How’d you come up with the band’s name?When (my brother Ethan) was traveling in Cambodia back in the ’90s, his traveling companion came down with Dengue fever, and they were riding in a truck on some really rough roads trying to get him to the hospital. The guy who got fever was sitting up in the front seat of the truck and everybody else was in the back, all wearing helmets and throwing up because it was such a bumpy ride. The music that the driver was playing was music that we are heavily inspired by, which is that late-’60s, early-’70s Cambodian rock ‘n’ roll. He wrote that all down in his sketch book and then when it came time to start the band, he was like, ‘How about Dengue Fever?’

Did you ever go with your brother to Cambodia?Just with the whole band when we filmed the documentary “Sleepwalking Through the Mekong” three years ago. We got our band together because our singer Chhom Nimol hadn’t been home to see her family in five years, so we wanted to document that. And we also wanted to document the Cambodians’ reaction to us Westerners going back there and playing music that was inspired by their music.

What was it like being there?We got to book some time in the recording studio there, and we got to record with traditional Cambodian musicians. There was this one person who plays an instrument called the chapey, which is this long-neck guitar instrument. It kind of got us back in touch with the more traditional elements of Cambodian music.

What appeals to you about ’60s and ’70s Cambodian music?It’s just this bizarre combination of the familiar, which is like California surf music and British garage rock and psychedelic music, and unfamiliar, which is all the Cambodian, Southeast Asian elements they bring to it, like this one technique where they crack their voice into the higher register called ghost voice.

Charitable work has been very important to you.We work with this group called the Cambodian Living Arts. They help underprivileged kids hook up with traditional masters, musicians, dancers and singers for a really solid education with old music and dances which really preserves their culture. Their culture was almost wiped out during the mid-’70s. They were pretty much killing off all the artists and all the educated people. So a lot of the instruments, only about two or three people play them still, so it’s really important they keep it alive.

Dengue Fever will play on May 21 at the Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western Ave, Chicago.