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By Brian Meyer<\/em><\/p>\n Today we have an unbelievably remarkable talent to introduce you to. Meet musician Vanthan Ly, 25, from Kompong Chhnang.\u00a0 A musician? In the circus? Believe it. ALL of Phare\u2019s productions are originally scored and accompanied by a live band of musicians!<\/p>\n Instruments Vanthan plays: drums, guitar, bass, piano, saxophone, vocals, traditional Khmer instruments, xylophone\u2026 \u201cpretty much everything,\u201d he and the rest of the cast kept saying. How is this even possible?<\/p>\n Though his father is a music teacher, Vanthan didn\u2019t touch an instrument till he was 8 years old, and it wasn\u2019t until he was 11 that he began practicing in earnest when he started taking classes at our NGO, Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPS). He didn\u2019t care much for singing and other instruments at first as percussion consumed him. He didn\u2019t have the money for a proper set of drums, but he learned to improvise with metal pots and lids. He also got creative building other makeshift instrument including a guitar \u2013 a blackboard with elastic bands strung across it \u2013 and small hand drums \u2013 bottles with ends cut off and stretched over with elastic fabric.<\/p>\n Touring with Phare\u2019s live band when he was just 12, his dream of being a famous musician was born. Vanthan wants to learn to produce his own albums, but needs to better learn the technical side of production first, he says\u2026 This even with having performed and produced 3 full albums that accompany the circus pieces he has been a part of. Talk about a dedicated student!<\/p>\n Who inspires him? Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Santana, Steve Vai, and southern blues in general.<\/p>\n Most difficult part of being a musician? Not having a teacher! Vanthan is a mostly self-taught man, though the internet has been a great help to him, as have the sounds of his heroes. Also, quality instruments are expensive and he isn\u2019t able to afford them.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll end on Vanthan\u2019s favorite song of all those he has written. It is about his mother, and blends real life with fiction, as well as a Khmer cultural tendency\u2026 Follow Vanthan with his new solo career with Baramey Productions<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\t\tMeet the Stars: Musician Vanthan Ly<\/h2>\n
Through PPS, while living in France for one year to study music, Vanthan\u2019s parents separated. At first, he wanted the song to be about family as a whole, but his heart was drawn to write about the need for support of mothers in Cambodia\u2026 he imagined the journey of so many women in his country trying to raise their sons to be strong men, and how they so often do not listen to their mother\u2019s guidance. He wrote into the lyrics that he had returned to Cambodia too late and his mother had died before he could tell her that he had followed through \u2013 that he had worked hard like she had always asked of him. Vanthan said he feels that this is the story of so many young men in Cambodia, and he wants the theme of his lyrics to reach them.<\/p>\n
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