Interviews
with Dengue Fever's Band Members
Senon Williams, Paul Smith & David Ralicke
(the "Seven Foot Black Guy," the Sax/Woodwinds
Person & "Mr. Skins")
US
Asians: Considering your taste in slo-core
(ala Radar Brothers), punk and Charles Mingus – along
with artists such as Untouchables, Haircuts That Kill, 45
Grave… - what attracted you to a provocative reinvented
version of American music caked with reberb and distortion
that integrated the sound of traditional Cambodian music
and the ability of non-traditionalist musicians Zac and
Ethan’s quasi-accidental creative fantasy (heard in
songs such as “Seeing Hands”) to remain true
to the roots of Cambodian rock music, especially considering
that Nimol joined the band after you?
Senon
Williams: We have no plans and never did
plan on staying true to any roots. We set out to make good
music that strayed away from what we and everyone else was
doing in our neighborhood. We wanted our music to take us
away...away to space or the deepest ocean where bio-luminescent
creatures live, we wanted to make something pretty and familiar
but unrecognisable. We wanted to do something fun that strikes
our peers as something fresh and simple. We are not historians
or purists, we are musicians who are having fun. I have
always been attracted to having a good time and as soon
as Zac called me and told me his idea.. I said where, when...who's
bringing the beer?
US
Asians: Remembering your words that "Well-written
pop songs tend to have an emotional center" –
how was the creative process to write these compositions
he says. He adds that the songs offer room for some improvisation
and introduction of diverse elements from rock and jazz
that keep them interesting to perform.
Senon
Williams: When we write, it is usually Zac,
Paul, Ethan and myself working out the songs. Zac will work
at home on the vocal ideas. Lately he has been coming to
the "The Shoebox" studio with me and we will record
many different ideas for Nimol. After we are finished, Nimol
takes them and makes them her own. Now that we are singing
more english tunes and Nimol understands the words - not
just the sounds but the deeper meanings - her performances
have become more emotionally charged.
Interview
continues below
DAVID
RALICKE (Mr. Sax/Woodwinds)
Considering
your musical background (i.e. Beck, Ziggy Marley,
Natalie Merchant, Ozomatli, Duke Spirit, The Bird
and The Bee, Blues Traveler, Ben Harper, David Brown’s
Brazzaville, Macy Gray, etc.), what prompted your
interest in music that integrated various musical
cultures throughout the world and joining Dengue Fever
– as oppose to the safer route that players
such as Kenny G. has taken?
For
my listening pleasure I have very eclectic musical
tastes. Since I was a kid I've been buying records
and cd's of music created and played by great artists,
well known and unknown, from around the world .
I have also been curious about the many hybrids
and extensions of genres created as musicians from
different back-rounds gather to play and to learn
each others music. I have also been part of such
amalgamations before.
There
is music I like and music that does not interest
me regardless of genre or cultural origin. It is
my view that music emanates from ones heart and
to really play something well one must first deeply
desire to do it. Though I have performed and recorded
with various "popular" artists none of
them had interest in me playing in a smooth jazz
style for their music nor did I ever have a desire
to do so. When Ethan asked me to sit in at Dengue
Fever's first show I thought it would be enjoyable
to play something in a new context. It seemed a
natural extension to my interests and experiences
in music thus far.
US
Asians: What were the unexpected creative
rewards during the band’s transition from doing covers
to writing original music in Khmer and
English – acknowledging the paths taken with Nimol
and translators to properly embrace the spirit of the Cambodian
pop music scene and its pioneering artists – as oppose
to Martin Denny/Les Baxter/Arthur Lyman that views other
cultures as exotica?
Senon
Williams: The original artists that inspired
us, Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Soreysothea, Pan Ron and many others
will always be a part of our music. A piece of their soul
is in every Cambodian.. They are true treasures and as long
as Nimol is singing a song, she will embrace the spirit
of Cambodian pop because it is in her fiber. We can do what
every we want and we can't go astray. The combination of
all of us and our attempt to push ourselves beyond what
we have already done is in the true spirit of provocation
and progress. We look to the future not the past. I think
this is what gave 60s and 70s Cambodian pop its beauty and
edge.
US
Asians: Considering the structure of "Tiger
Phone Card" (along with songs such “Sober Driver”
that makes it one of Dengue Fever's more accessible tracks,
especially since it sung entirely in English via Nimol Ch'hom
and Zac Holtzman singing as a duet, how does the band balance
maintaining its creative vision while having its music accessible?
Senon
Williams: The thing about accessibility,
it is the same as being innovative. We can copy some popular
shit that has already been laid out before us that will
fail miserably and we'd be left scratching our heads saying
I (we) thought we were playing accessible music? We are
forging our own path. We have no other hope then to get
to the next stage...next fest...make the next soundtrack..and
do it our way. I think because we are doing something that
rests somewhere between two worlds we just got to hope that
a few people from here and few people from there will find
what we do makes them happy. and for the rest of the folks
they can go to Kinko's to buy their next album.
PAUL
SMITH (aka "Mr. Skins" on DW Drum)
Acknowledging
your role as the group’s producer and skills
in reading music, has this been strategic in playing
Dengue Fever’s eclectic blend of a potpourri
of music with a Cambodian foundation – especially
with the Ethiopian-influenced longer melodic phrases
with its unique syncopation and your musical influences
(i.e. Fela Kuti/”Expensive Shit,” Portishead/”Threads,”
Charles Mingus/”Haitian Fight Song,” Roy
Ayers/”Everyone Loves the Sunshine” and
The Roots/”The Seed 2.0”?
Nothing
we do, creatively speaking, is really that strategic.
We are a "from the gut" group of people.
I did spend some years in the recording trenches which
allows us to be more self contained. We can avoid
working with outside producers and studios if need
be. As
far as my influences are concerned, I'm sure they
leave an imprint, but, everyone in the band does have
outside influences that creep in and
keep it fresh so, ultimately, we all affect the end
result.
What
are your reflections on the event that happened on
April 17th, 1975 (along with why it is important for
the general public to know and remember) - the day
that the Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh (the capital
of Cambodia) and this government's ban or removal
of all artists (including musicians) from the city
such as the prolific Ros Sereysothea and Sinn Sisamouth
while prompting the creation of Dengue Fever –
and the issues Dengue Fever faces reviving a type
of foreign music destroyed as a by-product of an oppressive
government?
What
took place on April 17th, 1975 was an atrocity. The
attempt to control the masses like that, for reasons
like theirs, is the darkest part of mankind. The specificity
of targeting people more likely to be free thinkers
like artists, doctors, educators, and so on...is even
more saddening. The issues that we face as a band,
I believe to be mostly positive, though. For people
who were around before and during this dark period
it can be very cathartic to hear those songs again.
When we were in Cambodia, this was something we were
told several times and it was very touching for all
of us.
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