Baksey Cham Krong (also spelled Baksey Chamkrong or Baksei Chamkrong, km, បក្សីចាំក្រុង) was a

rock band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...

active in pre-

Khmer Rouge The Khmer Rouge (; ; km, ខ្មែរក្រហម, ; ) is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. ...

Cambodia. They are regarded as Cambodia's first guitar band or first soft rock band.

History

Baksey Cham Krong was formed in 1959, with Mol Kagnol, his brother Mol Kamach, and Samley Hong. The Mol brothers were from a wealthy family and were able to listen to Western radio stations, becoming influenced by singers Paul Anka and Pat Boone, plus the guitar-driven music of The Ventures and Chuck Berry. Mol Kagnol, 14 years old at the time and nicknamed "Uncle Solo," played lead guitar while Kamach performed vocals. They likened themselves to Cliff Richard and The Shadows, and modeled their stage presence after Richard's 1961 movie '' The Young Ones''. They gained popularity in Cambodia, but due to their parents' disapproval, along with the unlikelihood of turning music into a viable career, the group broke up in 1966. Mol Kamach went to college to study

finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

, and Mol Kagnol went on to study engineering. Kagnol joined the military and was training in the United States when the

took power in 1975, killing at least 20 of the Mol brothers' family members during the ensuing

Cambodian genocide The Cambodian genocide ( km, របបប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍នៅកម្ពុជា) was the systematic persecution and killing of Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Communist Party of Kampuchea genera ...

. All members of the band are still alive. The band was featured in the 2015 documentary film ''

Don't Think I've Forgotten ''Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll'' is a 2014 documentary film, directed by John Pirozzi, about Cambodian rock music in the 1960s and 1970s, before the Khmer Rouge regime and Cambodian genocide. Production The idea fo ...

''. In an interview with Mol Kagnol, he said that he remembers his brother attracting a lot of girls, and that he attracted a lot of boys who wanted to learn to play guitar. According to ''Folio Weekly'', the band "created a tsunami of guitar bands that played everything from hot-rod rock to go-go." Baksey Cham Krong's music exerted a wide influence on the Cambodian rock and pop scene, while older singers like

Sinn Sisamouth Sinn Sisamouth; (c. 1932 – c. 1976) was a Cambodian singer-songwriter active from the 1950s to the 1970s. Widely considered the "King of Khmer Music", Sisamouth, along with Ros Serey Sothea, Pen Ran, Mao Sareth, and other Cambodian artist ...

were inspired by the band's popularity to add rock songs to their repertoires. The band reunited for a performance in New York City in 2015, with another pre-Khmer Rouge rock band, Drakkar, which cites Baksey Cham Krong as one of its influences.

References

External links

*{{discogs artist, 4381635-Baksey-Cham-Krong, Baksey Cham Krong Cambodian rock music groups