“It’s almost too easy to produce an album these days,” says Binayak. “When we were starting off, it was a lot difficult.” The Shah Brothers were basking in stardom long before CRBT and music videos plagued our music scene. It was an impossible feat, especially for rock music in the time of Technicolor videos where roses were the choice of conceit and Harish Mathema was considered as Rock god.
The Shah Brothers’ band X-iT was formed almost a decade ago with Prism’s and Nepathya’s Daniel Karthak on bass, Shristy’s Ashish Sinha on drums, and Garima Gurung on vocals.
“At that time, all I knew about them was from my friends who described them as Nepal’s harip guitarists,” says Garima, who is now married to Iman Shah and has mothered a baby boy. That was back in 2001, when she auditioned for the band, and Iman says, “She was just perfect for us.”
Thus was the beginning of X-iT.
“Don’t forget the hyphen, and please don’t attach ‘the’ or ‘band’ in front of or behind us. We’re just X-iT,” prompts Binayak.
With their other priorities, Daniel and Ashish left the band even before any proper studio recordings. But the brothers, along with Garima Gurung-Shah, went ahead just for their sheer love of music. And they released their debut album only on May 1 of this year. Called “The Final Chapter,” it was completed almost six years ago. But the band says they “simply got lazy to release it earlier.”
The album is a melodic acoustic set fused together with folksy blues and rhythmic rock with hints of mainstream pop. It might be the drizzle to end the prolonging drought in our music scene. It’s an album that seems to have extracted everything from almost every genre, and has a little of everything for everyone. With the musical background and education of the Shah Brothers, one might expect a flamboyant album, but subtlety seems to be the key in this edition.
“We haven’t pushed it as far as we could’ve,” says Binayak modestly in that husky undertone of his. “But it’s nevertheless an album where we found our sounds.” And though the sounds they found don’t reflect on this album, Iman says, “These songs remind us of the good old days we had. Every song and its lyrics are kind of flashback for us.”
And they are “hoping to capitalize on their good old days.” From airwaves to pubs, X-iT is busy planning their promotional tours across the city. “It doesn’t matter where you play unless and until you can play,” says Iman. “And at a time of ipod generation, it’s crucial to take your music to as many people as possible.”
Their single has been floating around the airwaves for quite some time now. Their hit single ‘Slide’ won them the Best Foreign Language Song at the 2004 Hits FM Awards. Their new album also features the song, but completely retouched and overdubbed.
But variation is what keeps the listeners glued to this album. The lethargic élan of Garima’s voice unusually compliments Binayak’s jocund synthesizers of the Eighties, and Iman’s power riffs. While “Dherai tadha” is a beautiful song comprising some gypsy-like acoustics and keyboarding, “Madalu” with its infusion of riffs and folk tunes is where the band is at its best. Binayak Shah and his gruff overtone vocals, a cross between Springsteen and Bhakta Raj Acharya, is hands down one of the best we’ve heard in quite sometime now.
The Shah brothers have come a long way since the four-track-recording and analogue days. Iman Shah is probably the first bona fide sound technician in the country. And Binayak has had classes with the likes of Paul Gilbert, Bred Garsed, Scott Henderson, Eric Paschal, Tom Kolb, and Michael Ward, to name a few.
Though their studio BMI closed due to financial crunch, mainly due to Iman’s philanthropy and his sole crusade in promoting underground music scene, their home has become their studio now. With no deadlines to worry about and infinite studio time, Garima says, “It’s the best possible way you can produce music in a studio you can literally call home.”
Iman Shah is currently the principal of Nepal Music School, and says that he’s met the expectations of his wide fan base. “And though it’s not a rock album as such, The Final Chapter doesn’t leave an aspiring guitarist disappointed.”
It’s almost hard to contemplate that the whole album was conjured by just this trio. It’s a mellow and a mainstream pop album that anyone can like just by listening to it. It’s not an attempt in being different but in being the best.
madhukar@myrepublica.com
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