There’s a new hiphop outfit becoming visible on the horizon, steaming out of the LOLA Music Lounge Thursday night open mic with speed and intent, led by MC Initial G (Hypnotic Fist Technique, Funan Beat Empire). Seeing Genjutsu coming, LengPleng sat down with G at LOLA to talk band-making, the local scene and entry fees.
“I’m still fresh to the game,” G notes. “2016 was the first time I ever attempted to perform music professionally, so really I’ve had a five-year long career to this point, if you deduct two from the COVID lockdown periods. I’ve previously been involved in all-original acts, back when they were less popular – these days original music is very much in vogue.
“Now I’ve been challenged by people saying that I can only do original acts, that I don’t have the capacity to do covers – I was shocked. But I can see what they mean, I guess, particularly because of the contrast between myself and my co-MC in Hypnotic Fist Technique, Mike Dynamo, who indulged in extremely successful cover bands like 99 Boyz. So part of this is wanting to stick my finger back at that attitude. This is definitely an I’ll-prove-you-wrong project, addressing a lot of challenges made to me in the past.”
This time he wants to do it the other way around. “I want Genjutsu to transition into an originals band. But first I want us to build a loyal fan base and a proper crowd, playing covers that aren’t necessarily sing-alongs, but have a pop culture reference point.”
COVID changed the landscape for live music everywhere, and for many the time off was channeled into personal and musical development. G says: “I improved my skills in different areas under the hip hop umbrella. I had a great mentor in DJ Niko Yu who took me from a local level to an international MC level. When I was ready, I was able to create an outfit from scratch, get it off the ground as fast as possible, and to make a name for ourselves.”
Genjutsu: drums, bass, guitar and… two MCs. “Drummer Matt Haxx and bassist Tom Dallan – they’re both from Canada and they work so well together, and are involved in other projects together as well. Out of the blue from the LOLA open mic one night came Wafi, a French Algerian multi-instrumentalist, and pretty much straight away he was on guitar.
“At first I was trying to make a band that escaped from the either-expat-or-Khmer line-up, making a bit of a mix. In the end the only Khmer member is my co-MC Sk1lz. We are both MCs who grew up in Cambodia, where English is not our first language, but that is the language we basically want to perform in. So I am ideally placed to mentor Sk1lz. Obviously he’ll have the natural benefits of being Cambodian, he’ll be able to open up avenues and work with a range of people.
“Sk1lz is in the process of learning a lot of stage work, because he’s predominantly a recording artist, and there’s also the factor that Cambodians tend to remain reserved on stage, and they are expected to replicate whatever they have done in the recording studio. And I’m trying to add other non-cultural elements like dynamism and being arrogant and crowd reading and all these kinds of things, that only somebody who’s been baptised by fire like me would know about. Eventually I hope for him to either replace me as the band leader or go on to form his own project, ideally with other Cambodian artists.
“I can see that there’s a rising phenomenon that the general scene and sponsors are ignoring, that up and coming young Khmer artists don’t have to stick to Khmer to express themselves. And these kids, they’re making westernised music, singing in English in international genres like rock, metal, hiphop, even pop – you’ll be able to reach the widest audience if you just use the international language of English.
G performing with Hypnotic Fist Technique
The story has written itself so well so far, G says. “Never have I experienced such harmony between a group of band members in the early stages. We all make allowances for each other, we try to move on with support rather than calling each other out, something I haven’t seen in my previous bands.”
And the harmony is shown up by the band being a quick study outfit. “Between starting practicing and the gig on 6 July it will be a total time of about a month and a half, learning 20 plus songs.” And who chooses the songs? “When I first proposed the project each of them had their own idea about which songs we should do, but I was kind of strict about the first setlist. I spent the better part of two years touring with Niko Yu, a fantastic selector of a DJ, and I learned a lot just from observing his process of selecting songs, and how he directs the show. So the setlist is mine, and it’s a proof of concept that we will see unfold at the first gig.”
G is also an advocate for entry charges for shows in Phnom Penh, for the benefit of both bands and venues. In the past he ran a series of Pay the Piper shows to try to encourage crowds to pay for the privilege of seeing quality bands. “I’m quite outspoken both in Facebook and other interactions about the need to respect the balance between acts being suitably paid and venues doing suitably well, in order to keep the live music scene sustainable.” As part of the Genjutsu genesis, G has partnered with Live by Wonderpass, a mobile app that handles ticketing and point of entry. “They’re already doing shows for small ticket venues in town, and this is working really well in Thailand and Vietnam, where audiences are more comfortable with ticketed events, and everybody automatically comes with the assumption that they’re going to pay.
“If it does end up being a success it’ll speak volumes about how artists can temper their expectations of what they need to be paid for their art, and the financial ability of venues and venue owners to be able to sustainably have bands of a high calibre play at their venue without them taking a loss every single time.”
One last thing – the name? “Genjutsu is Japanese word for magic, with a close variant genjitsu that translates to reality; essentially Genjutsu, in its quantum state, is either absolute reality or the warping of the perception of that reality. Also, in the fictional world of renowned Japanese manga/anime Naruto, it means “Illusionary Technique”
LOLA will remove the furniture for the night to create space for standing room. Pay yer five bucks and cram in for a night of hiphop on Saturday 6 July.
