Sinn Sisamouth: History Continues

Samouth was generally considered to be a very serious person.  He neither spoke nor joked around needlessly.  He behaved in this serious manner with his wife, with friends and with strangers.  When he spoke, he spoke about business.  His friends at the beginning of his career were songwriters such as Mao Saret, Seang Dee, and Sous Mat.  His closest friends were Mae Bunn, in whom Samouth had the utmost trust, and Siv Sunn, who was often described as Samouth’s shadow.  Siv Sunn was not an artist; he was more or less Samouth’s personal assistant, taking care of all his administrative needs.

Sinn Sisamouth was a person with a firm personality who was known to be very serious about his work.  Kruoch Polin, a publisher of song and music books, stated that Samouth was a person who kept his word - he would always deliver on a promise.  At home, Samouth was known to be a quiet man.  Some people observed that sometimes he would not speak more than ten words in an entire day.  Often, Samouth would lock himself in his room and dedicate his time to writing songs.

 However, Sisamouth was married twice.  After finishing medical school, he married his cousin, Keo Thorng Gnut, through the arrangement of their parents and elders.  This union produced four children - a daughter and three sons.  One of these sons would later be killed during the Khmer Rouge time.

While Sisamouth's wife was a loving woman, the marriage would not last.  Due to his fame, Sinn Sisamouth's private life was now public knowledge.  The demands of his career, and the often gossiped about temptations that his voice attracted, were too much for his wife to take.  One of their sons, Sinn Chaya, would later comment that no woman in this world could stand the situation, and neither could his mother.  At the age of 30, Keo Thorng Gnut left her husband to become a nun.

 Overall however, he lived a fairly simple life and committed a lot of time and effort into his work.  Since his hard work and vast musical talents only enabled him to earn a moderate income, Samouth forbade his children from becoming musicians.  He explained to his son Chaya that the singing profession was not valued; and, even though his children had shown signs of talent in the field, Samouth never encouraged, much less taught his children about the art of music and singing.

Sinn Sisamouth's personal interests included cock-fighting, so much so that he himself raised fighting birds.  In his spare time, he would play betting games with some of his friends.  He also exercised regularly, lifting weights every morning.  His other interests included reading books at the library and watching French movies at the Luch or Prom Bayon movie theater.

Samouth was not a picky eater.  He generally preferred to eat Lao food, the food his mother had made him when he was a boy. When he ate Khmer food, he liked to eat Pror-huk and Phork Tpul Trey.  Under no circumstances did he drink wine or soft drinks, eat chili peppers, or smoke cigarettes - he believe all could damage his voice.
ythms to songs he was thinking of composing, and only later would he write the lyrics to match these rhythms.  His songs were usually of a sentimental nature, presenting in musical form the longings, pains and pleasures of romantic endeavors.  His genius for words enabled his lyrics to arouse the emotions of all those who listened to his songs.

Samouth’s talent in writing lyrics was a result of hard work as well as natural genius. He was known to have utilized up to three different dictionaries in searching for just the right word in the Khmer, Sanskrit or Pali languages to include in his songs.  If a certain part of a song did not feel right to him, he would consult his dictionaries to find words which would better convey the precise meaning or feeling he wanted to communicate.