Vivo en Espa?a | Interview

When Spaniards aren't busy fighting bulls or enjoying a lazy siesta, they are most likely having a good time with great music thumping in the background. Or, they go one step further and organise huge international concerts, apparently in better style than most. One very talented Nepali band had the chance to see just how well these things go.

Nekhvam, one of the country's premier blues bands, played last month at the Almar Festival in Almeria, Spain. Every year the city of Almeria hosts an extravagant month-long musical extravegenza with musicians of the calibre of The Rolling Stones, Steve Vai, and Jethro Tull, to name but a few. And this year, also Nekhvam.

"That was the experience of a lifetime," shares says guitarist and vocalist Ashesh Dongol. "We broke the stereotype there. Most people from different countries played their native music, but we went straight ahead with the blues. And the crowd loved it," adds Sibesh Dongol, Nekhvam's bassist. The band was especially pleased that, although they were playing the blues, the crowd didn't expect them to sing in English or stick to covers of classics. "They wanted to hear our original numbers?those were the ones for which we got repeated encore requests. It was amazing to hear the Spaniards sing our songs which included Nepali numbers, with us," he beams.

On 27 June, Nekhvam pulled out all stops. "Initially our show run was allocated at one hour and fifteen minutes. When we finished after two straight hours, the crowd was hungry for more, and were still asking for encores," says Ashesh. After that, Nekhvam were the stars of the Almar Festival and media darlings for the rest of their tour in Spain.

But more than the interviews and rave reviews, Nekhvam takes the most pride in being asked to play at the famous Clasi Jazz Club. The club is a mecca for musicians and is very selective about who plays there. Its select schedule is sometimes booked for six months in advance. Nekhvam were invited to play at the club for a handpicked crowd of 300 people who were mesmerised by the quality of their music.

The tour was memorable, but the band deems the lessons they learnt along the way even more important. "The experience has shown us that Nepali artistes are as good as the international ones," says Ashesh. Now Nekhvam wants to get even better.