Laura mam biography

During my time as a performing artist , that would have been unimaginable. Moreover, our Skull Tour tickets also sold out. For the first time, we took a two-hour show to both the provinces and Phnom Penh. During my time, artists would only perform four-song sets. Finally, and most excitingly, we signed deals with Warner Music Group, becoming the first label to sign a major distribution deal.

If you want to be great, you have to bring something beyond yourself and truly shine. Draw from your life experiences. Tell us about Baramey Production. How was it conceived? What are your focuses now? Where do you envision it five years from now?

Laura mam biography

My mom, Thida Buth, and I co-founded Baramey, dedicated to boosting original talent and focused on research and development on legal frameworks. My mom and I shared a dream of fostering and promoting music that truly reflects our Cambodian heritage. This passion was particularly strong for my mom during her years as a refugee in America following the Khmer Rouge regime, where she struggled to find music she could identify with.

Baramey emerged as our gateway to rekindle our cultural identity and reclaim the lost souls of Cambodia. The video had reached 75, views in the course of a single night. The viewers' reactions, the majority of them from the Cambodian diaspora around the world, stunned them. This reaction is due to the destruction of Cambodian art by the Khmer Rouge.

Virtually all of the musicians who survived the purges fled the country and were exiled. Laura and new original artists like her were finding ways around the industry's barriers. These artists used social media platforms such as Facebook and Youtube to circumvent the karaoke production houses and bring the songs they were writing straight to fans.

Moving to Cambodia opened Laura's eyes to what was happening behind the scenes in the country's music industry. In , Laura and her mother founded Baramey Production, [11] their own production company dedicated to boosting original talent. The first group they signed was Kmeng Khmer, which means Khmer youth. Throughout the years, Mam has produced concerts, performed opening acts, and shared the stage with top-tiered international musicians such as Jessie J, Demi Lovato, and Charlie Puth.

She is known for being a member of the Cambodian Original Music Movement and is the founder and CEO of Baramey Productions, which is an artist management and music production company with a shared resource model and a vision to make original music mainstream in Cambodia. They were accepted as political refugees in the United States of America in March Her mother introduced her to the Cambodian community where they taught her The Cambodian language Khmer and the Cambodian performing arts at age 8, which she came to love.

While attending the University of California at Berkeley, she took courses in Khmer language and culture. Mam graduated in with a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Anthropology. Laura had no intention of becoming a pop star. Not only do you have a thousand year rivalry fueled by the wounds of war, but you also have a very recent nationalist rivalry that in some ways is very politicized.

There is a story that my mother always talks about that clearly demonstrates for me the situation on the border. But on the other hand, when my family was being sent off to their death, it was Thai villagers on the border that wrapped up food and supplies for these refugees because they knew what was going to happen to these victims and did what they could to help.

What this tells me is that the border that exists between Thailand and Cambodia is illusion and the problem lies with the Thai government, not the Thai people. Yes we have bad blood between us, however, we are brothers and sisters. We share Buddhism, Sanskrit, a monarchy, and are both still reeling from the effects of post-colonialism.

And to put it in plain words, the border is a line that was drawn to split territory for the French and the English. People need to remember that pre-colonialism, there were no borders, just villages, and a King you paid patronage to. We should also realize that war, especially nationalist war, is the last thing Cambodia needs with Thailand. I just want Khmers to remember that extreme nationalism is one of the reasons the Khmer Rouge were even able to rise to power.

I never want Cambodia to resort to violence again. I think that we have lost enough lives for one century. No matter how deeply our pride has been hurt by the Thais, we should remember that the issues between the two are more political then they are personal. As an artist I want to express this opinion so that people will know how to recognize the difference between these two things.

Buddhism honors compassion above all things. Tharum: How do you like writing your own music? Laura Mam: I love writing my own music and I would encourage everyone to try it. Whenever there is pain, deep or shallow, writing music nurtures me. Each song I write is usually an emotion that I can put away by capturing it in the song. I like to make people laugh and smile, it brings me joy, and through writing music I can control where and when I want people to feel that way.

Tharum: What can help Cambodian artists to be on their own in term of creativity? Laura Mam: A safe space to express themselves. Creativity is often spurred by the chance to perform. I hope that someday there will be an event similar to an open mic. Where artists can come and express themselves in a respectful and safe place and get popular recognition for their art publicly.

It is when artists come together that creativity seems to jump. You learn a lot from being around a lot of different kinds of artists and seeing life as art, it can inspire more creativity than most people know.