Cambodia’s golden age of rock revisited by bands putting their own spin on pre-Khmer Rouge classics
Rock-folk fusion outfit Kampot Playboys are among several bands energising audiences with their own versions of popular rock classics from before the Khmer Rouge regime at their live shows in Cambodia
Just a few seconds into their show, Cambodian band Kampot Playboys have people in a crowded Phnom Penh bar swaying along. By their third song – a folksy alternative rock cover of a classic by beloved Cambodian singer Sinn Sisamouth – dozens of locals and foreigners are doing a semi-synchronised jig.
The five bandmates, who fuse classic Cambodian rock and traditional music with Western folk and alternative, have been getting fans on their feet in bars and guest houses around Cambodia since 2015.
And while singer and guitarist Uk Sochiet and bassist Mark Chattaway founded the group in southern Cambodia’s Kampot town in 2011, the band only recently released their first album on May 30. Days before, they played their first gig outside Cambodia – inside a museum in Singapore.
The band’s debut record, “Garuda”, is a collection of cover versions of some of Cambodia’s greatest hits. Nine of the 11 tracks are reimagined versions of songs credited to some of the country’s best-known musicians, including Sisamouth – the Elvis of Cambodia – and 1960s and ’70s rockers Vor Sarun and Yol Aularong.
The classics on the record are some of the same songs Sochiet, 36, has been playing since he was a teenager learning guitar from a neighbour in Kampot.