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EVENTS
Drummer boy: Hidden talent in Kathmandu.
My first impression of Nepal was not a favourable one. Tearing through the Himalayas in what felt like a giant tin can with a jet pack strapped to the back, steered by a fearless teenager and crammed with terrified Chinese tourists, I regretfully endured the most traumatic bus journey of my life.
I clung to the vehicle, only opening my eyes long enough to catch a glimpse of another bus, overturned and slid partway down the mountain.
We were travelling from the border of Tibet into Nepal’s capital, a journey that should have taken 4 hours.
There was a strike obstructing the only road from the Tibetan border to the capital. People were paying their respects for people who had died during a collision between a car and a motorbike; in order to pass, we had to walk.
Following some relentless, unsettlingly renegotiable bartering, continuous threats of abandonment, a 9km uphill hike through the mountains in the midday sun with no food or water, two bus rides, a tuktuk, and 12 hours later, barely able to stand with my backpack, we had finally arrived.
I’d never craved a bar, a beer, and a live band so much in my life, and luckily Kathmandu was not short of any of them. My buddy and I, having not managed to crack a smile since we’d stepped foot into the country, performed a 20 minute turn around at the hostel and ambled through the streets of Kathmandu until we found what we were looking for… it didn’t take us long. Every bar we went to was hosting some kind of live music and there was quite the variety.
We had been travelling with a Spanish couple through Tibet and had agreed to meet them for drinks one night in Thamel – a popular and well-known area of the city. We ate, we drank, we reminisced, we laughed and then we drank some more - eventually ending up in a bar called Woodstock; a hippie-rock type bar complete with low-lying sofas, ambience, good vibes and a live band. Spot on. The band was made up of four local lads in their early-mid twenties, and their frontman had an insanely beautiful voice.
It was the drummer who caught my attention however, and I proceeded to swoon while I ordered drinks at the bar.
After their set, we invited them to join us for a drink. Our Spanish companions had ditched us for their hostel beds, but there was no way I was going anywhere yet.
Smiling at the drummer boy as he sat beside me, with a slightly stoned, yet content look on his face, he smiled back and the band introduced themselves. Sagar, my drummer boy, talked to me a little bit about himself while the other boys passed around a naughty cigarette and laughed amongst themselves. They were all surprisingly shy. He told me about his instrument, the cajon box drum, and a bit about his band and the conversation progressed to how his parents had sent him to school in the city while they had remained in his more rural hometown of Pokhara. He’d grown up in a hostel with his classmates and he’d enjoyed it immensely, but not as much as he enjoyed making music.
He was a modest guy, with a modest background, but given the opportunity I predicted that he’d have been a heartthrob in a major band. Hell, I’d have put his picture on my wall for sure. Marvelling over the potentially wasted talent in places such as this, and realised what a gold mine it was for truly dedicated, talented musicians. There were bands in every bar that we ventured into. I hadn’t seen a bad one yet, and we’d saved the best ‘til last.
Keeping in touch with him over the past few months Sagar would tell me about the various bands he was involved in and what he was doing with his time and with his music. A few months ago I received a message from him about his classical Nepali band, Avedhya, making it to the semi finals of Pepsi’s “Voice of Nepal” competition to appear on MTV.
They didn’t win, but they’d gotten pretty damn close. I was delighted for him.
Metal bands heavily influence the music scene in Kathmandu - Slipknot, Rage Against the Machine, and Tool, to name a few. Tool, an American band more prominent in the ‘90s, is just one of the bands that Sagar has covered in a tribute band of his own. His currently unnamed band that I had seen in April last year, are writing their own music, hoping to bring a jazz-funk fusion to the scene. With artists like Bruno Mars bringing back sounds reminiscent of Prince, I’m anticipating a seriously overdue revival of funk, and looking forward to hearing what Sagar’s band come up with to contribute to the movement.
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