Music for all

“With the heavy workload, the academic pressure, and the stress in general, I remember feeling creatively drained. It was such a visceral feeling and that was terribly worrisome.”

These are relaxing days for Sareen Deouja from Monkey Temple. In between his French classes, he is enjoying the success of their third self-titled studio album. They recently got nominated for the Hits FM Music Awards and are gearing up to play at the upcoming Nepal Music Festival as well. Priyanka Gurung caught up with Sareen to talk about music as well as find out what’s on
his playlist.

You guys have always taken a hiatus between albums. Do you think that’s important?

After working on a full album, you find yourself a little fed up and bored of the monotony of the process. A breather is the only way to relax and reenergize. That time is crucial. Often in that little more than a year’s time, I get some other work done or visit Europe.
Do you use that time to write more songs? What’s your process?

I have never sat down and said I’ll finish a song by the evening. I doubt that would ever work. Writing lyrics is weird in the sense that you just wait for that one fine morning where inspirations for words, sentiments and compositions float your way. You then collect it after a couple of years and get started on an album. The tracks for our second album, Shades of Grey, were written in a span of six to seven years when I was in the USA.

Have you ever been hit by a sudden fear that you might run out of ideas for new compositions and lyrics?
Yea, the fear is there but I think for me, it has never been as worse as it was when I was back in America. With the heavy workload, the academic pressure, and the stress in general, I remember feeling creatively drained. It was such a visceral feeling and that was terribly worrisome. I believe to make music you need the time to travel, sit, think and enjoy little moments.

Have you ever been embarrassed by any work you have put out in the market?
(Laughs) I’m very proud of our first album, Black Bee and the Flower. Having said that, I get a little embarrassed by it now as I can hear the flaws. I feel the song writing could have been better. There is room for improvement where some technicalities are concerned as well. We obviously did the best we could at the time as teenagers, but I do feel a little squeamish when people come over to pay compliments for it.

It’s like déjà vu because I remember complimenting Crossroads’ guitarist on their work and he had a similar reaction. He just waved it off and told me they could have done a better job.

Who comes with the album names though? Black Bee and the Flower? What’s that about?
Actually, it’s very random. As a child I was very particular about my school uniform. It had to be clean and tidy. In fact, I used to make it a point to polish my shoes myself. I used the Chinese shoe polish and it had (and has) a bee and a flower on the lid. I just thought it would make a cool album name.

So far, I have come up with the album names but the band does have a say in it. Shades of Grey was more about the mixture of experiences we have had thus far, both black and white. (And no, I don’t mind that E.L James came up with 50 Shades of Grey). We named our latest album Monkey Temple because I had always wanted a self-titled album or maybe because I could not come up with
anything better.