Nabin K Bhattarai - Aankhama Timilai

This week I’m listening to Nabin K. Bhattarai’s debut single “Aankhama Timilai”. This song takes me back to my family’s first year in Canada. Tiny 12 year old Astha was navigating her new life, figuring out culture, norms, language, and what being a Nepalese Canadian meant for her going forward. At the time, my family had moved into our first 2 bedroom apartment in North York with my uncle Badri Kaka, who had been in Canada for a few years already.

Mamu was super pregnant with my sano bhai in her belly, and I was entering grade 7. Baba had picked up a series of night shifts, and all of us would cook up daal bhat and momos and wait for him to come home to delicious home cooked meals :). Badri kaka had an Art and Lutherie acoustic guitar, and it was so beautiful sounding. “Someday, I will learn how to play the guitar and become a rock star,", I would tell myself. #bigdreams #littleme

I asked Badri ka to teach me how to play the guitar, and oh boy, he was such a good teacher. “Learn all the basic chords and move down the fretboard with the bar chords, bujhis Sodium?”, he would say. Sodium was Badri kaka’s nickname for me. He was and still continues to pursue his wonderful profession as a chemist. Now, this song is special to me because Badri Kaka was a huge Nabin Bhattarai fan! He would teach me how to play guitar chords to ‘Sanjha Pakha’, and I would listen to him sing all the pop hits from his era as he sipped on a can of chilled, light beer. I have a lot of treasured memories with Badri ka, and truth is, I don’t know if I would learn how to play the guitar if it were not for him.

Fast forward to 2009, Kgarira ko atti awesome dai haru, Dipesh dai and Batta dai had booked me a show in a venue called Lakhey in Durbarmarg. Midsong, I remember looking up at the banisters above, and connecting eyes with a very familiar face wearing his iconic cap🧢. Soon after that, I looked for him to say Namaste, but he was nowhere to be found. He must have ninja’d out of there 🥷🏼. To this day, I have this burning curiosity, was that Nabin dai? If not, there is someone who looks exactly like him somewhere in Kathmandu🕵🏻‍♀️.

#aankhamatimilai #raharairaharma #nabinkbhattarai

Listen to the original here:

John Mayer - Back To You

This week I’m listening to John Mayer’s 1999 debut EP ‘Inside Wants Out’ and damn, this song hits so hard. “Back to you. It always comes around”. I immediately get transported to my 14 year old self, visiting Kathmandu after 2 years of being away, and listening to this album while letting my damp, wavy hair dry in the Kathmandu morning sun. I have so many memories associated with John Mayer’s songs, like jamming out in college with my friend Natalie, who always seemed very impressed that I knew how to play ‘Why Georgia’ on guitar :D. #iwastotallyshowingoff #iwasnothumble

This song in particular reminds me of many late night drives taken down highway 427 as I headed downtown Toronto with AJ (whom a lot of you may know as DJ AJ, a pioneering figure in the early underground Nepali Hiphop scene 👀 #NepHop). We used to blast John Mayer really loud and head to Nepali Dashain parties - where sometimes we got to perform and sometimes we just partied :). Alongside being a talented music producer, AJ’s emotive and philosophical songwriting had a way of tugging at heartstrings. #KahileKahi Strangely, we never really got a chance to write music together. As to why? That will always remain a mystery to me. #itsallabouttiming

Throughout life, I always seemed to find myself in spaces surrounded by musicians who pushed and inspired me to grow musically. So many memories of playing music with AJ, Sash, Ishan, Deep dai, Janmanjay dai, and who can forget Jimmy dai’s iconic music studio in his basement in Mississauga, where all of us were given the opportunity to play and practice. #eternallygrateful #howluckywerewe #jimmydaiyouarethebest #istillhavetopickupmybassampfromyou

John Mayer’s songs are such a joy to play on guitar but they also conjure up many traumatic memories of connecting via dial up internet 🤕 just to visit ultimate-guitar.com haha. If you know, you know lol.

#neon #backtoyou #insidewantsout #johnmayer #songsthatmademe

Listen to the original here:

Robin n' Looza - Nepal

This week I spent hours listening to Robin n’ Looza, who perhaps are one of my favourite Nepali bands of all time. Memories of little Astha listening and singing along to Robin n’ Looza make me so emotional 🕯.

Released in 1998, I had the ‘Nepal’ album on cassette, and I must have listened to each song on the album thousands of times on my Sony Walkman :). My sweet Pooja didi, would send me care packages all the way from Kathmandu to Canada, and the cassettes and CDs she would send over became the foundation of most of my music inspiration in my teenhood, especially once I started writing songs. Over the years, I had collected all three Robin n’ Looza records which I listened to religiously. Robin dai’s presence was mesmerizing #NasaDya , his lyrical phrasing of Nepali words were particularly quirky and Looza’s musical chemistry had sparked a wave of creativity that our generation felt so deeply inspired by.

Pooja didi was the main source of my connection to all the amazing and creative people I would later meet in 2008 including Looza ko dai haru. Robin n’ Looza’s songs are so special to me, especially because I never would have expected in a million years ki, I would grow up to record my debut album “Sabai Thikai Huncha” in their studio Rec Records bhanera 🤯. So many memories of 19 year old me learning about songwriting basics and music business with Rizu dai, recording instruments with Sunit dai, sitting through hours of loadshedding while mixing with Sharad dai, and learning how to play in a trio with Prajol dai…crazy how life works out, hai?

Track 6 on the album, the song ‘Nepal’, is one of my favourites to sing when I’m by myself. I used to plug my mic into my guitar amp, jack up the reverb, and entertain myself for hours with power chords lol (the only chords I knew how to play at the time 😛). The joy of singing for no one but yourself is really something—a part of myself that I have been reconnecting with these days. Sharing my rendition of this beautiful song with you today.

#nepal #robinnlooza #songsthatmademe

Listen to the original here:

 
 

© Astha Music 2023

Cart (0)