We're delighted to be talking about Quentin Conesa, the man who helped launch the famous FT Gallery with his friend Fonki. Today, Quentin is investing in music with the creation of the B-Side label and, more recently, the B-BOX space. We had the chance to meet this passionate man just a few hours after the Rombak Battle, which took place at The Factory Phnom Penh.
Who is Quentin Conesa?
Quite simply, I arrived in Phnom Penh five years ago to open the FT Gallery with Fonki. And from the art gallery was born the Murals for Cambodia street art festival. From the festival came the cohesion with the music. So I got more involved in music and started creating events. For the B-Side label, I teamed up with another Frenchman, Alexandre Barthélemy.
After the street art festival, I started creating music events and signing artists. I was a bit of an events company at the same time, and I was starting to become a label, but I looked after my artists while booking them and creating events.
Local and foreign artists?
Only local artists at first. What I did was book artists from different labels, always in hip-hop, and also independent artists. I also included artists I had signed.
The first year consisted of developing my artists in this way, by giving them work, and finally offering a platform for over a year where we gave everyone a chance. Our priority was to bring hip-hop to the fore, preferably in a live-concert setting. We started inviting hip hop artists from the region, especially Thailand, through a series of events called ‘FLEX, Hip Hop on a rooftop’, where we wanted to create a meeting of cultures with what differentiates and unites them.
Most of this took place in Factory Phnom Penh?
At The Factory and in various bars and rooftops. We also moved around outside Phnom Penh. So the first year was pretty much live and event-based. After that, we took on more of a label role, and that's when we started investing heavily in music videos, bought a studio and started signing more artists.
Tell us about your label
We've developed a slightly family-oriented approach with B-Side, which was officially launched in 2021. So it's still a young label. We manage several artists called 2MDie ,BuuBee-ប៊ូប៊ី , AK-K and SANE. We have also collaborated with a number of other artists and outside producers. We have organised featuring sessions with Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Filipino, French and American artists. The aim of these collaborations is to bring a slightly new, more refreshing sound. We want to position ourselves as a kind of hip-hop that ‘shakes things up’.
Tell us about the birth of B-BOX
Last year, I decided to create a place that really resembled what I wanted to build around that vibe. So that's why we created B-BOX. The other reason was that we'd put on quite a few events in a number of bars and the experience was more or less satisfactory. So we really wanted to do something that felt like us and we opened B-Box a year ago now.
How are the beginnings, are they encouraging?
It's been encouraging. We've brought in several international artists and played to packed houses. We brought in Oxmo Puccino, a performance that was truly an incredible moment where a palpable synergy between the artists and the audience permeated the venue. We also brought in Demi-Portion. They're both international stars and I'm delighted to have managed to convince them to come here. Other international artists have come to discover Cambodia thanks to B-BOX.
We also work with local artists who have something new to offer. We recently had a successful album launch with TEP PISETH, a rising star on the local hip hop scene, who has brought a host of fans back to Cambodia.
Today we have DJ Djel, who is a founding member of the Fonky Family, a monument of hip-hop in France. Plus other international DJs, including Shortkut, a leading figure in US hip hop, Dub Stuy (Brooklyn) and Babyscash from Thailand. We've been following her for two years now. Generally speaking, our shows go down really well. We fill venues and get great feedback.
What are your ambitions for the future?
What I want in the future is to achieve something stable. Maybe monthly or weekly over time. At the moment, B-Box operates during events and as a lounge bar the rest of the week. We don't operate like a nightclub yet, but I'm working on it.
This month, we've scheduled 5 consecutive Saturdays. This Saturday 15, we're having an Afro night, and on the 21st we're having a party with two excellent hip hop DJs, DJ Niko Yu and DJ Illest, owner of the Pontoon, to benefit Tiny Toones, an NGO that uses breakdancing to give an education to young people left to their own devices.
Tell us about the three DJs you brought in for the Rombak Battle
Today's headliner is DJ Djel from Funky Family. It's a huge thing. Hip-hop was born in France, between Paris and Marseille, and Funky Family, along with IAM, were the two major groups that created and established hip-hop in France.
So he's the producer of Funky Family. He's done a lot of collaborations, he's had shoot-outs with the biggest international producers like Timbaland and DJ Khaled, and he's worked with the big, big names in French hip-hop, obviously.
We're also lucky enough to have DJ Tony.S.Kay, a Franco-Khmer, who was the official DJ at the Eiffel Tower for the 2024 Olympics VIP lounges.
Finally, to close the evening, we have DJ Babyscash, who we've been following for a while now, for two years in fact. We were able to bring her over from Chiang Mai in Thailand. She has a slightly more dynamic, electro, younger side. Oh, and tonight we also had my ‘kids’ from B-Side, who came up with a little extra.
How do you see the future?
The future, Inch'Allah! is a bit international. I've just come back from Thailand, and I've met several people who produce festivals, who have labels, who are musicians. So I'm in the process of seeing if I can start exporting B-Side's music in 2025, and also importing music, because I'm in the process of setting up a network of bookers. We already have a sort of associative formula developing between Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, maybe Laos and China. So we're going to have to wait and see where this takes us.
We had an extraordinary experience this winter when we were the only Cambodian representatives at the huge Wonderfruit festival in Thailand. We want to continue to share our music with all these wide audiences.
Last question: do we need more labels?
I think we always need more. We always need more music, we always need more art. We always need more creativity, more food, more happiness. Personally, I'm delighted to see people bringing something to the scene. In fact, I'd like to see more live music, more instrumentalists, I'd like to see a beautiful resurgence of traditional instruments, revisited. I'd like to see jazz, I'd like to see rock. Frankly, that's what's missing.
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