Saturday, January 13, 2007

The Shadows Still In A Limbo

Everyone is aware of the fact that the band 'The Shadows' have been changing their members constantly! However, it was just a few months back that they had settled down with new members and this time round everyone of us were pretty sure that they would stick with the lineup. After the changes, they had even toured some parts of Nepal.

It seems that 'The Shadows' have the habit of confusing all of us or is this some kind of a publicity stunt? Information now has it that the previous band members (Amit and Prakash Rasaily. Prakash on lead guitar was first replaced by Regan Tuladhar and then by Sunny Manandhar and Amit on the bass was replaced by Aman Tamrakar) who left the band and went to Australia for further studies have in fact not left the band but is still very much making music together. Prakash who is now is Sydney says, "Though we are abroad, we are still making music and working for the benefit of 'The Shadows'. In fact, Amit (who is now in Melbourne) and I have been composing music for 'The Shadows' upcoming third album”. Amit and I meet occasionally and we have been practicing together for this upcoming album."

For a better insight into the matter, we tried to contact the band manager of 'The Shadows' -- Rupesh Sen. His mobile was switched off and when we tried to contact Swopnil (vocalist), he was not reachable. We shall keep trying though and will definitely update you on further developments.

Mampi Ghosh, The New ‘Pawankali’

'Pawankali' a popular program being broadcast from Katipur Television, has managed to get quite a lot of viewer ship lately, thanks to the new anchor . This program was first hosted by Luniva Tuladhar followed by Tara Kandel and now the Bengali beauty Mampi Ghosh has taken up the mantle of continuing the presentation of this very show.

Mampi replaced Tara as 'Pawankali' since Tara had to quit to pursue her further studies abroad. "When I was offered to do the show at first I hesitated, but later decided that I should give it a shot! Initially, I had a little difficulty in getting the accent as well as the typical attitude of Pawankali right. I watched the earlier episodes continuously for almost two days at a stretch. It was only on the third day that I was all geared up to face the camera as the new Pawankali. Taking up 'Pawankali' was a challenge in itself. Now, that I have started, I am also learning a lot of things everyday! I take comments and suggestions in good stead and I make sure not to repeat my mistakes." She further adds, "It is only natural for people to compare me with the previous Pawankalis and at times this new Pawankali might not have the same effect on people but I promise to work hard and not to disappoint the 'Pawankali' fans and well-wishers in the days to come."

Pawankali aka Mampi Ghosh also works as a radio jockey at Radio Nepal. She has been presenting programs like 'Fool Times', 'Nishana Achuk', 'Gharsangi' and 'Bollywood Express' for quite some time now. She started her career as an anchor at Hits FM where she worked for two years. She then worked at Green Productions and hosted programs for Nepal FM. She also did the show 'Timro Sur Mero Geet' for Nepal Television.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Gyanu Rana’s New Remixed Album!

Prominent adhunik and an accomplished bhajan singer Gyanu Rana who has been in the Music industry for almost 30 years now informs us that she intends to re-mix some of her old numbers and incorporate them in an album titled 'Best of Gyanu Rana'. She says, "There will be altogether eight to ten full fledged re-mixed songs on it and I will be singing all of them! The reason for going ahead with this is I believe one should move according to the times. The work regarding the arrangements and mixing has been taken care of by DJ Santosh and Buddha Sayami. It should be released by February 2007."

As of now, she has completed the recording of "Changba Oi Changba" and "Kasailey Bujhena Mero Mann Ko Bahalai". If you think that the re-mixed version of "Changba Oi Changba" done by DJ Raju is the ultimate and that another re-mix of the same track may not materialize…maybe we are underestimating Gyanu Rana. She opines, quote “the version Mausami did is quite artificially done and the way I have re-done it is far better than that!" Not only this, but she is confident that this album is also going to do wonders in the market commercially. "I have sung around 1200 numbers and I am 100 per cent sure that this album of mine is going to surpass all expectations. I can say this because of my years of experience in the music field."

She also informs that the music video of "Changba Oi Changba" is being worked out and DJ Santosh will be singing along with her as well.

All said and done, she has just completed yet another bhajan album, which is scheduled for release very shortly under the label of Purnima Cassette Centre. Lastly, she shares, "the compositions are all done by me except for two songs, which has been done by Krishna Devi Ranjit and Dhundi Raj Koirala."

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Riff Raff, a new band in nepali music field

Riff Raff (Pravakar on vocals, Keshab Subba on bass guitar, Sharad Thapa on drums, Satyam Rai on lead guitar, Sunil Pradhan on vocals and rhythm guitar and Aseem Lama on keyboard) is a band which was formed in Kurseong sometime during 1997. They had released their critically acclaimed debut album 'Anyolma' some two years back from Indreni Cassette Centre. Now, they are all geared up to take the music industry by storm with their second album -- 'Sammohan'.

They say, "We are in Kathmandu for the final mixing, mastering and to look for a music company who would be interested in releasing our album. The songs on it have flavors of rock pop and were recorded at Antara Recording Studio, Kurseong. One of the songs on it "Ridaya" speaks about Nepal and the rights of the people after loktantra. The rest talk about the environment of Nepal and the present situation here. Three music videos ("Kohilai Rijhauney", "Ridaya Bhari" and "Mero Maya") have already been made." They further inform us, "Initially, we only sang English numbers and slowly changed our track and started singing Nepali numbers as well. We are here to look at a wider market that Nepal can provide and hope for support and exposure in the Music industry of Nepal. We are hopeful that we shall be accepted by people here and we also believe that the media’s help now will go a long way in encouraging other Nepali musicians from across the border to set their foot in doing something worthwhile in the music field."
Well said!

Monday, January 8, 2007

Mausami Gurung Speaks Out

Looks like things are going really great lately for the talented Mausami Gurung who is one of the most sought after female singers in the country today.

Some months back, she had gone on a tour of Australia along with other Nepali artists and it has just been a couple of weeks since she come back after a series of events in the UK. While she was busy performing abroad, some of our readers got back to us saying that "Mausami, instead of singing Nepali songs to Nepali audience abroad sang Hindi Bollywood numbers. Quote, “If we wanted to hear Hindi songs why would we call her here!". We often hear about Nepali artists entertaining their audience with Hindi numbers while touring abroad; not that we want to make an issue out of it. After all, artists are required to entertain the crowd and give them their money’s worth irrespective of what language they sing in. Nevertheless, since it was one of the burning issues plaguing some of our readers, we decided to talk to Mausami herself and get her thoughts on it.

She admits that she did sing a Hindi number ("Dummaru Dum") while she was performing in Australia. She says, "Music is something which is very broad. My opinion is that at the end of the day music is music. It is not something which can be chained by a nationality or language. It is so diverse and everyone should be open about it. I did sing that Hindi song since the audience was asking for more encores from me. I had sung "Changba Oi Changba" a zillion times and I thought they might get bored of it. James Pradhan who was also performing at the same event asked me to go ahead with it and I saw no reason not to. There are people who like me or anyone else for that matter, singing a Hindi number and there are people who don't like it. Now what are we supposed to do? As I said before, music is music and people should be open about it!" It’s loud and clear Maushami! Hope you are reading this from Australia.

Now, that our questions were answered, more so of one of our readers from Australia, we decided to change the subject and ask her about her next project. She says, "Well, I am working on my second album and I have made an effort to make it different from my previous venture 'Unforgettable'. My plan is to release this new album by the end of January. It has different flavors of songs on it starting from Latino to selo, romantic to R&B. I am also doing a duet with Sugam Pokhael. The song is called "Lyauna Ta". This song was incorporated in my first album as well but this time round we have made many changes on it!" Way to go Maushami! Keep it up and good luck with your second album!