Following the release of Thai TV series KinnPorsche last year, Jeff Satur has seen a meteoric rise to fame. Since then, the Thai actor-songwriter has not only made trips to Singapore for event appearances, but also to hold his first solo Live on Saturn concert.
“My dad loves it here. When I perform, all the fans are lovely and supportive,” he says during a recent pop-up event by skincare brand Philosophy. “The energy is pretty good, so I thought that I should hold a small concert.”
But stardom is something the 28-year-old is still learning to grasp. “To be frank, I don’t really know how to feel. I appreciate everything as it happens,” he explains. Prior to becoming an artiste, he had worked as a graphic designer. The stint, he points out, taught him to be self-reliant. “When I first set up my studio, I didn’t have money. I tried to do everything by myself so I didn’t have to pay other people to do it for me.”
Satur released three songs this year: the edgy, grunge single Dum Dum, dreamy ballad Lucid, and his first all-English rock song Black Tie. “I wanted to be more experimental,” he explains. “Lucid is different from all the songs that I’ve done. And the word ‘lucid’, in Thai, is not something that you can understand immediately, so you have to interpret it in your own way. Black Tie is a rock-and-roll tune. And for my English song, I wanted it to tell my story.”
He sought to amp up his creativity after participating in Chinese musical reality show Call Me By Fire 3, where he had the opportunity to perform with Chinese singers like Lu Yi, E.SO, and Danko. It didn’t matter that he doesn’t speak the language. “It was pretty hard for me actually. I’d never seen the show and I went without any knowledge about it. Then I realised I had to sing every song in Mandarin,” he lets on.
His most popular music video for Fade currently has 141 million views on YouTube, but he has bigger goals for the future. “I might release an album at the beginning of next year. There are going to be 12 tracks, not including the English versions of the songs,” he reveals. He doesn’t know yet what genres the songs will be, but they potentially include hip hop, rock, and rap.
In his opinion, the future of Thai pop music is only going to grow. “When I went to Brazil, the audience was singing in Thai. It was pretty good!,” he says. “I debuted ten years ago and this is the first time that the walls are being broken down. The number of Thai artistes performing internationally is going to go up.”
He plans to embark on a second tour in the beginning of the next year and will be making a stop in Singapore. When he’s not knuckling down, he unwinds by reading comics. “I like webtoons, manga, and watching anime. They keep me inspired,” he says. His favourites? Reincarnated as a Slime, Berserk and Attack on Titan. Horror mangaka Junji Ito, is “number one in [his] heart,” he exclaims.
As Philosophy’s ambassador, he makes sure to care for his skin. Surprisingly, his skincare routine is really simple. “Before, I used to have a 10-step routine! But after doing research, I cut it down to three products,” he says. “Now, I just use a serum, eye cream and moisturiser.”
