Phnom Penh thrusts forward a good half dozen bands a year, but not many that last beyond a few years, especially in recent times. One band in particular has defied that trend, and done it with remarkably little turnover in membership, is metal band Nightmare AD, formed and consistently playing and recording since 2014. This Saturday they play a special Halloween show at Cloud, featuring their original line-up, including drummer Todd Bazley who is here for a very short visit. LengPleng sat down with founder, writer, vocalist and guitarist Mia Priest this week to talk ten years of metal in Cambodia.
Ten years is a long time for a single band to be active here.
Yep. I started the band in 2014 when I first moved here– we started off as a Misfits cover band, with Gem Habito on bass, Todd Bazley on drums, Kandhiban Letchumanan on lead guitar and me on rhythm/lead guitar and vocals. Todd and I were interested in going towards a more metal direction and doing original music rather than covers. Gem had other plans and went off to form his own band Simoun; Kandhiban was unwell, so he went back to live in Singapore at around the same time. That’s when Genesis Trias joined on bass – I had seen him playing in The Adobo Conspiracy in the past, and he’s got a great attitude and brought a lot of positive energy into the band.
We started on that musical path and played in a number of shows around Phnom Penh, before getting an offer to play at Show Box with our friends in Doch Chkae and touring bands Nervo Chaos (Brazil) and Sete Star Sept (Japan), a gig that Ned Kelly organised. We wanted to expand our line-up to get a heavier sound, and Ned ended up joining the band on bass and Genesis switched from bass to rhythm guitar. We had a deal with local label/collective Yab Moung Records and recorded our first EP “Corruptors” at their studio in Kandal Province in 2016.
We ended up playing many festivals (Golden Street Festival, Kampot Readers and Writers Fest, etc.) and shows after the launch of the EP, including venturing across the border into Vietnam and playing in Saigon and Hanoi. We wanted to expand our sound further for the 2nd EP we were working on, and got Jon Banules (keys) into the band to see what we could do. “Phantoms of Our Ruin” was released in 2018 under Tenzenmen/Terr-Records, consisting of 6 tracks which we recorded at Links Music Studio and at the home studio of Alex Khalchenia, who mixed and mastered for bands under local Rock label Seila Records. We had short-lived members of the band like Ollie Turay (lead guitar) and Aaron Pramuk (bass) during some shifts in our line-up that unfortunately didn’t work out but we’re all still on good terms with them.
Our current line-up consists of Vivian Chaizemartin on drums, Ned on bass, Jon on keys and me on lead/rhythm guitar and vocals.
So not a lot of change in membership over the years?
It’s harder to find musicians who are familiar with more extreme styles of music, at least here in Cambodia. Metal itself is a tribe, a complete culture on its own. When someone joins the band, it is imperative that they do listen to subgenres of Metal and Punk, like Thrash, Death and Black Metal to Crust and Hardcore. The second most important thing is their attitude, whether they are willing to learn and committed to making this kind of music. You have to be part of our tribe to be part of the band – I could get great musicians but if they don’t vibe with us, there’s really no point as it compromises the feel of the music
What do you see in the future for Nightmare A.D.?
We’re currently working on our debut full-length album, which will hopefully be coming out by the end of this year. It’s a new direction, and we’re incorporating more Black Metal and Melodic Death Metal elements into our music along with a more defined use of synths- we want to make an album that people can be immersed in and not just mosh and headbang to. It’s more melodic and fleshed out compared to our previous EPs, and we’ll be recording in a studio here in Phnom Penh that specialises in movie soundtracks. Our goal is to essentially create a Metal soundtrack to classic sci-fi dystopian films like Bladerunner and The Terminator. Once it’s released, we would ideally like to tour both regionally and internationally, dates of which will possibly include Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and hopefully a couple of dates in Australia. We also would like to play more festivals wherever and whenever we can.
Nightmare A.D. also has the secret weapon of having a graphic designer in the band, yourself, given the importance of the look of logos, album cover design and other merchandise.
I am pleased to say that our music and merchandise generally sells really well. We’ve sold out of all our CD, tape and patch releases except for this current merch run consisting of our 10th Anniversary t-shirt and embroidered logo baseball cap. This 10th Anniversary design is the 5th design that I’ve done for the band, and we’re really happy with how it all turned out too. Shout-out to Coola Products for consistently delivering such killer quality on our merch.
So the big question – which comes first, the music or the words?
The music always comes first. Composing is therapeutic for me; I vent my stresses, emotions and disorders through music, and I do get authoritative with my vision of how the song should sound like and generally work with my bandmates to ensure that this vision is achieved. To me, the music is the anchor, and the words are like the sails on a ship.
But your words are not throw-away, are they, they actually have something to say?
I think that my lyrics convey urgent expressions of emotion, as well as accentuating the music through the use of phrasing and syncopation. The goal is to evoke strong feelings from the listener. “Corruptors” had songs with titles such as Poverty Chasm and Dissent Surge – living here in Phnom Penh you see many incidences of abject poverty, symptomatic of how society has developed post-Khmer Rouge: a lack of proper infrastructure, a ramshackle city of stark contrasts, where you have these modern skyscrapers right next to destitute slums. You can understand poverty intellectually, but it’s different when you’re confronted and interacting with it every day on so many levels.
I wrote a lot about that subject matter for “Corruptors”, being more metaphorical than specific. All those songs were written between 2015 and 2016 and were a literary channel for me to vent all these frustrations. At the same time, I wanted to make something musically raw and visceral, something compelling to shine a light on the reality of politics and society in general.
In a band, it’s important to find your true voice. The first version of the band found a voice of sorts on “Corruptors”, evolving on “Phantoms of Our Ruin” which was musically and lyrically different: delving into more introspective territory lyrically and incorporating aspects of synth wave and other subgenres of Metal musically. This upcoming album is a continuation of that evolution, honing in on our strengths and vision.
Tell us about Saturday night.
The upcoming show is a special occasion and it’s not just Halloween: we’ve got Todd and Genesis from our first solidified line-up coming back to play through our first EP “Corruptors” for a one-off show this Saturday to celebrate 10 years of being together as a band. It’ll be a short set, but an intense one. We’re really happy to be playing this show with our friends in After God and Reign in Slumber, and all of our bands will have merch available for sale. Do support the local scene in order to help it to grow and become a viable outlet for upcoming Metal and Punk musicians here in Cambodia. Special Thanks to Alain and Pierre of Cloud for inviting us to play once again, Scoddy and Lengpleng for this interview and everyone who has supported us through the years.
Nightmare AD play Cloud on Saturday night with After God and Reign in Slumber
