Dengue Fever

I like unique music. I listen to tons of all types of tunes, but every once and a while something is played that makes me stop and really listen. Dengue Fever is one of those bands. The band blends rock with 60's Cambodian garage music. It makes for a unique and pleasurable sound. Check out the interview below with Dengue Fever's Zac Holtzman.

What are the plans for this year? I know that you are on tour this summer, is there any plan for a new record this year?

There's more than plans. The last couple months we've been fixing up our studio was some amazing gear. We'll be laying down the drums and bass on to tape and we've got an arsenal of microphones to make Nimol sound like the angel she is. We've got about twenty tunes that we've been working on and actually need to whittle it down a bit.

I saw that you all released a compilation of Cambodian garage tracks, how were these selected? What is particularly unique about Cambodian garage rock?

Ethan and I picked most of the tunes from tapes, cds, that we collected in Long beach and Cambodia. We also found some of the songs on line. I think we we're first attracted to Cambodian music from the late 1960s and early 1970s because of the exotic vocal performances over familiar garage/surf/psychedelic elements. The singers do this "ghost voice" thing where they crack into a higher pitch. They also do a lot of snakey bends and quivers that I love.

Part of what I try to do for this blog is document regional scene. What is the current Cambodian scene like? I know that you all were the first western band to play the country since the fall of the khmer rouge, what was that like?

It was a trip. You should check out the documentary that we made while we we're there. As far as the current scene, I'll let you know in a week. We'll be back in Cambodia on the 10th of this month. I've heard there's also a few bands doing 1960s Cambodian revival type music.