The Chosen One: Dome Pakorn Lum [Version 2.0]

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For someone as young as twenty years old, one of Thailand's best techno-dance artists started his career not in music but as a commercial model at a tender age of six. Thirty or so commercials after, Dome has established himself as a popular commercial model, being visible in tv and print media. It was not a surprise that this fact got the attention of top RS Promotion talent scout Surachai Chetchotisak. It also helped that he lives near RS Promotion. Dome immediately accepted the offer, having played music for fun in a band at his high school.

1996 saw the release of Dome's self-titled first album that took Thailand by storm selling over one million copies. It also served as an introduction to the high energy techno-dance music Dome will soon be known for. Another thing that caught the attention of the Thai people was Dome's enigmatic aura that seems to permeate from his performances to every aspect of his music.

As a testament to his success and talent, he was part of two succesful compilation albums, The Next and X-Venture, which again sold pretty well, securing Dome and the other artists' hold on Thai music's pop dance market. Interesting is that Dome was featured in one of Joni and Louis' Raptor's songs as a guest rapper in The Next album, which showed his versatility in singing and that he is excellent as a support act, even though being a succesful star to his own credit.

Two more top-selling albums followed, Dangerous Dome and Dome Reaction, the latter being a collection of some of his past hits. We may think that Dome is only a techno-dance singer, but he is also known to have pretty good slow songs, that he can be sentimental as well without losing the techno/dance influences that is common to his music.

This more subdued and mature style of music was seen more in Dome's latest album, Dome Question. Some of his faster songs are bending into the rock genre, showing Dome's succesful experimentation or merging of rock, techno and dance. There is a lack of danceable tunes and "catchy hooks". They were replaced by less mass of sound and introduced a new element in his music, which is DJ scratching. Dome, by the way, DJs in his free time, so its no surprise that he decided to include it in his music. Something different about Dome Question is that Dome is the co-producer for almost all the tracks of the album, and he wrote five out of ten of the songs.

As for the slow songs, replacing the "catchy hooks" are creatively placed DJ scratching, a welcome change from the usual "pause", "change in dynamics from decrescendo to crescendo", lessening the dramatics commonly seen in most ballads. Humorously, then his music would be partly dance -techno -rock- ballad? Hehehe. I guess this change is a sign of some maturity in Dome's musical direction, and an introduction to everyone for Dome as a musician.

Dome spends his free time DJing in clubs and watching movies. He prefers psycho movies to action and comedy. It is understandable why we never see any move from Dome to join the teen movie bandwagon. Maybe if he would be given more roles similar to his tastes in movies, we might just see Dome in the silver screen in the near future.

For someone who has a reputation as dangerous and a "player", one of Dome's pet peeves are oranges. Hmm. Something for you female fans to ponder on.