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Nissim--Featured Band
from Nepal |
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Interview
with Chandra (Lead Guitarist) of Nissim |
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So what does
Nissim mean, and why was it chosen as the name?
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Can you
give a brief introduction on your other members and what else
do you guys do besides music?
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Currently,
three of us are engaged in this project. Niraj is
behind the vocals and guitars, Rajen plays drums and
I (Chandra) play guitars. Niraj and I were involved
in recording the first album. We do most of the compositions
and lyrics. Rajen has been with us for the past 5 months
when we started practicing as a band.
Yes, all of us have full time jobs. Niraj is a MBBS
doctor by profession and you know how it is like. It
was really hard to find time while recording. Fortunately,
he is quite good in his vocals. He came in, sang the song
(4-5 times) and then that was the final take. One of the
songs was recorded in one go, believe it or not. Let’s see
what our audience has to say. Rajen owns a finance
company and he works full time there. I
(Chandra) operate a web/multimedia outsourcing company
(DMS, http://www.digital.com.np) and we are working
towards making this one of the best companies in the
outsourcing world, and not just in Nepal.
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How did you
guys get involved into music?
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Chandra:
I always enjoyed creating things. Music, like art, involves
creating something out of nothing. That is what I like. I
learned guitar when I was in school and soon was writing
songs. It was quite popular and I was proud of creating
something original back then. Encouragement from friends
also helped me get involved in music after that.
Niraj: I love music as it has the ability to
relax my mind. I like to get out of the busy world and enjoy
the music at times.
Rajen: Mainly interest in music. I feel that
without beats, no song is complete. That's why I am doing the
beats.
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How would
you define your music?
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We would,
ideally, not want to categorize our music as one because as
the name of the band suggests, music is boundless. Our songs
range from sentimental to grunge. It all depends upon the
mood at the time of composition. But, overall, we would like
to be called a rock band.
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Do you guys
compose your music?
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Most of the
time, its the music first. We get this nice little pattern
and try to work on it. Once that is finalized, we sit down
and think of a situation that matches the music and jot down
the lyrics. This is because we are more into music rather
than lyrics. Writing lyrics is quite a tough job. There has
been a lot of 'songs' without lyrics and then forgotten. In
some cases, we have taken the lyrics and then filled the
music. Bhool, written by Ajaya Panday, is one example where
we didn't even change a letter. It fitted so well.
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What's the
biggest challenge you guys have faced so far?
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Marketing
ourselves. It looks like we need to have money to become
popular these days rather than talent. Music has been much
commercialized. You have to 'know someone' on TV to play the
videos, on radio to play the songs and spend your own money
to make videos and release albums. Very few bands, artists
might have been lucky not to do any of these and got
popular.
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How is the
music scene in Nepal? You know these days media plays a
vital role. Can you share some of the pros and cons of
it--based on your experience..
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Music is
growing and overall scene looks really promising. But it has
been infected with remixes these days. May be it’s the
demand but we get to hear very few originals. This has been
like a brand - every new artist should have at least one
'remix' in his/her album to become popular.
Yes, media does play a vital role. The number of songs
played on air defines how popular your song is. We are not
sure of the politics behind it but we have seen many songs
(even not qualified as a good song) being a 'hit' because of
such plays. And as some say, if we look at history, every
popular artist has a VJ or RJ associated with him. That
looks so true.
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Is it hard
to record in studios? Are you satisfied with your work?
Where was the recording done?
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Last time we
recorded a song in 2001, it took a month to complete it. We
had a very bad experience back then. Sometimes the recordist was not there, sometimes arranger, sometimes there was
no electricity, and it was frustrating. We had to wait and
wait and wait and even after a month, the song didn't come
out as we anticipated.
This time around, we didn't want to take any chances. We had
very little time to spare too. We recorded all the
instruments ourselves at home, took that in studio to record
vocals, bass and do the mix. We, basically, experimented on
our own. At this point of time, we do feel that we could
have done better in some of the songs.
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How hard is
it to release an album?
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What do you
think has improved in Nepali music?
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What do you
think is lacking in music in Nepal?
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You have
decided to distribute your music for free...Why is that?
Recently Radiohead also offered their music to their fans at
their own wish...
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That is a
good question. We have been discussing possible ways to
channel out our songs to the listeners and have tried quite
a bit to do so. This is what we concluded at the end.
Artists do all the hard work, compose music, spend money to
record the songs, spend money to make a video. By any
chance, if companies decide to release the album, artists
are paid very little royalty. Music companies enjoy the
major portion of the sales. This doesn’t make sense at all.
On the other hand, listeners are also paying to buy those
albums.
If we are to spend money for the music companies to enjoy
profit why take that path? We thought we would better give
it directly to the listeners and for free. Eventually, they
will also be able to listen to us for free. The world is
getting rid of the 'in-betweens' these days and everything
is coming for free. Internet has been a very good means of
communication and we believe it is the future. We want to
communicate directly with our listeners and this is just a
start! It’s a completely new marketing strategy.
Radiohead is a big band. The strategy they took might
actually give them more than what they get through the music
companies. Who knows, it might well be a surprise to the
music world.
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Your
message to others...
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Future
projects...
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We are working
to finalize few songs for the next album. We are already in
the mid way. And we have learned a lot during this period.
We hope that the upcoming songs will be better than the ones
we have. We are also working to get things sorted out for a
music video. And of course, we need to hit the market!
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