By Madeline Court
Photo by Lauren Dukoff
Zac Holtzman’s brother went to Cambodia and all he got was a band.
In 1997 Ethan Holtzman was trekking through Cambodia when his traveling companion contracted dengue fever, a tropical disease characterized by blistering rashes, diarrhea, and a fever that can peak at over 104 degrees-all from a mosquito bite.
As Ethan raced with his friend to the hospital, the driver of the car was blasting Cambodian rock and roll from the 1960’s. It was there, watching over his deathly-ill friend in a crowded car, that Ethan discovered and fell in love with classic Cambodian rock. In 2001, he and Zac founded a Cambodian pop/psychedelic rock band in Los Angeles and christened it Dengue Fever.
“[The name] kind of reminded us of ‘dance fever’ or ‘disco fever,'” says Zac, adding that the name functions as both a conversation starter and a point of confusion for audiences.
“When we go to Cambodia they’re like, ‘Why? Why would you name the band after something bad?’ They don’t get the irony.” Zac said. “Also, a lot of people who come to our shows have had dengue fever and come up and tell us.”
Just as the disease means different things to different people, the band has found the same to be true of their music. In Zac’s experience, there’s no single demographic that turns out for a Dengue Fever show.
“Our fans are a really mixed crowd. All the Cambodians come out for each city we play in, but there’s also indie rockers.” Said Holtzman. “We’ve had a few TV shows and people who watch those shows will come out. We also get Vietnam vets who ended up marrying a Cambodian woman.”
Dengue Fever’s music reflects the diversity of their fans: some songs are entirely in Khmer, the official language of Cambodia, while others are written in a pidgin of English and Khmer.
“Our first album [Dengue Fever, 2003] was covers and it was a great way to get the band off the ground,” says Zac, “But none of us came from a cover band background, so we quickly switched gears to doing originals.”
The influx of English and original compositions into Dengue Fever’s repertoire is the work of Chhom Nidol, the band’s lead singer. Nidol was already a popular performer in Cambodia before auditioning and landing a spot with Dengue Fever.
In the band’s beginning, her limited English meant the band had to employ a translator and arduously trim back syllables to fit their lyrics to their music. As Nidol’s vocabulary improved, Dengue Fever wrote more and more songs in English in order to reach a larger audience and break free of the world music genre. But as Zac explains, Dengue Fever is a dish best served without a label.
“I wouldn’t categorize it.” He said. “If I were putting it somewhere in the music store, I would put it somewhere out front so everyone could see it.”
