The brothers formed Dengue Fever in 2001 to perform songs recorded by Cambodian artists like Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Serey Sothea, Pen Ran, and others, most of whom died or disappeared during the Khmer Rouge regime.

[3] The band first recruited bassist Senon Williams (also a member of Radar Bros. until 2009), former Beck saxophonist/flutist David Rallicke, and drummer Paul Smith.

[4] The band then decided to add a vocalist who could sing the Khmer lyrics of the Cambodian songs they hoped to play, and auditioned singers in the Little Phnom Penh area of Long Beach.

[13] Peter Gabriel, founder of their new label, said of the deal, "We have Dengue Fever coming out on Real World Records (outside of the USA) - it’s really cool stuff, with the small Cambodian singer and big American guys behind!

[16] Their fifth full-length album, The Deepest Lake, was released in 2015 and was noted for expanding the band's sound even further into girl group pop, surf music, jazz, African rhythms, and other styles while retaining its roots in Cambodian psychedelic rock.

[18] In 2018, Dengue Fever contributed several songs to the theater production Cambodian Rock Band by Lauren Yee, a play about a young Cambodian-American whose father was a musician persecuted by the Khmer Rouge.