Nominated: Best Music Video song, “Kathmandu Raajdhani”, Audience Choice Category at the Channel Nepal Music Video Award in 2004. Mero Priyasi (My Love): This is my third album and my third collaboration with veteran Guitarist Kishor Gurung. Recorded in 2002 and released in 2003 this album has 8 personal songs. 6 out of the 8 songs are written by me and 7 of them are composed by me. Lot of work was put into this album, obsessive writing and composing was involved to create this style of songs. Here are the songs: “Manka Kura”, written & composed 2000. A number suited very much for romance, this song is about falling in love, being with someone, dreaming about her, wanting to share and know everything about this beautiful person close by and under the Stars. A very catchy tune with a Carribean style beat to it. “Shun Shan Raat Ma”, written & composed 2000. This song is about romance and it further extends to having sex with the romantic partner in a peaceful quiet night, under the Moon and the Stars. I always wanted to write songs on this theme but never got around to it until now. There have been a lot of songs regarding love however, a romantic song with sexual desires or words to that effect seldom come about. There are a lot of subjects to write about and I do try writing in other themes but I had never written about a relationship like this, so a first of its kind for me. I like the bass line and also the punch that the music overall has in this song. “Kathmandu Rajdhani”, written & composed 1999. This song was inspired by Kathmandu’s deteriorating environment. The smog, the foul smell from the dried out once a beautiful river Bagmati, heaps of garbage everywhere, plastics from all over the world scattered around the streets of Kathmandu, open drainage and sewer. The song basically talks about the deteriorating environment and pollution that has affected not only the children and other living souls but also the temples and other beautiful monuments in and around Kathmandu. At the end it talks about how we can rebuild and improve the environment of Kathmandu. This beautiful city which is in the heart and soul of everyone and so dearly loved by everyone can be beautiful again if we give it some time and effort towards cleaning up. This song is to bring awareness about our environment to the nation as a whole. I also made a music video of this song to make it more effective and influential. Music Video: some of the shots were taken from the top of Dharahara*, 1st of its kind, filming was never allowed from the top. The director of this Music Video Brazesh Khanal wanted to capture some of the beautiful view of Kathmandu from the top. We had to seek permission from the Mayor at the time Mr. Keshav Sthapit personally in order to do the filming from the top. It was nominated for best video in the Audience Choice Category at the Channel Nepal Music Video Award in 2004. *Dharahara: A 9 story watch tower built by Bhim Shen Thapa in the 18 hundreds lies in the heart of the city. “Din Dhalda Cha ”, written and composed 2001. I imagine a lot and this is my imagination about this beautiful person. It’s about wanting to be in love and thinking about her all the time. Imagining beautiful things about her and how she inspires and influences me every step of the way and hoping that she’d come into my life someday. Above all I love the string arrangement in this song it flows with the words & song very beautifully. One of the reasons why I like Kishor as an arranger is his ability to orchestrate strings and to embellish counter point in a song. I love orchestras in songs it simply captivates me. “Yo Din”, a tune composed by my good friend Shyam Lama sometime in the early eighties (1980/81). This tune initially had only a handful of words to it and had remained incomplete. This is one tune that was around for a long time and the melody was so good that I couldn’t let go of it. I ended up playing a lot with this tune and tried to come up with words that were compatible with the words written by Devi Rai. I was very prepared to compile this song with my 2nd album AAU but I realized the words were still not adequate enough to be in the album and ended up rewriting again. By the time the song got recorded it had been around for over 20 years. It’s basically a romantic love song with beautiful words to it. Listen to the acoustic guitar rhythm and solo by Kishor Gurung, it’s beautiful! “Tada Timi”, This was written by my friend Subas Bista in 1982/83 around the time I had started composing on my own. He was giving me words left and right and this was one of them. This song was composed around 1983/84 but I never gave much thought about recording. After the composition the song just sat around collecting dust. Finally, we decided to record it for this album. This composition is what we call “Adhunik Geet” (modern song) in our composition categories. I had never done a ¾ time (waltz) prior to this and had never composed an Adhunik Geet before either. This was my 1st in both category. The song is about being far away from someone you love and remembering her every where at every instance. This song features Bansuri* by Mr. Bharat Kanel a well known studio musician from Radio Nepal. *Bansuri: Bamboo Flute very popular in all kinds of Nepalese music. “Kina Man Ma Mero”, written by Subas Bista in 1982. I had this song composed in 3 different styles before deciding the final one and recording it. I love the way this song was written it has all the song writing formula in it rhyming, timing etc. This is a very romantic song with a nice rhythm to it. It’s about falling in love and thinking about her all the time including seeing her in dreams and everywhere else. There are similarities in theme but the melody is entirely different. This song has a nice Pop/ Jazz feel to it. “Mero Priyasi”, written & composed 1999. This is a song about relationship, being in love and how happy one is with this beautiful person. To a point where he keeps admiring her all the time and mentions how he is so thankful that she has come into his life and that she is the girl from his dreams. It is a very romantic tune full of thoughts, feelings and admiration towards this person whom the writer is in love with. Based on a format called Adhunik Geet it is rich in melody and nice in lyrics. The arrangement is just as soothing and very easy to listen to. I’m beginning to write and compose a lot of Adhunik Geet nowadays. This song features Mana Raj Nakarmi’s* extraordinary playing of the fine tuned Madal (hand drums). Played upside down like a Conga and not sideways which is how it’s normally played? *Mana Raj Nakarmi is a very busy studio Musician around Kathmandu Valley and has been employed by Radio Nepal for over 16 years. His main instrument is Tabla but plays just about every Percussion Instrument available in Nepal. Thanks to all of you for supporting our music, long live Nepali music.