This story is taken from the summer 2026 issue of Dazed, which is on sale internationally from June 5. Pre-order a copy of the magazine here.

“You ever seen Finding Nemo?” Thaiboy Digital asks me over FaceTime from his home in Bangkok, slicking back his bleached blonde hair and speaking with the distinctive Swedish lilt that shaped a generation of angsty teenagers in the 2010s. The 31-year-old Drain Gang member is speaking two days before Songkran festival marks the new year in Thailand, and the rapper’s eldest daughter has just completed her last day of nursery – something that has left him feeling emotional. “I [feel] like Nemo’s dad when he takes Nemo to school, but times a hundred. I see all these schoolchildren like schools of fish; it’s a little hectic but also exciting. I’ve played shows to a thousand fans, but seeing a thousand kids is a totally different vibe.” 

Not too long ago, Thaiboy would’ve been better cast as Nemo himself, exploring an unknown world all on his own. Born in Khon Kaen, Thailand’s fourth largest city, he moved to Sweden at the age of eight after his mother took a job in Stockholm. There, he soon fell in with a cohort of talented yet troubled misfits, and what happened next is now etched in musical lore. From that friendship group emerged the first cloud rap superstar, Yung Lean, and the cult-favourite Drain Gang collective, made up of vocalists Thaiboy Digital, Bladee and Ecco2k, alongside producer Whitearmor.

Through a string of unorthodox, faintly esoteric releases in the early 2010s, the scene sparked a revolution in rap. The Auto-Tuned, English-as-a-second-language vocals and futuristic production spoke to outsiders everywhere, conjuring a fantastical world that anyone with an internet connection could escape to. But in 2015, just as Thaiboy’s legend was being written, he was forced to return to Thailand. He has lived in Bangkok ever since.

But neither distance nor the fact he has married and had two kids have stopped Thaiboy from playing an active role in Drain Gang. Thirteen years on from its formation, the group’s influence looms larger than ever. “It’s hard for me to express what’s led to that,” Thaiboy says of the group’s near-mythical reputation. “The main thing is probably truth. We’ve stayed true to ourselves and each other and maybe some of that gets into the music.” 

When I mention the countless artists that have cited Drain Gang as an inspiration – from K-pop disruptor Effie to Nu China rapper Billionhappy, both of whom Thaiboy has collaborated with under his Swedish-language alias DJ Billybool – he grows quiet. “That’s dope, because music did that for me. When [Californian cloud rap pioneer] Lil B started doing music I was like, ‘Damn, if he can do all this stuff, why can’t I?’ It showed me there were no limits. That was one of the lights on my path to becoming Thai[boy].” 

It’s a path that continues to lead Thaiboy down new and unexpected places. His latest album, Paradise, recorded in collaboration with anonymous Swedish EDM trio swedm® (pronounced “swee-dee-em”), features maximalist Eurodance production that sounds like a spaceship reaching warp speed. “It’s like the hardest thing you’ve ever heard in your life,” Thaiboy says of the project. “We recorded it in a really nice penthouse in Phuket, chilling with the homies on the beach by the palm trees. But we didn’t want Paradise to be a place – anyone can visit Phuket. The music, how we made it, what we felt... to me, that place felt more un-physical.” 

Thaiboy remains tight-lipped about who makes up the swedm® trio, which has been rumoured online to include close Drain Gang associates Varg2TM, jamesjamesjames and Eurohead. “I wouldn’t say anyone is the head of swedm®, but their work dynamic is undeniably fire,” he says. “Without [naming] names, we would have one daytime producer drinking all the iced americanos, and then, when they clocked off, we’d have the nighttime producer clocking in. Between them, there would be a third turning up and locking in, and then I’d come in, record and go home. You know how a samurai sword is made? They bash it, then fold it. It’s like that.”

There’s an unmistakable euphoria at work on Paradise, a symbolic departure from the traumatic experiences that coloured much of Thaiboy’s earlier work. It feels like a trip to a new world, with opening track “Dreaming Your Reality” serving as the take-off. Thaiboy croons, “I’m finally free from the shackles that chain me, I’ll no longer forsake me” over synths and risers that fire off like steam from a jet engine. “That particular track was about the trouble I had with my old label,” Thaiboy says, referencing the YEAR0001 imprint that both Drain Gang and Yung Lean cut ties with in 2024. “I’m trying to keep this nice and polite, but basically many of my friends were under the same management and it didn’t work out. I’ll leave my answer at that.”

Paradise looks forward to the future – one that, judging by Thaiboy’s lyrics, is filled with G6 planes, designer clothes and lots of money. It’s a material excess that, on first listen, seems rather superficial, but Thaiboy finds deeper meaning in all of it. “Growing up I always loved numbers,” he explains. “While my friends were doing one plus one in school, I was gambling with the grown-ups, learning to count cards. For me, money is a [form] of art. When I’m in my flow state, I think as much in numbers as in words.”

It’s a philosophy that, for Thaiboy, partly manifests in the image of a G6 plane – a motif he invoked even in his earliest lyrics. “I’ve probably said ‘G6’ on every project I’ve done,” he says, laughing. “I think the Gulfstream G650 commercial is the most beautiful [thing] I’ve seen in my life. Wouldn’t it be nice to just fly anywhere you want? It’s luxury, but it’s also a freedom thing. It’s motivation and inspiration for the path of life.” In his hands, the private jet seems less like a material possession than a symbol in a neo-expressionist painting, his vehicle to a figurative paradise.

Hearing this stark optimism, however, I’m reminded of the turbulence that surrounded Thaiboy’s life after he left Sweden in 2015. Back in 2019, he’d maintained that he was trying to return. Is that still the case? “I don’t want to move back to Sweden,” he tells me. “I have a family now and I can see the whole future for them back in Sweden – like, Dad went to this school, that high school, visited that restaurant... It’s not fun. Life is like a blank sheet of paper and I don’t want to give them a script.”

“A lot of people are going to disagree with me on this, but I don’t care,” Thaiboy continues. “For me, the most important thing in life is existing in the unknown, thriving in the inconvenience, finding your magic. It was so magical growing up in Sweden, learning everything for the first time. I don’t want to take that away from my kids. If we go to a new country, then we’re in the same boat, just like I was with my parents, exploring side-by-side.” Thaiboy might compare himself to the paranoid and overprotective father from Finding Nemo, but it’s clear that he is, and always will be, an adventurer at heart.

This story is taken from the summer 2026 issue of Dazed. Order a copy of the magazine here.

Styling assistant Korawit Sattayapan.