Hugo St Leger. A young English musician, now a keen jam and open mic attender (and host, at The Box Office on Wednesdays) in Phnom Penh, Hugo (guitar and drums) brings a full band to the stage, But Of Course, at Oscar’s on the Corner on Saturday night. The big question is, which of his oddly shaped guitars will he be playing, the Explorer or the Flying V?
A pet musical hate:
I have a few, but my stand-out one would be when someone on stage at an open mic or a jam night starts playing a song that nobody knows without any explanation for the band.
A private musical indulgence:
At the moment it would be a mixture of 90s acid house and some of the 2014-ish style dance hip hop – not really my cup of tea usually, but some of it has quite a fast drum beat and they use similar chords to the rock’n’roll stuff that I like, and at that time my mum was really sick and I found solace in that music.
The year you first came to Cambodia:
2019. My dad lives here in Phnom Penh, and had told me of his friends in China and Vietnam that would occasionally be looking for an intern. In the middle of my final exams dad woke me up at 7 am saying do you want to come to Cambodia for an internship? Yes! I’d never come to visit him out here, and the way he had described it to me was how it was in the 90s when he arrived, so I prepared myself to be thrown into the wild, wild west. And then: wow.
An early music memory:
When my dad lived in London, from when I was around six to 12 years old, he’d come and pick me up on the weekends to spend a couple of days, and he made his own CDs, called Heavy 1, Heavy 2, Heavy 3, Heavy 4 and Heavy 5. The first one was entirely AC/DC, and the rest was a myriad of different genres of rock from the Sex Pistols to the Kinks to Nirvana to Deep Purple. So I remember sitting in the car on the way down to London, blasting the music. It’s a long way to the top… That was what set me on the path of rock’n’roll, really.
The last thing you had to eat:
I had a beef Sunday roast at The Box Office with extra gravy and two Yorkshire puddings. A lunch for champions.
What you do on a night off:
I usually will cook myself a nice meal of pasta and pesto with chicken, or something to that kind of simple taste. Turn the fan on and watch YouTube, or do a bit of Xbox gaming. Play a bit of guitar. I’m a big fan of being cosy, and it really gives me that cosy feeling, relaxing at home.
A country you want to visit:
I thought about this one long and hard. I think the Philippines, but it’s very hard to narrow it down to one. I’d like to visit each continent.
A book or movie you keep going back to:
The Hateful Eight, the first Tarantino film that I ever watched. I was astonished. Within a week I’d watched most of the rest of his movies. It’s not hailed as one of his best, because it’s so long and based so much on weird characters in a small space, but I really love way he created and managed the characters.
What languages can you speak?
English, English and more English. I got a U in one of my Spanish exams – the equivalent of about five out of 100 score. I can do some of the remedial Khmer.
You have a time machine and a magic ticket to one gig or festival in the past. What do you choose?
AC/DC, at Donnington, 1991. That concert video of them playing Thunderstruck and Shoot to Thrill. Chris Slade with two raised big bass drums. That’s the reason I started drumming again. And watching Angus Young – I’ve got to try that. AC/DC is my number one – there was something about that concert where they just had a little bit of extra gain that made it more growly in the tone of the guitars. Or Lynyrd Skynyrd at the Fox Theatre, 1977.
Your primary instrument, and when you started playing it:
My primary instrument is the guitar, and I started playing that three and a half years ago, about April 2017. I bought a £30 SG copy with an amp off eBay, and I just looked up how to play Shoot to Thrill, how to play Back in Black. Drums is a very close second, I started ten years ago in 2010. Many, many, many hours at school, when I had a free period or lunch, headphones on in the drum room.
Something people might be surprised to know about you:
I am part South African. My mother was born and raised in South Africa until she was 13 years old. When she gets angry she has a very clear South African accent. Also my birthday is 03/02/01.
A question from last week’s participant, Jeff Baker: How does it make you feel to read old lyrics you’ve written? Do you feel like you can’t relate to them anymore or do they still feel relevant?
I can sit down with a guitar or a drum set and make up quite a nice riff and connect it together, but I’ve always struggled with lyrics. My favourite lyric of mine is a song called Only So Many Tomorrows, which is still very relevant – I’m a lax guy, I put things off – I’ll do it tomorrow, but there’s only so many tomorrows. “Blindly following what seems nice.” When I’d been playing the guitar for six months and my girlfriend broke up with me I was very sad and I wrote a song. Absolutely terrible!
Originally published 5 November 2020