'I was keenly interested in politics. Back then the guitar was a weapon, and music could cause a revolution."
Yuenyong Opakul, known to legions of fans around Thailand and beyond as Add Carabao, is holding his weapon of choice when I enter the dressing room in Impact Arena on Wednesday evening. Slowly pacing the floor to warm up, he is playing the guitar solo from Santana's mega-hit Black Magic Woman.
In less than three hours Add and his band Carabao will hit the Impact Arena stage to open for Santana in front of a packed house.
"Times are different now," says the bandleader, songwriter, vocalist and guitarist.
Wearing glasses, a cap and a short-sleeved work shirt, the man who helped found Thailand's most iconic rock band is clearly pleased to be sharing the stage with world-renowned Latin rock idol Carlos Santana.
"A lot of people ask me where Carabao's style comes from," recalls the 58-year-old musician. "For me it all started with Santana. His music was our teacher, my teacher, back when we were young.
"I first heard Black Magic Woman and Oye Como Va when I was in high school. Every young guitarist I knew had to learn those two songs. And the famous Thai pop groups of that time, like The Impossibles, were also covering Santana."
Growing up in Suphan Buri, the hotbed of phleng luk thung, or Thai country music, Add naturally inherited Thailand's rootsy, working-class pop music as well.
After the violent 1973 and 1976 street confrontations between students and the military, Add took off for the Philippines to further his studies. There he met like-minded Thai student Kirati (Keo) Promsaka Na Sakon Nakhon, and the two began playing music together.
Back home, the duo pursued a shared interest in a budding new Thai folk-rock genre that highlighted social and political issues. Called "Songs for Life" (phleng phuea cheewit), the new sound, and soon an established genre, was pioneered by Caravan, a group led by writer Surachai Jantimathawn.
When Add and Keo formed their own group, Carabao, they built upon Caravan's sound and took it to a louder, more rambunctious level beginning with the release of their first album, Lung Kee Mao, in 1981. Lyrics were more stridently anti-establishment and soon Carabao's music, like Caravan's, was a target of government bans.
"We were mixing luk thung, Western rock and Santana-style Latin rock," says Add. Someone called it sam cha for the three influences and the name stuck. "[The Sam Cha Carabao style] became a trend, and we were happy to keep exploring that sound since everyone liked it so much."
One member whom Carabao recruited along the way, Preecha Chanapai (Lek Carabao), was especially adept at injecting Carabao songs with sinuous, Santana-like guitar lines. With Lek on board, the fusion came together so well on the band's third album, Wannipok (Minstrel), that the title song became the first Thai composition in regular rotation at 1980s discos, which otherwise played nothing but Western dance pop.
Carabao exploded in 1984 with Made In Thailand, which sold over 4 million copies and was a hit in neighbouring countries as well.
In 1999 a tribute album entitled Carabao Santana (Sam-Cha Latin) was released. Although many press reports today identify the all-covers album with Carabao as a group, Add insists it was a solo project recorded by Lek.
While Add expresses both pride and gratitude as he prepares to join his bandmates for tonight's concert, he also admits to being nervous.
"Yesterday when we met Carlos, he invited us to join his group onstage for a song or two," says Add as his fingers glide over the guitar strings. "But he is such a strong, serious musician. I also hear he is quite demanding. I'm not sure we can handle it."
The Carabao bandleader, who will be recording a new Warner Music album with the band at London's Abbey Road Studios in May, smiles and drops his fingers from the guitar.
"I'm so glad to be here, because we learned all the basics from Santana. I'm happy just to be on the same stage to open the show. That's enough for me."
As for politics: "When we were resisting the government [in the 1970s and 1980s] it was black and white. It was quite clear where the battle was, and who we had to fight.
"Now it's time for Thais to come together, to communicate and practise tolerance. As different power groups compete, we need to learn how to compromise. Today the enemy is ourselves, rather than external forces."
