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sliding songs like Charley Patton, Robert Johnson and I used to just practise like put the slide right over the finger
and then slide up and down very gently and then I realised that to produce a clean and clear sound, I need to put
fingers behind the slide to dampen the strings like that. It’s about my craziness and I like that.
BiTS: There are a very large number of open keys that you can play slide music on. Do you have a particular
favourite? Do you play open G, open E? What’s your favourite?
PS: I prefer always open D and open G, based on my vocal range too. I think these two are my favourite open
keys.
BiTS: Tell me something, it’s always been a problem to me and to many people in the United Kingdom that I’m
aware of, and indeed in America, come to that, in understanding what the lyrics of the original blues songs were
because the Mississippi accent, in particular, is very thick. How did you manage to sort out the lyrics?
PS: I think that when I listened to early recordings, that it just touched my heart, then I’d just follow their tone,
tonality. I know the lifestyle, like the pre-war and the
pre-war era. So it became so easy for me because of my
tonality. My tone, it is a little bit different, but I think it’s
easy for me, the lyrical contents were very pure, and it
was so deep in that pre-war era. But I think it’s going well
for me.
BiTS: Who is one of your favourite singers, traditional,
American black blues singers?
PS: I would say Robert Johnson is my idol. I’m just crazy
about his slide work and the harmony, how he played like
that. All the stops and stuff. I’m just crazy about him.
BiTS: How long had you been playing before you decided
that you wanted to make a record?
PS: I’ve been playing music for a long time, about 22
years. Then when I featured as a country blues star in
2017, then I practised slide a lot. Then when I met my
friend Carl Wyatt and another good friend, then I decided Fabrizio Poggi
to make an album on a record label. Then after that, I
decided on writing the songs and practising all the stuff
like that.
BiTS: You went over to America to do some study, I think. Where was that, and when?
PS: No, no, no. I haven't been anywhere out of Nepal yet. I’m just looking for an opportunity to do a tour.
BiTS: Tell me how you went about making the record? Did you go into a studio, or what?
PS: When I met my friend, Carl Wyatt, he’s from Carl Wyatt and The Delta Voodoo Kings. He’s a legendary artist.
We became friends about four years ago, and then we talked almost every day and one day I asked him that I
just want to make a record on a record label. He told me that it could be possible. Then during that time, I also
met my friend Henry D Jones and I just wrote a song. I wrote the words and sent it to Henry for the editing and
the phrasing. I did some recordings in a studio in Nepal and Carl started mixing some tracks. Carl’s friend Yves
DeVille has a record label called DeVille Records. He did the mastering and got started on an album.
BiTS: I imagine then that Fabrizio Poggi came along, into your life.
PS: Ah, yes, I’m coming to him. Then after meeting Carl Wyatt and the other friends, I started writing songs and
then recorded the songs in Nepal. Then I sent a song to Carl and by that time, I already had a friendship with
Fabrizio and his wife, Angelina. We had a small collaboration on that day, ‘Me and the Devil Blues’, the Robert
Johnson song. He played harmonica and then we did a recording via the internet. We did a collaboration. Then
I asked him to play harmonica, blues-harp on my tape. He played it and then we did the album.
BiTS: How do you make your money? I take it that you teach in schools and that sort of thing, or am I wrong
about that?