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THE BITS INTERVIEW: PRAKASH SLIM

Ram Prakash Pokharel aka Prakash Slim, is an international artist/performer. An
educator of the blues, he was born on June 17th, 1980, in a field. It was during the rainy

season, in a small village called Lamatar, in the Lalitpur district, of Nepal. The village
saw its first electric bulb in 1983 and its first motor car only in 1995. Prakash went to

a public school where instead of desks and benches, they had mats made of straw.
Prakash got hooked on guitar playing and then found the blues. Ian McKenzie spoke to

him on the telephone.

BiTS: Okay, let’s make a start, shall we? Are you happy? Tell me how you found the blues in the first place.

PS: Well, I need to tell my childhood history, how I studied the blues or how I got the blues. I was born in a field
during the rainy season in a small village of Nepal. My village had its first electric bulb in 1983 and first motor
car only in 1995. My father passed away at the age of 29, leaving my
mother with children to raise. I was raised by a loving loyal family
that had very limited means. What food we could manage to
obtain was earned by my mother, who worked in the
neighbour’s field. I went to a public school where instead of
desks and benches, they had mats made out of straw. I was
interested in music since I was a child, and I would play music
by drumming against a water gallon and I’d sing songs all day
that were on the radio. I think that was the time blues drew
me to its world. My sister gifted me a bicycle, but I wanted to
play and learn guitar, so I sold my bicycle and bought a guitar,
lying to my family that one of my friends had taken it for a few
days. Apparently, I got a guitar, and I started playing. That was
my first guitar.

BiTS: Are there any similarities between blues music and
traditional music in Nepal?
PS: I don’t think there are any similarities between blues
music and Nepalese music, but I think the ground level is the
same.

BiTS: What is it then that attracts you to blues? Why are
you enthusiastic about blues music and, indeed, playing it?

PS: I think I was born for the blues. I was born with the
blues. I don’t know, but from a young age, I was just
listening to old recordings.

BiTS: But playing with a slide, for instance, is very
unusual, at least it is, I guess, for people in your part of the
world. How did you pick up slide playing? Did you teach
yourself or watch people on YouTube and that sort of
thing? How did you pick up your slide playing?

PS: When I heard Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Bukka
White, Mississippi John Hurt, Fred McDowell and many
other country blues musicians, I knew this would be my
main style as I felt it in my heart. I used to listen almost
every day to those kind of recordings and practise the
whole day. I had been researching about the history and
it helped me a lot to develop this style. I took blues mentorship training with the blues and jazz pioneer T J
Wheeler and it was so fruitful to learn about country blues and its history. To use slide, I think I was crazy about