Dengue Fever is responsible for one of the most surprising and original sounds the world music scene has heard in a while. How did you guys originally stumble on that Cambodian psychedelic rock music that lies at the basis of what you play?
Zac Holtzman (guitar, vocals): "A few of us travelled to Cambodia a while ago and collected a bunch of tapes full of that music from the late sixties and early seventies you just mentioned, played by Cambodian musicians that were exposed to western psychedelic and garage rock. When we heard that music, it really moved us, so we decided it would be a really fun thing to form a band that was based on that style of music."
Is that style of music still popular in today's Cambodia?
Zac Holtzman: "Yeah, it's kind of their classic rock. One of the most popular artists is Sin Sisamouth (A famous and highly prolific Cambodian singer-songwriter in the 1950s to the 1970s, Sin Sisamouth was widely considered the "King of Khmer music". He is believed to have been killed under the Khmer Rouge regime in November 1975, red.). We used to think he was sort of the Cambodian Elvis, but after translating a lot of his lyrics it turns out he's much closer to Bob Dylan."
Senon Williams (bass): "The style has evolved a bit though. It has evolved into a sort of synthpop karaoke style."
You had to go in search of a singer who could perform these songs. How did you end up with Chhom Nimol?
Zac Holtzman: "We had met a Cambodian guy in a bar where we played pool. As he was the only Cambodian we knew, we decided to ask him. But because he didn't speak English, he just kept making hand gestures and saying: "la lune" (French for "the moon", red.). Eventually we figured out he was talking about La Lune, a club in Long Beach (City located in southern California, about 32 kilometres south of Los Angeles, red.). From there we made more and more connections in the Cambodian club circuit and that eventually made us end up in what would turn out to be the best one: Dragon House. That's where we saw Chhom Nimol perform for the first time. As soon as I heard her, something inside me screamed: "Oh my God! We've got to have her in the band!" She didn't speak any English though."
Senon Williams: "She and her sister had just moved to the United States a few months earlier, so you have to imagine, her moving from singing in small clubs in Cambodia to indie rock clubs in Los Angeles could be quite a culture shock."
Did you have a hard time convincing her to do the project?
Zac Holtzman: "At first her sister was a little hesitant, I guess mainly because of my atypical bearded appearance, which for Cambodians who grow little or no facial hair looks especially strange, but Chhom felt she still wanted to give us a chance. By that time we had already organised a proper audition to which about a dozen singers turned up. When we told them Chhom might be joining them, we got reactions like: "Chhom Nimol? No way! She's way too famous!" We weren't even aware of that, but her family are like a Cambodian version of The Jacksons! Chhom is already the third generation in a family of singers. Her family is from Battambang (province in the northwest of Cambodia, its capital also being called Battambang, red.), the place famous performers like Sin Sisamouth and Ros Serey Sothea (A famous Cambodian singer during the nation's thriving cultural renaissance. She sang from a variety of genres but romantic ballads emerged as her most popular works. Despite a rather short career she is credited with producing hundreds of songs and even starring in a few movies. Details of her life and fate during the Khmer Rouge regime are relatively unknown but it is generally accepted she did not survive, red.) are also from."
Can you give us a quick historic run-through of how that Cambodian psychedelic rock music developed?
Zac Holtzman: "Basically the Vietnam War was going on and the American troops in Vietnam had their own radio stations. Their broadcasts would be receivable in the whole surrounding region. At the time Cambodia was experiencing an economic boom. A lot of people were enjoying luxuries like western cars, expensive clothes and with that came also American music. We've included some old footage of that era in our new DVD "Sleepwalking Through The Mekong". In the mid-seventies Pol Pot took power. He literally marched into Phnom Penh and arrested or shot anyone with an education or with too much of a western appearance. A lot of the artists were murdered in the genocide that cost 1/3 of the population of Cambodia their lives, so their music was almost lost, but luckily some of the Cambodian refugees brought some of the recordings with them."
You just mentioned you recently travelled back to Cambodia to record the "Sleepwalking Through The Mekong" DVD and you took that chance to perform there as well. What were the reactions of the Cambodian audience like?
Zac Holtzman: "Well, you have to know that Cambodians are generally very reserved in their reactions, but they really liked what we were doing. Chhom got tons of phone calls while we were there, congratulating us and telling her how happy they were she had returned to the country. They were afraid she would have returned all Americanized, but instead, there we were, playing classic Cambodian rock-‘n -roll songs and that quite surprised them."
Senon Williams: "A friend of the family told us the music we played was from the hearth of Cambodia and that really moved me."
Ever since Peter Gabriel discovered your music, your records have been distributed by his Real World label.
Senon Williams: "Yeah, they released the ‘Venus On Earth' album virtually everywhere except in North America and that has basically allowed us to do this European tour now, to name but one example. Being Real World artists has allowed us to be known on a global scale and as a result of that we've been able to play numerous great festivals like Womad, Roskilde and Glastonbury."
Zac Holtzman: "The cool thing is, we don't fit in completely with world music, but we also don't completely fit in with the indie rock scene either and that allows us to play everything, from smaller punk rock venues over art centres to big world music festivals."
Performing Cambodian music, how far are you guys progressing in speaking Khmer yourselves?
Senon Williams: "Zac is the best at speaking Khmer, but we only used the Cambodian music as a platform really. Now that Chhom is starting to speak English, we're starting to incorporate more English-spoken songs into our repertoire. The way Chhom sings turns even those English lyrics back into a sort of Cambodian style anyway."
Zac Holtzman: "When we were over there we picked up quite a bit of Khmer as well and we've been working with Wildlife Alliance, which is an organisation that tries to stop the poaching of wild animals in Cambodia, so we're planning to go back there and we're definitely going to brush up on our Khmer before that happens! (laughs)"