Kathmandu Day 1 – 2:
We all got to the airport in Delhi on time and things ran pretty smoothly – insofar as getting a cab on the 2nd of October, getting all the equipment – including the monster bass case – checked into the plane. It was the first time I saw the inside of the new terminal – it looks pretty good and reminds me of some of the airports outside. The pilot took the plane off like it was a roller coaster – we all got nailed down to our seats and slammed back into them. Landing was a swerving disaster too – but we’re all here and alive. The things we all take for granted.
Things started getting fuzzy when we reached Kathmandu airport. Though the bass case and guitars came out first (and now I can say unharmed) – a couple of the bags took about half an hour to show up. They probably came out in the last burst of luggage on the belt. It also took us a while to find our ride – because though he had a sign board for us, the words ‘Drift’ were written on it as the same size of this font.
We’re staying at the Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory staff faculty area. The conservatory itself on the fourth floor of a pretty massive building – with sound proof rooms for a fully equipped recording studio, a piano room, a drum room – and a few more practice rooms. The other floors in the building are for actors, adventure sports and artists. It’s like an oasis in the middle of the city.
I met another double bassist here called Ian – who is a 24 year old American – teaching at the conservatory. He’s been playing for about 11/12 odd years and apparently started a fund back to home to ship two double basses to the conservatory – all the way from the states. The whole exercise cost him a little over $3000 – and a lot of energy. He’s really good on the bass and maybe I can sit with home and pick up something while I’m here.
The first hiccup shortly presented itself: with all the bags and equipment switching hands at the arrival – Reuben forgot his cymbal bag at the airport. Our gig was supposed to start in about 45 minutes. He and Pranai darted back for the airport while me and Nicolas headed to our venue – it was called House of Music.
It was a nice venue – and I’ll put up some pictures eventually – but the gig left me feeling pretty low. My amp blew a fuse and I was plugged in direct through the mixer into these odd speakers. Playing at the Aman has really ruined us, insofar as it affords us a consistency that musicians don’t really have, unless they carry all their equipment to every show (we have our own mixer and speakers there). All in all though, my tone was the complete opposite of anything I wanted it to be. It sounded ugly, twangy, hollow and the clincher: really out of the control-loud. The crowd that came up was on the smaller side but it was full of musicians. What a night.
I spent most of the morning with Nicolas checking out the conservatory – and practicing alone. In the afternoon, every body headed to to Darbar and Thalem – two of the four major districts that Kathmandu is made up of. Sunday is a working day in Nepal – so things were pretty chaotic and it was a real sensory overload. The line between pedestrian walkway and motor-road dissolves to negligible in Kathmandu. For the most part, those two markets had a similar setting to a lot of the places I’ve seen up in Shillong, Darjeeling and maybe Varanasi. Narrow roads, with shops on either side and a lot of people (and in this case cars and bikes) walking through. We left home around 12.30/1 and got back at 5. We all got back wiped out.
So far the schedule slots us in (give or take one night) for a gig every night we’re here. Tonight’s going to be at much more crowded jazz venue – attached to the conservatory. One of the faculty’s saxophonists is leaving – so it’s his farewell.
There are a couple of other bands playing – and the crowd’s going to be full of musicians. I think somewhere, every body feels the pressure – but it comes out differently. I’m not thinking about it much – but it’s interesting how it works.
Lets see how tonight goes.
Kathmandu Day 2-3
Last night had all the makings of a great gig – and it was a hell of a night. It was one of the few times, with Delhi being the way it is, that we played infront of a packed room of listeners. The only two other times being our first gig at the India habitat center and the second at tlr – but still, it was nothing like either of them.
The venue was called Moksh and it was this great French-windowed joint that faces out to a garden and looks like something out of a European movie. Enough can’t be said about the performing area - which was in a separate room. The stage was placed, sunken in the middle – below the floor – and the seating area was raised about a foot around it, with couches everywhere.
There was a lot of advertising and Drift probably got it’s biggest ad in a main paper. A whole bunch of bands played – I think about four of them in all – and they were burning the place down. The amount of talent here is crazy – there is a solid culture for music that has developed, according to Pranai, over the last couple of years - and I think all four of us were overwhelmed by it. For me, the clincher will always be in the fact that, obviously – not as a rule of nature – but, generally the more talented they got, the nicer guys they were. I’m playing with the idea of coming back here after my Masters finishes next year – and spending a few months studying/playing before heading out to Boston.
Yesterday night was really something for me – because I chose to play out our entire set on one of the double basses that the Jazz conservatory flew in. It was a great ¾ lemur model and even though there were points during a few of the uptempo numbers – and one of the ballads (where each note sticks out) – that I felt like I should have thought twice about it – it felt great. Great to just play one and great to just feel like I still can. The yamaha’s been really good to me and i’m glad it’s keeping me in shape.
Last night was also exceptional for the band. It was interesting to see how there was this inevitable form of performance pressure that we don’t usually need to or have to deal with. There was a big crowd, more than half of them musicians and music teachers listening very intently; there were a lot of very fucking good bands (all of them professionals and this isn’t me being self-depricating – just factual. Those guys were there) – and all of them going on before us making us the final act. There were some insane bass players playing too – guys who’ve been doing it for ten, fifteen to twenty years of their lives, whose comfort with music and instrument I can only hope to mimic eventually – watching them felt great but the idea of going on after them – was hard not to pay attention to. Comparison can feel like suicide.
Anyway, I could go on forever – about talent, time, practice. I call it the eternal gamble – you just have to bet on whether it’s just all talent and if you don’t have it at the very start there’s no point - OR – whether it’s maybe some predisposition but it’s more experience and practice and fundamentally: time. The idea that enough time will take you there and will afford you that level of playing – and there isn’t any other way, to really find out, that following it up.
Our set wasn’t that hot, insofar as how well we could have played it – but the fact of the matter is, the crowd loved it. There were people screaming, going crazy – there was a latin dancer dancing; and after we got off stage, we were swamped. One guy told us he hadn’t danced in 6 months – and another one told us we took him to heaven and back. Spiritual rejuvenation in one quick night. Not bad at all, if you ask me. I really feel like it was one of those sets where the four of us, got off stage feeling a little off – but literally, an hour and a half of people coming upto us later, we couldn’t not feel good about it.
There is a real lesson in self-comfort and self-acceptance here. I think I am, infact maybe we all are, getting a crash course in it. It is a hard and somewhat painful one.
All said and done though – accept my deliberate inarticulateness – there is a lot lot lot lot of love here. There is an inherent string of humility, a solid vibe and culture that runs through most of the musicians here. Almost everybody’s doing it for all the right reasons. And take it from me, sometimes when you get too deep in it – playing eternal catch up with god knows what- you forget why you’re doing it and sometimes, you don’t even want to. Nights like yesterday and people like the ones I was fortunate enough to meet – you can’t help but being reminded.
It feels great – to be here and to be part of it – and despite anything and everything. I’m thrilled.
We ended up going to sleep around 4am. I don’t think we have a gig tonight so Nicolas and I are trying to go Bungee jumping today. The jump site is at a bridge - which is a 3 or 4 hour drive away from the city.
Lets see how and if it works out.
Kathmandu – Day 3.
The bungee jumping didn’t come together – and for the moment, it’s been pushed forward to Wednesday. For now, things don’t seem very optimistic – for reasons I’ll get to later. We spent the whole day walking around the city, which was great. Got to look at quite a bit of the stuff that was happening.
An interesting (and somewhat irritating thing) about Nepal, is how you have to pay certain ‘tourist’ fees – for moving from one part of the city to another. Somewhere, the idea of a ticketed museum or gallery makes a lot of sense – but just having to pay to move from district to district is a little irritating.
The idea here is that it’s not particularly cheap either. Especially if you’re like my saxophonist – who is French. One of the ladies didn’t believe me when I said I was Indian and I had to show her my license.
We spent the better half of the afternoon at a really nice café in a place called Patan square. Following which, Pranai, Nicolas and I spent round about an hour in the swimming pool near the jazz conservatory. It was a really deep pool, so we spent a lot of time goofing around diving and jumping. Which is something I haven’t done in a long time.
I met a lot of interesting people today. One of the guys who helped organize the entire tour is this guy called Nirakar. He’s a great bassist who plays for a band called 1974 AD – they play pop-rock and they’re huge here. I spent sometime talking to him and his friend today – they’re hugely into mountain biking. Which isn’t exactly uncommon for some one situated in the middle of the landscape we are – but what threw me off, is that they’re really into BMX biking. It seems that it’s pretty big in Nepal and they’re a bike-park here with ramps and all. If I didn’t have all the equipment I did, I would totally buy a bike and bring it back.
We spent the night checking out this venue called Jazz upstairs – we are supposed to play there on Thursday night (which will also be our last gig). It was a nice hole-in-the-wall kind of place with a great vibe. They had this country gig happening with a bunch of American musicians who probably live here. It was all bluegrass – and the vocalist looked exactly like the Malboro man. It would have been in a shame if he didn’t play country.
We spent the night bouncing around the city drinking beer, talking jazz and eating momos. It sounds a little more romantic than it was. I think every one’s really overwhelmed by the place.
It’s really exhausting in it’s own way. It’s a real bubble and pretty much every one I’ve met spends all their time playing and/or getting high. Which is great, but I don’t think I’m really cut out for it. I’m repeating myself here, but Kathmandu has a real vibe and feel – and I think every one’s got a different take on it. Pranai’s in love; Nicholas digs it; Reuben is in like – but apprehensive and I am totally undecided.
Something that comes back to me is what Nikhil, my drummer from my swing trio, said to me. I definitely can’t quote word for word – but the general idea was that no one person can only be one thing. That, the idea itself defies the whole purpose of being human. I think a lot of people would disagree, but I think some personalities are really predisposed or not predisposed to doing just one thing.
The night ended badly – Pranai left his bag behind in the cab we used to get back home – and every one was exhausted and in a daze. No prizes for guessing what was inside the bag.
We have a missing passport. Fuck.
Kathmandu – Day 4
No sign of the bag or the passport. Pranai’s going to wait through the day, to see if the cabbie turns up with the bag – especially since there was no money inside it. He feels that there is a very good chance of it happening in Kathmandu. I’m a little more sceptical, but hopeful for his sake. We spent most of the morning lazing around and trying to figure out at what point to call the Indian consulate and what we’re going to need to do – in order to be back on Friday and play at the aman.
Lunch was great – we went out and got these Nepali thalis. They were really good and really spicy. I love spice – it makes things exciting. The food here is really cheap. There are really so many joints – with such a wide spectrum of culinary focus – that it’s hard to not want to experiment. There’s a huge cafe culture – just like up in the hills – but the only difference here, is that the food at each joint will taste and have a different feel from the next one. This is something that I remember being seriously untrue for the cafes in Goa/Dharamshala etc. Generally, if you’ve eaten at one, then you’ve eaten at them all. They’re just slightly done up places to get shit-faced – which fair enough, was probably the owners’ brainchild in the first place.
After lunch we took some time off before our third gig – which was at this venue called Lakhe. Lakhe is a club/party area in the middle of Darbar barg – which is pretty much the most upmarket area of Kathmandu. It’s a little bit like a broader looking Harajuku – with international looking shops on either side of the road. I saw the hotel I stayed at when I came to Kathmandu with my grandfather over ten years (maybe a little more?). It hasn’t changed much.
The gig went off great and I think every one had a lot of fun. I really did. The sound of the bass was perfect. It’s more than half the battle already won – even before the gig’s started. We played really tight – but there were quite a few small and annoying mistakes. As always, the crowd was great, even if it was a little on the thin side. I think they really enjoyed us.
There’s another huge article in the newspaper – with a big picture of me and Nicolas. I’m making a million dollar face – but other than that, I cannot fucking believe how perfect and how professional the article is. It’s so simple and to the point. A girl came in and interviewed us on the night we played at Moksh and she put down word for word – right to the fine point.
All of this in obvious contrast to Delhi with it’s third rate band of entertainment/music reporters – who can neither write nor report – and who I really think deserve to be lined up and slapped HARD. I get fucking agitated just thinking about some of the junk that people have put down.
Anyway, the gig went great – and tomorrow – we’re going Bunjee jumping !
Kathmandu – Day 5
The day definitely did not get off to the start we had intended. The intention lay in Pranai sorting out his passport with the consulate by 9.30, renting two bikes between the four of us and heading out towards the jump site by 10.30 and reaching somewhere around 4 or 5 – depending on traffic and the conditions of the road. What actually happened was that the bikes didn’t show up until 12.30m Pranai didn’t call the embassy till 2 – only to find out they only work at 12 – and we finally did leave – not at 10.30 but at 2.30.
The drive up was strange – in the sense that it was a drive of polar opposites. Either it was so enjoyable and so gorgeous that it made your mind want to explode – or – it was just straight up painful. Expectedly enough, getting out of Kathmandu was a little on the harsh side – a lot of traffic, a lot of smoke and a lot of dust. Once we got upto the mountains and eventually into the mountains – things were breathtaking – to say the least. The whole ride lasted about 4 hours or so with maybe one 15 minute break. The roads were pretty rough up in patches – mostly where there had been landslides. Things got a little out of hand towards the end because it started getting dark. We fell once where the road was really broken up and wet.
We reached the resort on the earlier side of 7. It was just about pitch black by the time we got there. The retrospectively funny part being that we almost over shot the resort. We’d been joking around about crossing the border into China – and getting held up by Chinese soldiers – when we reached the resort and told the owner about missing the gate – our little ‘joke’ was not very far from realization. A short dark 12km later, we would have hit the check post for Tibet – we were on the national highway that connects to China.
The first thing you have to do, to get to the resort - is cross this rickety-looking bridge that connects two sides of a valley. It is a really long bridge and it takes about two minutes to cross, if you’re walking briskly. The lower metal panels on which you walk are a little like a xylophone – there’s a little space between every panel and you can see the river raging down between the cracks. The bridge swings around pretty wildly – and about half way down I see a square platform extending out of the bridge. That’s the jump-side and it’s fucking scary.
In virtue of getting there so late, we have to push the jump to the morning. I was upset about having more time to have it hover around me – but it’s not like there was any choice in the matter at all. It was too intimidating to not jump.
I rode with Nicolas – and Pranai and Reuben were on the other bike. It was easily the longest bike ride I’ve ever had. I’m still not much of a fan – but I do understand where the fans come from. Like I said – at some points, the view, the landscape and the air were just too much to take in. They overwhelmed you – mostly with gratitude for just even being able to be part of it, in some small way. There was in the transitions between mountains and cities – some really bad industrial patches. Everything seemed to be under-construction and the amount of smoke and dust just did me in.
Getting back to the resort though – the place really was a gem. It’s place in the middle of a forest/hill area and it’s smack in the middle of the nature. One of those non-obtrusive, yet super comfortable places to be. We stayed in a tent for four and it rained the whole night we were there. The sounds of the water, mixed with the sounds of the river – along with all the smells of the forest made for a good night. I was pretty occupied with the idea of jumping though.
Kathmandu – Day 6
Jump day! Through the course of the trip – Nicolas and I had no doubts about the fact that we were jumping. Reuben had been fluctuating and when he finally did see the bridge the night before. He was fascinated but in his words, “no one in their right minds would jump off of that thing.”. Point well made, my drummer friend. Come the morning, Pranai realized that he needed to be at the embassy – Reuben decided to accompany him back to Kathmandu and both of them left around 9.30 or so.
Nicolas and I got briefed for our jumps round at 9.30 too. The jump master told us about jumping techniques, took our weights and made us fill in the usual forms about insurance and, my favourite part: Emergency Contacts. Nicolas had a French number listed and I had an Indian one. Good amount of help that would have been.
In any case, we were on the bridge by 10. It was the second time I was looking at the bridge during the day. The first time being earlier in the morning with Reuben. The peak that consolidated his decision not to jump. The gorge was really beautiful during the day and the river had a majestic-look of it’s own. The bridge was swinging like a bitch though. You could barely stand still on it.
The instructors/assistants showed up and harnessed both me and Nicolas down. We’d agreed to let me go first – but the instructors called on 63kg first anyway. They sat me down and hooked me the bungee rope up to me and asked me to come out onto the platform.
The platform was something that was attached to the bridge – on the periphery. It has no handles or railings and it just looks out onto the landscape and naturally, straight down. It was an insane feeling standing on the edge of it – body and arms free – knowing that I’d have to, with the force of my own muscles, jump off of it. The scene defies every survival instinct in your body. The jump master doesn’t give you too much time to take it in. The minute you’re at the edge, I just heard him go, “3..2..1..Bungee!’. And off I went – without a thought in my mind.
I plummeted. The jump in Nepal is the second highest in the world – and about 160m high. The drop lasts for just about 4 seconds and I kept me eyes open through the whole thing. There aren’t words to describe the sensation. It’s just a rush – one that wraps up pretty quickly though. By the time I got down, I felt like it hadn’t happened – but looking straight back up at the bridge was something. It was a half an hour trek back up the mountain to get to the resort. I don’t mind trekking, but I really wasn’t dressed for it and the terrain was a lot rougher than I thought it would be. It took half an hour to undo 4.5 seconds.
Nicolas jumped right after I did and he recorded both our falls. His was recorded first person because he taped his camera to his hand and pointed it face down. They’re both great videos and I’ll put them up soon.
We headed out back for Kathmandu and made it home around 3. The drive was the same as it was on the way up. Hellish in parts but stunning in others. My body, and I think every one else’s as well, remember the sore parts at this juncture.
We had our last gig of the tour at this major-jazz venue called Jazz Upstairs. I tried being excited for it, but I couldn’t get it together. By the time we got back to Kathmandu and to the venue it was almost 7.30. The best part was, it seems the guys at the venue mixed up our dates and they didn’t think we were coming. I really just felt like taking a pass. I was spent and I could barely think – leave alone play.
The gig went moreorless as I had imagined. On the whole, I think the band had a good collected sound – every one really liked how it went – and the crowd here really digs us. I was a real mess though and the amplifier I had kept churning out this bullshit overdriven bass tone. We played about two hours and I tried my best to just enjoy it. It was just too deliberate though. “HAVE FUN. YOU MUST HAVE FUN.”
In any case, we pulled through the night and I’d like to believe in style. We met a lot of interesting people – most of them who had very nice things to say about us ;). By the time we got home, there wasn’t much left of anybody. Especially me. I think I’m falling sick.
Day 7 – Kathmandu
That’s it. Full Circle. It’s 9.20 am – and I think pretty much everybody is done packing up. We’re trying to figure out how to get all the equipment together and to the airport. 6 days – 4 gigs and seeing how it’s Friday, we’ll be playing back the aman tonight and tomorrow night. I have fallen sick and I think Nicolas and Pranai have too.
I’m spent but I’m feeling really good and really happy. I don’t really feel like coming back to Delhi – getting back to taking care of the Masters and checking up with the University all the time. It was good being here and I’m grateful, as always, for the whole experience.
I got to figure out a lot out about myself, about the band, about music and where I stand. Watching other bass players – playing infront of crowds made up mostly of musicians – gives you a lot of think about.
Like MGMT says, take only what you need from it.
J
