Khruangbin

Church, barn and bass

Mark Speer and Donald "DJ" Johnson met in 2004 in the gospel band at St. John's Methodist Church in Houston, Speer on guitar and Johnson on organ. In 2007 Speer met Laura Lee through friends, and the two bonded over Afghan music and Middle Eastern architecture. Lee, then a math teacher, learned bass under Speer's guidance in 2009 and joined his band Yppah. In 2010 they toured North America with Yppah, opening for Bonobo, and Lee came home wanting a band of their own.

They started that year in a barn belonging to Speer's family in Burton, Texas, a town of about 300 people, recording first and only then asking Johnson to join on drums. Lee chose the name, the Thai word for airplane, while learning Thai from a bootleg copy of Rosetta Stone. The band says it reflects the international influences in the music. Lee wanted music on vinyl before they played live, so they recorded a self-titled 7-inch in 2010. Their first show came in 2011 at Fitzgerald's in Houston, opening for Robert Ellis, and the debut EP that year carried the band's name in Thai script.

The Bonobo break

In 2013 Lee moved to London. Bonobo, who knew them from the 2010 tour, got in touch, and she gave him a CD of new barn material. He put A Calf Born in Winter on his Late Night Tales mix that November, which Lee called "really the first contact the world had had with Khruangbin." Late Night Tales signed them to its offshoot Night Time Stories, which issued the song as their first single in May 2014, then the EP The Infamous Bill that October and the covers EP History of Flight for Record Store Day 2015.

The Universe Smiles Upon You followed on 6 November 2015, produced by Speer with Steve Christensen, the Houston engineer who became their long-term engineer and co-producer. Speer used to play Thai cassettes while Lee cooked, and the album draws on 1960s Thai luk thung. It was also their first record with vocals. That October they had made their UK live debut at the Simple Things festival in Bristol.

Con Todo El Mundo

Lee and Speer moved to Los Angeles in 2017, but the recording stayed in the barn, tracked live, with overdubs added later at SugarHill in Houston. In November 2017 the band signed to Dead Oceans and released Maria También, with a video about Iranian women before the 1979 revolution. Con Todo El Mundo arrived on 26 January 2018. It looks to Spain, Iran and the wider Middle East, to Stax soul, dub and Iranian pop, and Speer said the only rules were funky drums, dub bass and melodic guitar. It went silver in the UK.

2018 was their busiest year on the road, with 111 shows logged on setlist.fm, an NPR Tiny Desk Concert and support slots on Leon Bridges' Good Thing tour. In 2019 they opened for Trey Anastasio's Ghosts of the Forest tour and released Hasta El Cielo, a dub version of the album with two extra dubs by Scientist.

In Khruangbin, the guitar is taking the place of the lead singer.

Mark Speer, Premier Guitar

With all the world

Mordechai (2020) reached No. 7 in the UK and No. 31 in the US. The same year brought Texas Sun, an EP with Leon Bridges that went gold in the US, and the band's own Late Night Tales mix, closing the loop Bonobo's edition had opened. In 2022 came a second Bridges EP, Texas Moon, and Ali, eight Ali Farka Touré covers recorded with Vieux Farka Touré in Burton in about a week. Alexis Petridis gave it five stars in The Guardian. Live albums from Lincoln Hall, Arcosanti, Stubb's, Radio City Music Hall and the Sydney Opera House followed between 2018 and 2023, the year A Calf Born in Winter was used in Alexander Payne's The Holdovers.

A La Sala (2024) reached No. 18 in the UK, and its tour ran to more than 120 shows on setlist.fm. The band has been nominated for the Grammy for Best New Artist. In November 2025 they marked the debut's tenth anniversary by re-recording it as The Universe Smiles Upon You ii, and toured it. Lee, Speer and Johnson remain the line-up they started with.