Derm”.
“This award is for katoey around the world,” joked Chanudom “Pad” Suksatit, the singer of the glam rock band. “Thank you Season Awards for presenting Best Rock Song to us. I’m so excited. Thank you to all band members and our label What the Duck.”
Apartment Khunpa won Best Duo or Group and Best Album for “Apartment Khunpa” while leaving Best Recording for Stoic’s Wiworn (Revelation)” and Best Song for Penguin Villa’s “Way…”

“Thank you to all the supporting musicians, sound engineers and others behind this album, as well as music label Sanamluang and fans who have followed us all the time. This award gives us a tremendous amount of encouragement to keep going. We have had the same lineup since forming 18 years ago and will continue to keep working on the next album,” said Apartment Khunpa vocalist Tul Waitoonkiat, as guitarist Piyanart “Pump” Jotikasthira also thanked the band’s families.
“I have followed ‘Season’ magazine, since I was studying at high school. I didn’t expect to receive this Season Award for a second year,” added drummer Tassarerk “Ja” Limsila.
Best Solo Artist went to Pongsit “Poo” Kampee and Best New Artist to No One Else. 
And in a special nod for this year, the Best Recording Package was awarded to the Kidnappers for the cover artwork of the CD “Signal”.