Back in February 2020, just before the world lurched into a temporary new mode, 60 Road Studios in Siem Reap held a concert for their 5th anniversary, and Ian Croft sat down with LengPleng at the National Museum Café in Phnom Penh to talk history. Three and a half years later it’s time for another big bash, and LengPleng met up again with Ian at the same location, with the addition of engineer/producer Steve Bloxham, to get an update on their activities.
The first question seems to be why now? “We’re calling this our eight and a half year anniversary,” says Ian. “People have been asking for us to put on more shows, particularly Japan Guitar Shop who we’ve been working with, so we said okay, let’s do it. We wanted to get it out of the way ahead of high season, so we made it the Bon Om Touk Festival to coincide with Water Festival. We’re really happy with the line-up. We picked bands that we’ve worked with, and are still working with – Japan Guitar Shop, Kampot Playboys, Joe & the Jumping Jacks, Sam Rocker, alongside Siem Reap bands Jam-Cha and Scapegoat Candy. The one of the headliners Geography of the Moon will be recording with us the week after.”
So it’s a good time for Phnom Penh music fans to visit Siem Reap. “There’s actually quite a lot of music scheduled for November. By coincidence there’s a punk festival at X-Bar the week before (18 November) that we’ll be doing sound for. They’ve got a band flying in from Italy, Slang Poor Kids, and quite a few bands coming up from Phnom Penh. On the weekend itself Joe & the Jumping Jacks are playing the day before at Pomme, and Geography of the Moon are at Laundry.
Vocal tracking for the upcoming Japan Guitar Shop album, May 2023
Photo: supplied
How were the plague years for you? “Interesting. Before the February 20 event there was quite a lot happening in Siem Reap. That January 2021 was one of our best months ever for events, but then everything shut down for the year. It was hard, because some of our clients are international, so they couldn’t come. There was a band from Scotland that cancelled when they put up $5,000 each to come in. So we missed opportunities like that, but at the same time quite a lot of local passion projects came out of the woodwork. We recorded swing covers with an 80 year old American, an EP for a 70 year old Australian – because of the times people decided life is short, I’m going to do this now because there’s nothing else to do. We weren’t closed by any means.
“To keep ourselves busy we also did the Live at 60 Road Studio series of livestreams, with Sam Rocker, Kampot Playboys, Dean Bailey, and Miss Sarawan – new technical challenges to distract ourselves from the world around us.”
“We also recorded Siem Reap acts like Scapegoat Candy and Dean Bailey’s solo songs,” adds Steve, “And we’ve recently started recording originals with Jam-Cha!.”
Ricky Haldeman recording with Japan Guitar Shop in May 2023
Photo: supplied
There was also the opportunity to refit the studio. “The technology has moved on, and we needed to move with it,” says Steve. “Two kilometres of copper cable came out, three Cat 6 cables go in, a new desk, a faster computer, that sort of stuff.”
“We’ve got new headphone mix stations,” says Ian, “So musicians can control how much bass or drums or whatever they want while recording. It’s important that players can hear themselves well. And the new desk makes the workflow more efficient as well.”
Other recording activity at 60 Road this year has included the rock’n’roll of the Joe & the Jumping Jacks’ Best Damn Bar EP and the country pop of Aunty Cathy and Me by the Coz Collective to be released next week.
Besides the big show, what’s hot at 60 Road at present? “For the last two months we’ve been very focused on helping Japan Guitar Shop finish their album. While recording they’ve played a few times in Siem Reap, and they have a strong following already. We’re quite excited about their new album, there’s been a lot of work put into that, including musicians from Siem Reap and around the world adding things. It’s going through the mastering process now and will be released early next year.”
The Bon Om Touk Festival will be held at 60 Road Studios on 25 November.
