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At one stage, this self-confessed depressive and occasional wig-wearer who tried to commit suicide twice became a monk at Angkor Wat, fed up with the world of showbiz. However, he lost faith in Buddha and found a different form of enlightenment by returning to music. He hopes his new album will be released by Sony\u00a0 in Berlin, Tokyo or London by the end of June.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going to call the album \u2018Sexy, Sexy Rock and Roll\u2019 but changed it to \u2018Bar 69 out of sensitivity to the culture,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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Dreams of past glory<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Michels, who has lived in Cambodia for 11 years, also made documentaries and tops up his royalties with his gigs at Raffles and other night spots, performing cover versions of classic hits with Filipino band members.<\/p>\n So, from\u00a0 being a one-time star in France to gigging in Phnom Penh, Michael Thomas hopes his Purple Dream will restore him to past glory on a bigger stage 40 years on.<\/p>\n Another musician who\u2019s been around the traps in the Kingdom is German national Jan Mueller \u2013 or Professor Kinski as he prefers to be known. Jan has lived in the country for 17 years, after working at an internship at local TV stations back home as a TV producer and sound engineer. He\u2019s played guitar, drums, sampler, synths and flute for almost all of his life, he says.<\/p>\n Over the years, Kinski had a couple of different outfits in Phnom Penh playing different styles of music. After producing a lot of solo Electro albums from 2002 to 2008 his musical career in Cambodia kicked off in 2009 while producing a Cambodian Hip Hop album with Khmer rapper MC Curly and his crew, known as the \u201cOVC\u201d (Orphaned Vulnerable Children). They quickly linked up with Channty Kak from the Cambodian Space Project in 2009 to deliver spaced-out hook lines for the hip hop tunes of the OVC which worked very well, according to Kinski.<\/p>\n In 2010 Prof Kinski\u2019s breakthrough came with remixing the Cambodian Space Project with his well-received album: CSP \u2013 the Hummer H5 Remixes. The album was a Cambodian journey into electro, dub, and chilled-out groove music with the haunting vocals of CSP lead singer Channty Kak.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nonstop playing<\/strong><\/p>\n Later on, it was followed by an original one-hour nonstop UK breakbeat album in 2011 with 33 of Kinski\u2019s Cambodian recordings, including MC Curly, Kak Channty, Meng Buno, Heng Bunleap and many more popular artists.<\/p>\n In the same year, Kinski co-founded and produced the Cambodian Ragga Dub outfit\u00a0 Dub Addiction, touring through Europe and Asia, including France, Denmark, Reunion Island, Thailand and Vietnam. In the five years of their active performing time, Dub Addiction released five albums with Cambodian-flavoured Khmer Raggamuffin and Dub Reggae songs as well as international collaborations from all over the world.<\/p>\n Dub addiction has now recorded tunes with more than 40 different musicians each with their different significant styles, including Tippa Irie, Tirat and Rouge Reggae, Jahneration, Ras Muhammad plus many more.<\/p>\n As an antidote to all the electronic vibes and massive sound effects of making Dub Reggae, Kinski co-founded the Punk Band The Schkoots together with French guitarists and expatriate locals, Bob Passion and Benoit Carre in 2012, to form an all original three-man Europunk band from the mind of Bob Passion with Kinski on hyper-fast drums also playing alongside French punk legend Didier Wampas. Kinski produced their album \u201cStraight To The Legend\u201d in 2015 with a new album to be recorded in January 2020.<\/p>\n Currently, Kinski plays for the expatriate band Vibratone. Besides that, he remixes and produces all kinds of projects for Cambodian TV, radio and other bands.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Different tempo<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Changing genres we have the Hypnotic Fist Technique, a five-piece international band which identifies their sound as a fusion-based sound planted firmly in hip-hop but drawing influences from rock, heavy metal, reggae, R&B, funk, soul, ska, electronic music and \u201cpretty much anything that draws our attention\u201d, according to Gaurav Raul, otherwise known as Initial G, One of the bands\u2019 two vocalists.<\/p>\n The bands\u2019 members hail from all parts of the globe. Current members include Initial G (Gaurav Raul) vocalist from India, Mike Dynamo (Michael A. Bridgett Jr) secondary vocalist from the United States, Supreme Premium D (Damani Kelly), a British Italian bass player for the outfit, I The Mic Factor (Ian Francisco), lead guitarist from the\u00a0 Philippines, and Hot Toddy (Todd Bazley) their drummer from New Zealand.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Damani is part of several other bands with one of them, the Vartey Ganiva band scheduled to drop a new album imminently among other projects. Todd and his other project \u2013 Nightmare A.D. are working on a new album that is expected soon. Mike Dynamo and Initial G have new projects such as Funan Beat Empire, Initial Dynamo and Brainerdz with albums expected from all three projects including a solo album each from both of the frontmen in collaboration with Minnesota based producer\/rapper Serebe. Artwork is also under way for all these projects.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n From choral tenor to rap<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Initial G was trained as a choral tenor since childhood, growing up in Cambodia and partying in the kingdom\u2019s music scene during his teenage years.<\/p>\n When asked how the band was formed, he said: \u201cWe all met each other at Showbox \u2013 specifically at open mic sessions on Wednesdays. Ian, our guitarist, had just moved to Cambodia with his family and he was playing occasionally there. Damani was already a fixture as part of the instrumentalists playing everything from bass, guitar, keyboards to drums. A regular at Showbox, I was branching out from Bon Jovi covers to freestyle rapping and enjoying the hip-hop twist that was taking over the open mic format and the enthusiasm of the audience too.\u201d<\/p>\n He also claims his musical talents have let him play alongside some relatively big local acts. \u201cI\u2019ve met several globally famous artists already thanks to our close connection to Code Red Agency which has consistently brought big-name acts to our tiny Kingdom. I\u2019ve not played alongside anyone globally famous in a while, not since sharing the same stage as \u2018And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead\u2019. Regionally famous is an entirely different story which is a definite yes. We share stages a lot with local legends, for example, The Kampot Playboys.\u201d<\/p>\n He admits although he isn\u2019t the most talented vocalist, he feels as though if it weren\u2019t for the band, he may never have known his true talents. \u201cMy entire musical achievement started with Hypnotic three years ago and is continuing with all these new events and acts that I\u2019m spearheading, unless you want to count being in choirs as a kid. I was always surrounded by talented people, though, so attracting and retaining talent around me is becoming an indicator of the talent that I never knew I possessed. All my band members and fellow collaborating artists have an insane number of achievements and accolades to their credit, too numerous to talk about here.\u201d<\/p>\n Initial G said: \u201cWe are about 60 percent done with writing the new Hypnotic album.\u00a0 As of now, it\u2019s untitled.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, in anticipation of some of the reshuffling we\u2019re scheduled to go through very soon, we are holding off on the recording for now. New artwork is still under way and will be released when we\u2019re satisfied with the result. \u201cWhen asking Initial G if the band made money from their works, he said: \u201cNo. We wish we made enough for it to be our main source of income.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Passion, not cash<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n And talking about money, unlike Pink Floyd, nobody here seems to be grabbing that cash with both hands and making a stash. No new car, caviar, four-star daydream, let alone buying a football team.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not in it for the money but the passion. We have to work ordinary jobs to indulge our musical pleasures,\u201d said Initial G<\/p>\n DJ, author and long-time observer of the Phnom Penh night scene Iain Donnelly, said: \u201cMost musicians in Phnom Penh are \u2018hobbyists\u2019. So they don\u2019t really do it for money but for their love of music. Venues tend not to charge money on the door for gigs and depend very much on bar takings. When venues do try to charge, many punters choose not to go, so it\u2019s a catch 22 situation.<\/p>\n \u201cIf a venue pays a large amount for a band then they run a risk of taking a major hit money-wise. There is a small amount of musicians who do make a living from their trade, but they are dedicated and can often be playing five to seven nights a week.\u201d<\/p>\n A random survey showed people in the industry are reluctant to disclose incomes because of the competitive nature of making their living from music. But it seems clear, to return to a Shakespearean quote, \u201cThere is nothing in the world so much like prayer as music is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Foreign musicians attracted to Phnom Penh but not for cash<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"Hypnotic Fist Technique playing at LF Social Club in Phnom Penh","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":null,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":null,"footnotes":""},"categories":[258],"tags":[430,732],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/capitalcambodia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Page-12-681x1024.jpg\"){kind=spacer}