It’s a big day out in Siem Reap on Saturday with 60 Road Fest, featuring Johatsu, Checkered Past, Scapegoat Candy, Seng Heang and Kampot Playboys. LengPleng had a chat with Scapegoat Candy lead singer Dean Wolf Bailey who has flown in from the UK to play the festival and a couple of extra gigs with the band.
So you’ve come all this way for a handful of performances?
“I absolutely love Scapegoat Candy, it’s the best band I’ve ever been in by a mile. I cannot believe I’m in the band. We wrote the songs we wrote because we needed something to do during COVID – it just clicked. So I’ll always be coming back to play with them, it’s such a joy. I count the weeks until I can get back on stage with them.
“We got together last night and played a little impromptu thing at Mex’d Up, ran through some of the new material. We’ll be releasing stuff this year, so it’s very much alive even though I’m not based here anymore. Rod and I stay in touch and shuffle ideas back and forth. It’s like a Metallica with no money.”
What are some of your key influences?
The Stone Roses, The Smiths, Oasis, all that stuff. When I was a kid I would listen to NWA, Ice Cube, I used to love all that, and there’s a bit of rap involved in Scapegoat Candy. Oasis was my generation, it just blew us away. I liked Guns’n’Roses as well. I remember watching a video of them playing a concert in Paris and that was the first time I ever thought, you know what, I wouldn’t mind doing something like that.
“And I love sixties music. One thing that I loved about Siem Reap when I first moved here – it was like what I imagined it would be like to be living in the sixties. The vibe of it, and how everyone was so free. I absolutely fell in love with the city, and there’ll always be a part of me here. Look at Scapegoat Candy, the bass player is Russian, the drummer is Mexican, the guitarist Filipino, and me from the UK – you couldn’t have a more eclectic band, four different continents in one band. And when we’re together something magic happens, it just works.”
And this is obviously not your first 60 Road Fest?
“It’s a great festival, we’ve played before. I look forward to the mobile pizza guy they have. And we’re really good friends with the Kampot Playboys who are on the bill as well. It’ll be great to catch up with everybody. I’ve looking forward to it for months. It’s been an amazing night every single time I’ve been.”
And we can look forward to more Scapegoat Candy releases soon?
“This year we’re focusing on releasing the material we’ve recorded that is waiting to be mixed. The guy who is mixing it, John Simm, plays in Blossoms, and he’s been out on tour with them, after they really blew up. He’s done a lot of mixing for us, he gets our sound.”
Hear the live sound of Scapegoat Candy at 60 Road Fest on Saturday, then at Laundry on Sunday evening.
