On Location is a column that lifts the curtain on the destinations behind the season’s most exciting new releases, from film and television to music.
Khruangbin’s story has always been an international one. When bassist Laura Lee Ochoa and guitarist Mark Speer met in 2007, it was a shared affinity for Afghan music that made them quick friends and collaborators. Looking to start a band, they recruited drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson, who played with Speer at a local church. In 2010, the three formed a trio, named it after the Thai word for airplane (pronounced krung-bin), and began making music inspired by funky subgenres from around the world—dub from the Caribbean, Middle Eastern funk, and West African disco to name just a few.
It all makes sense for three folks who grew up in Houston—Texas’s crown jewel of world cultures and a fitting hometown for a band so at home with elements from far reaches of the globe. Condé Nast Traveler caught up with Ochoa and Johnson to hear more about their international upbringings, collaborating with fellow Texan Leon Bridges, and longing for a family reunion on their new album, A La Sala.
Khruangbin is well-known for having a globally influenced sound—what role did growing up in Houston play in that?
Laura Lee Ochoa: Texas [is so close to, and used to be,] Mexico, so there’s obviously that presence. But yeah, I went to a language magnet high school, so it attracted a lot of people from different countries to speak different languages there. My two best friends at my school were from Russia and Brazil, so every time I went to their house after school, I was not listening to music in English. And any time you go out to eat at a non-American restaurant, you’re also going to be listening to music from different places.
It’s just an incredibly diverse city. I live in Brooklyn now, and New York is obviously diverse. But as somebody from Houston, I can honestly say it’s not as diverse as us. It’s a part of our genetic makeup, being from there. I don’t think people see Houston like that because they see Houston as being a part of Texas, which has an image and a vibe in people’s minds who haven’t been there. Some of what they imagine is probably true, but not in Houston. It’s its own thing.
DJ, you’ve said before that when people look at Khruangbin, they see three people who don’t necessarily look like each other playing music together and they’re often surprised about that, but for three people from Houston, that’s not all that surprising. Can you talk more about that?
Donald “DJ” Johnson: The street I grew up on in the suburbs represented everyone and I didn’t realize growing up that this was something that didn’t happen as much in other places. We all rode bikes together. My friend across the street, Chad, who was white, his dad was always barbecuing in the front yard and he used to pour beer on his barbecue—I remember that as one of my childhood memories. You’d have Black kids, white kids, Iranian, Hispanic, Vietnamese—everybody was all kicking it together. As a child, you don’t appreciate how special that is.
