Cambodian Music Festival salutes tradition, new artists paving the way
When
Bay Area singer-songwriter Laura Mam asked her mother to translate
lyrics into Khmer, it was as if she had laid a bridge between worlds.
Mam knew her parents had fled the Khmer Rouge — a communist-inspired
movement that killed an estimated 2 million of its own citizens between
1975 and '79. And she knew there was a time before the destruction when
women sang rock 'n' roll and men danced the twist. But she didn't know
how to fill the distance that had grown between her and her mother.
That is until they started writing songs together.
The
silence yielded, and the two began to talk. Her mother, it turned out,
had a knack for poetry that matched her daughter's lyrical gifts.
Through songwriting, they shared stories of the past and dreams of the
future — for themselves and for all Cambodians. The songs they wrote
have now caught the ears and hearts of thousands of Khmer-speakers
across the globe.
The
festival, produced by husband-and-wife team Seak and Brian Smith, will
take place Aug. 3 at the John Anson Ford Theatres in Hollywood. The
all-day event features a lineup of 15 artists from across the U.S.
performing in popular genres from R&B and hip-hop to Khmer balladry
and electronic dance music.
Headlining will be L.A.'s own Dengue
Fever, whose propulsive blend of psychedelic rock and Khmer song has
been filling dance floors around the world for more than a decade. Among
the other artists are Bochan, Jay Chan and Phanith Sovann and Khmer
Kid.
The
festival is billed as a tribute to the pop music heroes — Sinn
Sisamouth, Ros Sereysothea and Pen Ran, among others — whose music was
the soundtrack to Cambodia's rapid midcentury modernization. Their mix
of Latin grooves, reverberating guitars and sinuous Khmer melodies
matched the heady optimism of the era. It was a golden age that all too
quickly went dim as political instability mounted in the 1970s.
In
pursuit of an agrarian utopia, the Khmer Rouge tried to erase the
country's artistic and intellectual heritage. They almost succeeded. But
while the artists didn't survive, their music still remains. The
festival proposes to continue this legacy by featuring contemporary
musicians whose original work grows from yet reaches beyond the creative
ferment of 1960s Cambodia.
"We wanted to show a variety of talent
in different musical genres, that was No. 1," said co-producer Seak
Smith, whose concern was also to select artists who "project a positive
message" and whose work is "inspired by traditional music."
The
festival producers are highlighting Dengue Fever because they hope the
band's broad appeal will draw a wider audience for the other artists.
Formed in 2001 and drawing inspiration from 1960s and '70s Khmer rock,
Dengue Fever was the first band to bring Cambodian popular music to
mainstream attention in the United States. The group's Khmer version of
Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now," written for Matt Dillon's directorial
debut "City of Ghosts," was an early hint of its crossover potential.
Dengue
Fever has inspired young artists like Mam, whose career in Khmer music
began when she heard its music in college. While she had grown up with
the sounds of Cambodian classic rock, Dengue Fever offered something
new. "It was the first time I heard Cambodian music remixed in a modern
way that was flashy," she said recently by phone. "I'm very honored to
be able to share the stage with them because they are the source of my
journey."
Guitarist
Zac Holtzman is happy to talk about the group's service as cultural
ambassadors for the U.S. in Cambodia. But he refuses to see Dengue Fever
as limited by nationality or style. "I don't consider us a Cambodian
rock band," he said over drinks at an Eastside restaurant. Next to him
lead songstress Chhom Nimol smiled in apparent agreement. "Nimol is
Cambodian, and a lot of our songs are in Khmer," he said, "but we want
to leave our own mark, just like the original artists wanted to do."
If
the goal of the festival is to propel Cambodian music out of the
margins, it is also to keep participants' feet planted firmly on the
ground. Besides highlighting an artistic legacy, the event is also the
story of a community supporting its own evolution: Six Cambodian-owned
businesses are contracted as vendors for the event and the producers
will donate 10% of the festival's net proceeds to the Cambodian
Children's Fund.
PraCh
Ly, a Long Beach native and elder statesman of Cambodian hip-hop, was
among the first musicians to speak out about the trauma of the Khmer
Rouge era. Ly's debut album, "Dalama: The End'n Is Just the Beginn'n"
made him Cambodia's No. 1-selling hip-hop artist in 2001. But it also
fulfilled a desperate need for candor about the war and its devastating
legacy.
Fifteen years later, his verses bite as hard as ever, with an unrelenting drive to speak the unspoken and to remember the forgotten. On his forthcoming third solo album, "Dalama 3: Memoirs of the Invisible War," Ly experiments with darker, more cinematic compositions while venturing deeper into the poetics of war and diaspora. In lieu of his own set, he will take the stage as a featured guest with several artists on the bill.
Cambodian American singer-emcee JL Jupiter's work is also steeped in memory. But his is remembrance of a personal sort. Jupiter's music video for "Off Ya Love" — a tight '90s-style R&B/hip-hop number produced by Touch of AZI Fellas — honors the family members who paved his way. In it, he holds up an old black-and-white photo of a young man with a guitar. It's Jupiter's uncle, a Cambodian rock musician from whom the family believes he inherited his musical talent.
Growing up in Camden, N.J., Jupiter lived on the periphery of the region's Cambodian community. Although he absorbed Khmer culture from his family, most of his friends were steeped in urban musical culture. "I didn't have many Cambodian friends growing up," he said, "hip-hop was my way of being." Far from alienating Jupiter from his family's heritage, however, hip-hop brought him closer. "Hip-hop taught me just to be myself," he said, which for him means balancing the "duality of being an American and a Cambodian."
There will also be space for those who simply love the music. Indradevi — the brainchild of two non-Cambodian musicians — will perform for the first time as a live band, offering a richly textured mix of jungle, drum and bass, dubstep, industrial rock and Southeast Asian melodies. Formed initially as a DJ duo, Indradevi has gone on to collaborate with numerous Cambodian artists.
Two
songs on its recent EP, "Wake from the Poison Dream," were co-written
with Khmer-soul chanteuse Rumany Long. Appearing in elaborate masks as
their mythical Indonesian alter egos Barong and Rangda, the duo will
share the stage with Long and other special guests.
Laura
Mam's soulful Khmer songs, which she accompanies on guitar, have earned
her a sizable audience in her family's homeland. As frontwoman of the
band the Like Me's, she first came to international attention with a
hard-rocking remake of Pan Ron's "Sva Rom Monkiss" and her own tender
ballad "Pka Proheam Rik Popreay." The songs, released as YouTube videos,
earned her band more than 1 million views.
More important to her
than numbers, however, are the stories her songs inspire others to tell.
One Cambodian American fan, for instance, told Mam that watching the
"Sva Rom Monkiss" video with his father, a Khmer Rouge survivor, enabled
the two to reconcile a painful past. "The music is going to make you
talk," she said.
Mam
sees the festival as an expression of a larger generational shift among
Cambodians. "Our parents did everything in their power to survive," she
said, "that was their life mission: to survive, to make it out. So when
it comes to our generation, our mission is, I believe, to rebuild."
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