A bit of Kalimpong and Calicut in Bangalore with folk-rock foursome Gauley Bhai
Gauley Bhai ’ s sound is somewhere between mountains and markets . Based out of Bangalore , the band comprises three members from the hilly town of Kalimpong , and one from Calicut Kerala . Melding diverse musical influences and traditions , the quartet explores love ( both present and lost ), despair , desire and other eccentricities of human life through bewildering-yetcharming Nepali lyrics .
Their sound hashes together everything from folk to funk , and finds rhythm in their roots . Their debut album Joro is a tapestry of stories about migration , memory and identity , an album about the invisible soul-struggles of leaving home and making new ones elsewhere .
In their tete-a-tete with The Score Magazine , Gauley Bhai breaks down what matters to them , and what are the tales their sounds intend to tell .
What is your origin story ?
Gauley Bhai is a Bangalore based band , formed in 2017 . Veecheet , Siddhant and Anudwatt are originally from Kalimpong , and Joe is from Calicut . This intersection of geographies and musical roots is the essence of Gauley Bhai ’ s music . ‘ Joro ’ ( Fever ) is their first album , a thematic exploration of love , identity and memory which launched on June 5th , 2019 .
The band in the early days used to meet for jams with each other till we realised that something was cooking between us and we found a lot of meaning in it .
Deconstruct your name for us .
Gauley Bhai literally translates to “ people from the village , neighbourhood / community ”. :)
In a sense , we chose that name cause even though we live in Bangalore and are from different places . we still are ‘ gauley ’. It recognizes that we are from a similar place and space that we come from .
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Given that you sing in Nepali , have you ever had to deal with the prospect of alienating listeners unfamiliar with the language ?
We must say it has definitely happened to us once or twice , :) - but mostly people prove to us that language is no barrier . Though those one or two incidents are etched in memory , mostly all are funny to think of now . But it wasn ’ t alienation because of language so much as it seemed that they were just closed to things that are not within their comfort zones .
What do you think is the role of a listener if they are confronted with a song in an unfamiliar language ?
Simply just listen and dance . Let the song sync into the body and mind and see if it strikes a spark . A song isn ’ t just about what it means in words or comprehensible language .
What is your artistic purpose ? What do you hope to achieve or accomplish with your music ?
Our artistic purpose is to in a way find a musical expression for ourselves that holds meaning for our lives and existence . We hope to find a way to reflect on our histories , narratives , geographies , roots through our sound , or rather create a sound that resonates and reflects .
There are also other subtleties that hold meaning for us . Singing in Nepali holds meaning personally as Nepali speaking people of the country often do not find enough representation of our people and community .
Much of your music carries the imagery of mountain life as a lost world . Could you elaborate on the recurrence of this idea ?
The songs carry narratives from the mountains , Darjeeling and Kalimpong . The narratives reveal the dual nature of things . A lot of explorations are of being a state of “ in-between ” - between the home left behind and the destination reached , between love and death .
The imagery that we try and draw is also one not meant for the postcard . We try to draw narratives and imagery that reflect on the reality occurring now - mountains that are filled with dams and violent , failed political movements , which exist alongside the beautiful greenery , misty , springs and the watercress that grows next to it , and young people eager to love and people so fragile and susceptible to death .
Tell us about your early experiences that drew you to
making music .
Each of us by some chance has had an experience of music ever since we were kids . Though almost all of us encountered music classes for something else ... and then learnt our own instruments and styles on our own at home . Some members of the band have been playing for 20 years while some are just getting into performance music . But we share some ideologies of the practice and development of our craft ; that resonance with each other keeps it going for us and gives us faith .
Three of you are from Kalimpong . How much does the town feature in your art ?
We grew up in Darjeeling and Kalimpong . As we mentioned , a lot of the writing is influenced by where we are from . By the migration . Kalimpong though is a part of the larger area comprising Kalimpong and Darjeeling , more broadly claimed as Gorkhaland . The place does feature many times in our songs and some more which are to be released .