The Blue Storytellers | Bandwagon

Watching them play live always leaves one with a sense of 'Wow, what was that?'. Call it showmanship or musicianship, Nekhvam proves their mettle through their gigs. "Onstage," says Sibesh (bass yielder for Nekhvam), "We are the king. We feel we can do anything that's possible musically."

The story of Nekhvam is a story of the blues music itself, embellished with hardships, sorrows, sudden pitfalls and a lonely guitar to strum. They ventured into music without any instruments and literally had nothing but their desire to excel and prove themselves. Luckily for brothers Sibesh and Ashesh Dongol (guitars and vocals) they had a common friend with a guitar who taught them simple beats but taught no chords to go with it. "Afterwards I scoured the market for guitar books like the one written by Ram Thapa and devoured the entire contents. We had a voracious appetite for music," confides Ashesh.

"There's soul and simplicity in blues. It is our dialect. We find it easy and effective to communicate in blues," says Sibesh. Their inclination to the blues is partly thanks to Ashesh's discovery of blues giants like John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Jimi Hendrix and the likes. Sibesh slowly migrated into blues with a stint of reggae and unsuccessful attempts to learn traditional instruments, Binay joined the group a while ago as a full time drummer after their Kathmandu Blues gig.

Blues, hmmm... Isn't it the music of sad times, sung by old men howling their heart out with destitute ridden hymns for lyrics? As it turns out, it isn't. "Blues is wrongly categorized into music of the sad times. It can be associated with the happy and good times as well," says Binay. "And that's what we have done for the second album," he adds.. The tracks for their follow up album after their emotional release are being recorded in their home studio, literally. The sound is much more mature and gives the indication of how the band has progressed musically through the years. Another interesting factor is the recording?it definitely packs more punch than the studio produced one.

It takes an eye of the jeweler to recognize a diamond. When people here at home aren't recognizing their worth, even calling them imitators, they have just received an invitation from Spain to play on an international music festival. There they will share stage with much coveted musical acts from around the world. "If everything works out, we will head out to the sunny country in about two month's time," says Ashesh.

They also have lined themselves for charity works through their music. The event Blues for a Cause saw Nekhvam at their showmanship best. The guys dished out blues, thumping the music from deep within, which echoed through the evening air. The blazing guitar solos dispelled the evening chill. A kuireni who was standing just beside me exclaimed, "If the guitarist burns his guitar he'd definitely pass as Jimi Hendrix." I just nodded my head in agreement.