Elysium | Bandwagon | wavemag.com.np

Talent, technical dexterity and the all-important love for music: three factors that make up a good band. And that's exactly what Elysium has. A young band with young musicians, Elysium has been steadily rising up the ranks in Kathmandu's live music circuit.

Formed in 2001, the initial lineup of Elysium consisted of Joseph on vocals, Binay on drums, Ajar on bass and the duo of Sunny and Prabhat on guitar. However, this lineup didn't last very long. Ajar was replaced by Binay who, in turn, was replaced by Rajan from the band Ozzobozzo. They quickly became a staple act during live shows, gaining quite a reputation mainly, in part, due to their guitarists.

In 2003, they took part in the Rubber Soul Inter-College music contest organized by PSI, where they represented NEC College. They walked away with the Best Band trophy, with a prize that included a music video and free recording for two songs at BMI studio. "There was a different bassist during the audition, a different one during the contest and a different bassist for the video," says Rajan, laughing. The video, which has a story of it's own, was never aired on TV.

It was in 2003 again that Elysium was asked to record a song for the rock compilation Music Isles 2. Impressed by their track Naruwau, Tik N Tok offered them an album free of cost. However, although everything was ready, the company never released the album for reasons best known to them. But the band seems fine about that and, in fact, prefers it not to be released. With four English songs and an instrumental, the album had 12 tracks in total. But it didn't have a fixed direction since styles ranged from popish tracks to hard rock. It was "chana chatpat" as Rajan describes it. "Everything was done in a hurry," says Prabhat. "And we actually composed five songs during the recording process itself." According to Rajan, "It's not a real portrayal of what we are and what we can do."

As of now, Joseph is no longer with the band due to musical differences, and he's going abroad as well, so Prabhat and Rajan have started sharing vocal duties. Not satisfied with their old sound (or the lack of it), the band is seriously thinking of changing their musical direction. "We are more of a chana chatpat band right now maybe because we play in Thamel," says Rajan. "Everyone in the band has different influences so we play just about anything. We're now planning to play just one genre of music and focus more on originals," he adds. Progressive modern jazz is what they plan to do now, and although it may be difficult the band is talented enough to play any style they choose. However, they seem pretty apprehensive about bands playing original music in the current musical scenario. "It's hard to survive as a musician mainly because there is no platform for original music here," says Rajan, who is also a recording engineer at Vinapa Studio. "We play in Thamel in order to survive but all we have to play is covers, and that just doesn't cut it for us. But if we refuse, we don't get to play gigs at all," he adds. "When Sunny plays a Joe Satriani song he gets an amazing response, but when he plays his own solos there's not much appreciation," says Rajan, who is clearly an outspoken person. "I think first and foremost, people should respect the value of original music." He certainly knows what he's talking about because his old band Ozzobozzo too, with two albums in their kitty, had always focused on originals.

Besides the occasional gigs here in Kathmandu, Elysium got a fair bit of exposure outside the country when they toured Darjeeling during the Darjeeling Carnival in November 2004. They played four gigs in Kalimpong and Darjeeling to a very good response. "We got a lot of respect as musicians, the people there seemed more musically aware," says Prabhat.

With individually technically competent musicians, a tight sound and a new musical direction, Elysium seems destined to go far as a band. Even if the scope for bands playing originals doesn't seem too bright, it certainly will not stop the band from churning out good tunes because what matters in the end is not what the public thinks, it's the love for music.