Los Angeles sextet Dengue Fever has a beach-friendly sound
perfectly suited to its sunny hometown. But the band’s good time,
surf-rock stylings also serve a deeper purpose: preserving and promoting
a style of Cambodian music nearly lost during the mass genocide
engineered by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.
Prior to Phnom Penh’s
1975 fall at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia’s capital city was
the epicenter of a cultural renaissance. During this time, musicians
like Ros Sereysothea and Sinn Sisamouth blended traditional sounds with
the American and British music they heard streaming over the airwaves of
Armed Forces Radio from nearby Vietnam, creating a global twist on surf
and psychedelic rock.
“It was an exciting time because these
musicians were listening to what other people were doing on records then
setting out to copy it with no idea how to technically,” said Dengue
Fever drummer Paul Smith, 40, who joins his bandmates for a free show at
the Marquette Waterfront Festival on Saturday, June 9. “It was almost
reverse engineering for these guys. They’re hearing these crazy sounds
and delays and going, ‘How are they getting this? Let’s try this.’
“To
go out and come up with it on your own is just an amazing, cool
process, and there’s a real rawness and energy to the music that spoke
to me immediately.”
During its reign, the Khmer Rouge exterminated
many facets of Cambodian culture, and numerous musicians were among the
estimated 1.7 million people killed. In a further effort to erase the
past, traditional songs were even replaced with patriotic odes to the
zealots in charge of the country.
“There aren’t a lot of
situations where you’re staring at the brink of extinction in terms of
certain cultural elements,” said Smith. “There’s definitely an added
weight because of the history and how we’re interfacing with the
culture. But because we’re doing it for the right reasons and the
Cambodian people have responded well, we feel it’s just an honor and a
cool thing we’re involved in.”
Brothers Ethan and Zak Holtzman
first launched Dengue Fever in 2001 after Ethan was introduced to the
long-lost music by a local bus driver on a trip to Cambodia (the band
took its name from the illness a travel companion was struck with during
the trek). Shortly thereafter, the group stumbled upon Battambang-born
frontwoman Chhom Nimol while auditioning potential singers. At the time,
the band wasn’t aware of Nimol’s storied musical background. Born to
traditional musician parents, Nimol herself performed for the Cambodian
royal family after winning a national singing competition akin to
“American Idol” in the late 1990s.
“When she showed up some of the
other singers (auditioning) immediately caught a cold and decided to
leave because they were intimidated,” said Smith. “We had been playing
these songs together with no singer, and it was a leap of faith. But
once her voice was in there it must have been like putting the gold orb
on the Taj Mahal. All of a sudden it felt like rainbows came out of the
clouds and everything just made sense.”
On the band’s self-titled
debut, which was first released in 2003 and is set to be reissued
sometime this summer on the group’s newly formed label, Tuk Tuk Records,
Dengue Fever functioned as historical archivists of sorts, bashing
through covers of classic Cambodian pop songs with Nimol singing in her
native tongue. A 2005 tour of Cambodia, which was filmed for the
documentary “Sleepwalking Through the Mekong,” followed, further
affirming the group’s decision to pursue these once-lost sounds.
“The
whole visit was like an acid trip, and when it was over it was like,
‘Oh, wow,’” said Smith. “I was not aware of the history, and until you
see the effect on the people who were there through the Khmer Rouge… You
could see (the music) had this profound impact on people. It was a
pleasant surprise, and kind of overwhelming. It really opened my eyes.”
Though
the group has branched out from these global origins on more recent
efforts — Nimal even sings in English throughout much of the band’s
latest album, “Cannibal Courtship” — Smith said Cambodian music will
always be the root of the band’s sound.
“Cambodian history will
always be a part of what we do,” he said. “I really think a lot of the
Cambodian culture that was lost is slowly making its way back. We like
to think we started something, and maybe now people will follow.”
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