The L.A.-based six-piece Dengue Fever. Guitarist Zac Holtzman, seated far left, says he doesn't speak much Khmer, so writing songs for Cambodian vocalist Chhom Nimol, centre, can be a challenge. Hot band mixes psychedelic rock with Cambodian pop – while redefining the term 'world music'
Mar 08, 2008
Raju Mudhar Entertainment Reporter
The Global Positioning System is chattering away in Dengue Fever's tour van.
During a phone chat while the group is on the road from Philadelphia to New York, main songwriter and lead guitarist Zac Holtzman notes the addition of a disembodied voice offering directions is one noticeable and pleasant upgrade from their previous tours.
The L.A.-based band is currently trekking across North America in support of their acclaimed third album, Venus on Dreams, which stops in at Sneaky Dee's tonight as part of a showcase at Canadian Music Week.
While the GPS can help the band get to where it's got to go, trying to navigate its musical mix is a different matter.
A perfect example of East-West fusion, the California-based six-piece merges retro psychedelic rock with Cambodian pop. Chhom Nimol sings in Khmer, although a few English tracks appear on the new album, which also incorporates surf guitar, Afrobeat and even country.
The band's stated goal is to emulate the sound of music in Cambodia in the 1960s, when American rock influences melded with traditional Asian pop.
"I mean, it was just this really cool twist that they put on all that music. They brought in their own style of singing and it's just this kind of interesting balance of stuff that's vaguely familiar and stuff that's totally from a different world," says Holtzman.
"A lot of the singing, they do a lot of pitch bending and tracking into high voices and falsettos and I think that's a lot of what I was attracted to.
"Sometimes they would bring in traditional Cambodian instruments like a takhe to do an intro to more of a rock 'n' roll number."
Holtzman says inspiration for the band came from his brother, Ethan (who plays farsifa in the band), who returned from trekking Cambodia in 2001 with music from the region.
The brothers decided they wanted to pursue the sound and held auditions in the Little Phnom Penh area of Long Beach. They found Nimol, already a pop star in her native country.
Adding to the Lost in Translation vibe is that, while Holtzman is the main songwriter, he speaks little Khmer, so penning lyrics is a necessarily collaborative process.
"I usually do the vocals when I write the songs, and then we (he and Nimol) kind of go over them. We go over the melody ideas that I have, and then she'll kind of elaborate on those ideas," he says.
"Sometimes I'll send them to a friend. He speaks fluently in Khmer and English, so he'll translate them. We've done a few translations on our own, but I think he does a better job."
While in the past Dengue Fever's mix of music might have ended up in the world-music bin at the local record store, the reaction this album is receiving allows the group to cross the line that divides rock and ethnic music arenas – as the band sees fit.
"If your idea of world music is 20 guys on stage in really colourful outfits, with lots of drums, then we're not that kind of world music. But yeah, our singer is Cambodian, she sings in Khmer, we're playing sort of a hodgepodge of different stuff that we like, so yeah, it's been a lot of fun," he says.
"We kind of walk both lines of playing rock 'n' roll venues and kind of getting invited to these world music festivals and the thing is that we stand out and are different in either of those groups."
Mar 08, 2008
Raju Mudhar Entertainment Reporter
The Global Positioning System is chattering away in Dengue Fever's tour van.
During a phone chat while the group is on the road from Philadelphia to New York, main songwriter and lead guitarist Zac Holtzman notes the addition of a disembodied voice offering directions is one noticeable and pleasant upgrade from their previous tours.
The L.A.-based band is currently trekking across North America in support of their acclaimed third album, Venus on Dreams, which stops in at Sneaky Dee's tonight as part of a showcase at Canadian Music Week.
While the GPS can help the band get to where it's got to go, trying to navigate its musical mix is a different matter.
A perfect example of East-West fusion, the California-based six-piece merges retro psychedelic rock with Cambodian pop. Chhom Nimol sings in Khmer, although a few English tracks appear on the new album, which also incorporates surf guitar, Afrobeat and even country.
The band's stated goal is to emulate the sound of music in Cambodia in the 1960s, when American rock influences melded with traditional Asian pop.
"I mean, it was just this really cool twist that they put on all that music. They brought in their own style of singing and it's just this kind of interesting balance of stuff that's vaguely familiar and stuff that's totally from a different world," says Holtzman.
"A lot of the singing, they do a lot of pitch bending and tracking into high voices and falsettos and I think that's a lot of what I was attracted to.
"Sometimes they would bring in traditional Cambodian instruments like a takhe to do an intro to more of a rock 'n' roll number."
Holtzman says inspiration for the band came from his brother, Ethan (who plays farsifa in the band), who returned from trekking Cambodia in 2001 with music from the region.
The brothers decided they wanted to pursue the sound and held auditions in the Little Phnom Penh area of Long Beach. They found Nimol, already a pop star in her native country.
Adding to the Lost in Translation vibe is that, while Holtzman is the main songwriter, he speaks little Khmer, so penning lyrics is a necessarily collaborative process.
"I usually do the vocals when I write the songs, and then we (he and Nimol) kind of go over them. We go over the melody ideas that I have, and then she'll kind of elaborate on those ideas," he says.
"Sometimes I'll send them to a friend. He speaks fluently in Khmer and English, so he'll translate them. We've done a few translations on our own, but I think he does a better job."
While in the past Dengue Fever's mix of music might have ended up in the world-music bin at the local record store, the reaction this album is receiving allows the group to cross the line that divides rock and ethnic music arenas – as the band sees fit.
"If your idea of world music is 20 guys on stage in really colourful outfits, with lots of drums, then we're not that kind of world music. But yeah, our singer is Cambodian, she sings in Khmer, we're playing sort of a hodgepodge of different stuff that we like, so yeah, it's been a lot of fun," he says.
"We kind of walk both lines of playing rock 'n' roll venues and kind of getting invited to these world music festivals and the thing is that we stand out and are different in either of those groups."
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