Myanmar group rocks US fans during South by Southwest

AFP | 2014-3-16 18:33:01
By AFP






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While their first album was almost scuttled by US sanctions, Myanmar rockers Side Effect have played the gig of their dreams in America aided by fans from around the world.

Facing everything from censored lyrics to tight restrictions on live gigs under the former junta, the band became the first from Myanmar to play the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas since their isolated country opened up following decades of military dictatorship.

"There's so much love in the air. I think because of the music, you know - all the people are here because they love music," said lead singer and guitarist Darko C, just before playing to a packed Austin bar late Thursday.

The indie rock band sings in both English and Burmese. Darko is joined by Eaid Dhi on guitar, Hein Lwin on bass and Tser Htoo on drums.

After building a modest but energetic international fanbase helped by social media and their popularity on the Yangon expat scene, the four-member band launched a crowd-funding drive on the PledgeMusic website.

"Money is a major problem because we don't have any," said Darko, who runs a small tailor shop to make a living and cites the late Kurt Cobain of grunge rock legends Nirvana as his musical hero.

The rockers raised $8,200 online - 67 percent of their target - with another $2,000 from a Yangon fund-raising concert. Since they were still short of the total needed for the ambitious trip they ended up having to borrow the rest.

Their fund-raising achievement is a huge win after a major disappointment two years ago when their efforts to produce a debut album was thwarted.

At the time, they had raised nearly $3,000 through US-based fund-raising website IndieGoGo.

But when it came to paying out the funds, the crowd-funding site feared that transferring the money from the US to the band in Myanmar would breach US sanctions, and so the whole thing was cancelled.

AFP

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