INTERVIEW : DUB ADDICTION
Interview by : Benjamin Leboyer
Pictures by : DR
on Thursday, July 11th 2013 - 7 937 views
We continue our journey through Southeast Asia, passing through Cambodia. 1,000 years ago, the country was at the cutting edge of development, and the temples of Angkor shone across the region and beyond. Unfortunately, history is not limited to that golden age. Deported, separated, exterminated and deprived of any form of culture under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime in the 70s, the Cambodians are slowly recovering from that terrible period.
Endowed with an optimism and a smile that withstand anything, the population is very open to the outside world and young people are increasingly interested in new forms of musical expression. And reggae is one of them! We meet the band Dub Addiction in Phnom Penh, the country's capital, at a Russian ska concert. Proof that fusion and mixing in our favourite style is no myth... Seb, the band's bassist, tells us their story.
Reggaefrance / How did Dub Addiction come about?
Dub Addiction / To begin with, I arrived from France with about ten years of experience in a backing band in Nice. We brought over Jamaican artists and followed them on several dates. It's with them that I really learned to play and to understand reggae. I also worked with Sons of Gaïa and Massilia Sound System. When I arrived in Cambodia, I realised that lots of people listened to this style of music but that there wasn't a single band here. So I decided to set up the first one, training a few musicians and finding a Khmer singer.
Could you introduce the band to us?
With pleasure! Our singer Dj Khla was a star here well before joining the band. When I met him, he was singing a kind of ragga inspired by the chants of Buddhist monks, a phrasing he had heard since childhood. I went to see him and told him he was doing reggae, and I talked to him about Bob Marley. And he answered: "Marley, who?" Without knowing it, he was playing music born thousands of kilometres away. Dub Addiction is also Kaë Lhassàn on vocals, Chantria Chen on guitar, he's well known in Cambodia and is only 19, Sambath Bun on keyboards, Toma Willen on drums, Professor Kinski on effects, Ian is our MC and also our producer, and I play bass. A mix of several nationalities and several musical styles that gives our band a particular flavour! I should point out that we're not the forerunners in the region. In Laos, Jah Wooble has already created reggae and dub tracks, adding traditional music to them.
Is the audience receptive to your music?
There are two things to distinguish. The audience of expats and people passing through is already won over to our cause, we're the only band of this style in the country and our music is contemporary, it's not sleepy stuff. But I find we're still a bit far from the Khmers, and that's who we want to reach. We make music for everyone, we're not aiming at the commercial side so it takes a little time. Reggae is a positive vibration that we must try to pass on to as many people as possible. With Dj Khla, who is already respected in Cambodia, and this traditional influence we have in our tracks, I think everything is there for it to catch on. Young people are curious and getting tired of what the radio stations offer them, that is to say Asian pop culture.
 Le pays est en train de renaître. C'est intéressant d'être au commencement de tout cela. 
How many Dub Addiction albums have been released?
We're working on the third album and we just released "Dub addiction meets Kampuchea rockers uptown" last April, on the Hong Kong-based label Metal Postcard Record. The concept was to have Cambodian MCs voice riddims that we had created, plus a few covers. The experience was very interesting and it's a good thing to be on this label for promotion, distribution and opportunities to go and play elsewhere. For the third album, we wanted to keep meeting other artists, to share our influences and be more creative. So it will be called "Dub Addiction Collective", with the participation of Sistaya, a Swiss artist, Ras Simmons from Aix-en-Provence, Phil Mylkiway from Germany and Okoro Elias Jefferson from Nigeria.
What about gigs and tours?
There are some nice stages in several cities of the country but we've already played a lot there. Now, we're less present so as to try to offer the audience new tracks, we don't want to do the same thing all the time. Normally, we should be touring a bit in Vietnam, for example. We hope to make ourselves known abroad, in France in particular, it's close to my heart. And we have a few invitations: Hong Kong, Australia, England and Denmark, for example… We'll see whether all that is possible.
A few words about Cambodia to finish?
The people have suffered a great deal, there is a hole in the history which only starts again from 1985. A whole generation disappeared because of the Khmer Rouge and 80% of people are under 30. The country is being reborn. It's interesting to be at the beginning of all this. The problem now is the huge gap between rich and poor, it's no longer rare to see big sports cars in the streets, but basic salaries are 30 or 40 dollars a month. To give you an idea, China is relocating to Cambodia because labour is even cheaper than at home. There are some images that are very hard to accept, kids rummaging through bins to resell the aluminium cans they can find. But when there aren't any, they have to eat what they pick up... Fortunately, a few charities are fighting this misery (such as the association "Pour un sourire d'enfant", which does incredible work, Ed.).
Dub Addiction Collective - No Time To Waste:
Dub Addiction Collective - Lose Your Soul:
Dub Addiction - Zunguzeng Inna Di Penh:
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