Page 22 - BiTS_12_DECEMBER_2022_Neat

PS: Yes, I have been teaching music and playing blues for a long time, but I didn’t have money to produce this
album, so when I was on Can’t Stop the Blues [a streaming service ED] in the USA, I met my friends Lance
Bowman and Kat McNeill. We became good friends and we spoke every day and he supported me financially
and morally.

BiTS: You have a son who is about ten years old. Is that right?

PS: Yes, he’s nine now.
BiTS: Is he musical?

PS: Just a little bit musical. He wants to play the guitar like me.

BiTS: What are your plans for the future? Are you going to do another record?

PS: For now, I’m thinking of doing a tour anywhere I could get in the western world — in Europe, UK, anywhere
in the western world. Then after that, I could just think
about doing another record. I’m looking for an opportunity
to connect in with blues organisers and event organisers.
Maybe, it takes two years to get there.
BiTS: What’s your long-term ambition, Prakash?

PS: Well, I don’t have a long-term ambition beside playing
the blues; just to be a good blues player and country blues
player. Yes, I want to be a good player.

BiTS: What’s a normal day for you, then? Whereabouts in
Nepal are you? How far away from the mountains, for
instance?
PS: Well, I’m just 10km from Kathmandu, the capital city.
We’re far from the mountains, in the valley, Kathmandu
Valley. It is 19 hours to go to the Himal Region.

BiTS: Going back to your learning the blues, what was the
hardest part of learning to play blues music for you?

PS: Well, two things. At first, I played rock music, stuff like that from Charley Patton and BB King and Eric
Clapton. I was crazy about BB King’s stuff — like the technique, middle third, minor third and so on. I was
crazy about those styles, I don’t think that was very hard, but to write song is very hard, I think.

BiTS: There are some tracks on your album which you wrote yourself, some of them with a very Nepalese
sound to them, maybe even with Nepalese lyrics. Did you get some assistance with that?
PS: Well, I just want to empower people to hear blues like that. I have a few little songs in English and then I
give them [an audience] the country blues in Nepalese. I love that kind of stuff.

BiTS: Tell me something about the teaching that you do. Do you have a lot of students?

PS: I don’t have a lot. Here in Nepal, we don’t have like in the western world. People cannot afford to learn the
music. Some of them who are just interested they don’t have money, so only a few students here for the blues.
There are those who are interested, but we don’t have any opportunities and then it stops there. Even I can’t
get here any days to play the country blues style here. I haven't played anywhere here. That’s the problem.

BiTS: Tell me something about the guitars that you’ve got. Most of them, from what I’ve seen in photographs,
seem to be Resonators. Do you play mostly Resonators?

PS: Yes, the first guitar I own I got from one my friends, Fred
Love. His name is Fred Love. I got that four years ago. It’s a
Gretsch Resonator guitar and I love that, and it sounds very
good. And then second guitar is a Republic® Resonator and
it also sounds good, and wonderful for sliding, it is awesome,
I think.