![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/dengue_fever.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMusic historians often observe that the Beatles-led, so-called British Invasion was an example of British musicians absorbing American influences, and then serving that music back to Americans. In a sense, Los Angeles-based Dengue Fever did something similar when the band started out in 2001. Brothers Ethan and Zac Holtzman had discovered the pop music of pre-Khmer Rouge Cambodia; the Southeast Asian music had been influenced by Western music, most notably garage-rock and psychedelia of the late 1960s.<\/p>\n
Cambodian pop musicians and other artists had been purged and largely silenced during the reign of the Khmer Rouge throughout the 1970s. \u201cAfter the Khmer Rouge, everybody totally forgot that music,\u201d explains Nimol. \u201cThey weren’t listening any more.\u201d After a 1995 visit to Cambodia, Ethan Holtzman returned home with cassettes of the music. Eventually \u2013 after recruiting Cambodian-born vocalist Chhom Nimol \u2013 Dengue Fever developed its own updated, Western-leaning take on the style.<\/p>\n
And it works. Though a written description might suggest otherwise, the music of Dengue Fever is not at all gimmicky. It’s heartfelt and genuine, and \u2013 save for Nimol’s vocals, which are mostly in the Khmer (pronounced k-MY<\/i>) language \u2013 won’t sound foreign to Western ears. Dengue Fever has endeavored to make certain their music \u2013 as found on seven albums and three EPs \u2013 can’t easily be pigeonholed into an easily-defined style.<\/p>\n
But early in the band’s career, they were playing covers of those Cambodian tunes, songs that had endured in the consciousness of Southeast Asians despite being suppressed by the Khmer Rouge. When Dengue Fever first traveled back to Nimol’s homeland for a concert tour, no one was sure what to expect.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very nervous,\u201d says Nimol. \u201cI didn’t know what was going on. But the first show in Cambodia was a great experience for me.\u201d That trip was chronicled in the 2007 documentary film Sleepwalking Though the Mekong<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Despite some initial trepidation, the six members of Dengue Fever embraced the trip as a real opportunity. \u201cWe were interested in what the people of Cambodia were going to think about us,\u201d Zac Holtzman recalls, \u201ccoming back to their country and playing [their music] with a Cambodian singer and a bunch of people of different nationalities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The band was warmly received. Holtzman recalls the words of one Cambodian who attended a show: \u201cThis is a really good thing for Cambodia; we’ve been in a funk for a long time, and we kind of forgot about how beautiful our past culture is; this ties us all together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was outside the club, almost in tears,\u201d Holtzman says.<\/p>\n
For her part, Nimol was flooded with phone calls and messages from her family and friends. \u201cThey were telling her, ‘You really make us proud, Nimol, for representing Cambodian culture in such a unique way.’, Holtzman recalls.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After shining a light on Cambodian pop, Dengue Fever set about developing its own signature sound. \u201cNow we do something different,\u201d Nimol says. \u201csomething in our own style.\u201d The band’s latest release, 2015’s The Deepest Lake<\/i>, is the band’s most engaging release yet. \u201cWe always try to bring all of our different influences to songwriting and playing,\u201d Holtzman says. \u201cI think that has kind of kept us out of being pigeonholed as just some retro ’60’s Cambodian band.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Dengue Fever isn’t likely to completely forsake its roots; lust look at the cover art of the band’s 2011 album Cannibal Courtship<\/i>. The photo features Nimol standing next to Holtzman’s custom-made doubleneck instrument. \u201cThe bottom neck is a traditional Cambodian instrument called the Chapei dong veng,\u201d Holztman explains. \u201cThe top half is a Fender Jazzmaster guitar. It enables me \u2013 for a few songs \u2013 to combine the two instruments, and symbolically combines the two cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n
The songs on The Deepest Lake<\/i> build on elements of world music \u2013 not just from Southeast Asia \u2013 and apply them seamlessly into arrangements more reminiscent of groups like ? and the Mysterians. Zac Holtzman explains the group’s guiding songwriting principle: \u201cWe just give every single song whatever it’s asking for,\u201d he says. \u201cWe don’t necessarily try to sound Cambodian; It sounds Cambodian enough when Nimol is singing!\u201d<\/p>\n
So what is<\/i> Nimol singing about? \u201cWe go through this weird lyric writing process,\u201d Holtzman explains. \u201cNimol might talk about some crazy thing that happened when she was a child in a Thai refugee camp. Then we’ll turn it into a story.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that’s just the beginning. \u201cShe’ll start singing it,\u201d Holtzman says, \u201cand then we’ll realize that some of the words don’t sound good. We have this old Khmer\/English dictionary that we break out, trying to pick words that sound better.\u201d He explains that as in English, certain sounds don’t work when they’re held out over a few beats. \u201cCertain ones sound stupid,\u201d he laughs, \u201clike if you tried to hold the letter ‘L.’\u201d He demonstrates: \u201cLllllllll \u2026 see? Stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, the Dengue Fever songwriting process is what Holtzman describes as \u201cbuild it up and break it down.\u201d But he says that the end product is \u201ca diamond-like ‘Cambodian haiku’ of a song. It’s very dense, and every word ends up being precious.\u201d<\/p>\n
With lyrics being put through those kinds of changes, it’s fair to wonder if they end up making sense in Nimol’s native Khmer. \u201cNot as much,\u201d Holtzman admits. But he quickly backpedals. \u201cI mean, they do<\/i>, but more poetically. Sometimes we have to convince Nimol that as artists we have the right to do whatever we want.\u201d<\/p>\n
That mindset carries over to Dengue Fever’s live shows, too. \u201cSome people trip out about, ‘Ah, but it’s doesn’t sound exactly like it did on the record!’\u201d Holtzman says. \u201cWell, yeah<\/i>. But we’re here dancing around and sweating \u2026 so just relax.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even if the lyrics end up making sense to Dengue Fever’s singer, most American listeners have no clue. But Nimol effectively conveys each song’s emotion, and the band’s arrangements get the ideas across in a way that resonates with listeners. \u201cThat’s the cool thing about music,\u201d says Holtzman. \u201cIt’s one of the more primitive universal languages; you can appreciate it on all different levels. It’s not like you need to go to school and study in order to like it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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