For Nepali Alternative Rock music fans today, Monkey Temple is a familiar name. The history of the band goes way back to the 90s when they consistently performed in reputable gigs such as Everest on the Rock, K.A.T.H unplugged, Slam City Jam, Electric Circus, Metal day out, 25th anniversary of Nanglo café,Rockers on Parade, Spread love not virus concert (organized by FPAN). Although, they frequently performed numbers from their debut album titled “Black Bee and the Flower”, they were mainly known for the covers of Pearl Jam, Creed, Iron Maiden, Ugly Kid Joe, and Fuel.
Subodh Gurung and Sanjay initiated the first few casual jam sessions between themselves that gradually evolved into what we know today as one of the well known alternative rock bands of Nepal: Monkey Temple.
Subodh and Sanjay ran into Sareen, who is a talented vocalist and rhythm-guitar player. With the addition of Devashish on percussion, the band “Bliss” was born. After Sanjaya switched to playing six strings, there was a shortage of a bass player and Avaya, the bassist for Albatross agreed to help out, completing a good line up for what was now called Monkey Temple. The line up at that point comprised of Sareen (vocals), Subodh (lead guitar), Sanjay (rhythm guitar), Devashish (drums), Gaurav (keyboard) and Avaya (bass). It was then that the band recorded their much acclaimed single “Stoned @ 920 “which enjoyed good airplay in a few FM stations and was also featured on the Musik Isles Compilation.
After Sanjay decided to leave the band due to personal issues, Monkey Temple was joined by Prashanta Manandhar who had been playing with the bandMokshya at that time. He quickly added a fresh dimension to the band with his amazing virtuoso rock style shaped by his progressive rock/neo-classical influences. The line-up at that instance comprised of Sareen (vocals), Subodh (guitar), Prashanta (guitar), Devashish (drums), Gaurav (keyboard) and Avaya (bass). “Music is about our attitude and perspective towards every little aspect of our lives and it is about self satisfaction,” Sareen expressed at that time to disclose the purpose of the band.
When Sareen left for the U.S. along with Subodh in 2002, the band’s activity dwindled dramatically for a while. But, while at Saint Cloud University in Minnesota, Sareen continued jamming with Subodh and came up with some new numbers. It was during a midnight basement jam session at Saint Cloud, the members of Monkey Temple came across guitarist Prawol Bhattarai, who had a notable unusual technique of remarkably playing the guitar left-handed upside down. Sareen also eventually ran into Indonesian bassist Benky Atmadza at a guitar store in Saint Cloud. Sareen asserts that he was truly amazed by Benky’s funky bass lines having obvious influence of Flea of Red Hot Chilli Peppers. This line-up recorded a few notable singles like “Samaya” at the Fur Seal Recording Studio in Uptown Minneapolis, MN in 2007. While Benky and Prawol moved to different states in the U.S. following educational commitments, Sareen continued to work solo in a project entitled “Shades of Grey” which features new compositions like “Prashna” and “Anumati Anupasthitima” with Prateek Singh Suwal on the Tabla. These singles are yet to be recorded.
Year 2010 has marked the return of the Band again in the limelights of the Media and also in the Studios. With a changed Line up the new members Prawol Bhattarai and sirjan Gewali on Guitars, Samrat Shah on Bass and Pratap Risal on Drums have teamed up with Sareen who has recently returned from U.S and have constantly been playing live gigs in venues such as House of Music, Attic , and Lakhey.Since the original members couldn’t rejoin the band,due to various personal circumstances, Sareen with their Confirmation and heads up to continue the band to a further level has teamed up with these extremely talented musician to bring innovative sound and a brand spanking new identity to the already existing brand name that was created almost a decade ago.
In a studio at Nardevi big enough to house an orchestra, four musicians are busily working their way through a rehearsal and recording. Stopping and starting, redoing difficult passages, cracking jokes—it could have been any one of the many thousands of rehearsals taking place. The REC REcords studios marks the birth of New Age Monkey Temple, The band has moved along from the nineties influenced alternative rock genre to a modern rock, more of a new rock experimental genre. Sareen Who has written the lyrical content of all the upcoming new songs puts in plain words that the premise of the songs revolves around life’s philosophies. For instance the single Prashna talks about the known and the unknown of the outer space, galaxies, and does life exist in the realms of unknown hence the question and the title Prashna. The song Ananta Samman aims to make the listener escape from realities of life. The other two singles Anumati and swapnama are about lessons learned and forgotten yet put into words in-order to be remembered in life. Sunit Kansakar, owner and a very experienced producer is behind the making of band’s new upcoming singles at his versatile ReC RECORDS Studio. The band has recently released a new videos.
While the band was inactive Youtube and online blogs have helped the band’s name to sustain even though there was very limited action in terms of the live scene. The band hopes to come out with all four new singles in the next three months and come out with an album in about a year’s time. Shoki Shakya along with his portal Kgarira.com has been managing the band in recent days. The band also targets the media by coming out with videos. Year 2011 marks the birth of New age Monkey Temple and that the band hopes to stay for a longer time.
Above Bio unofficially copied from Band's Facebook page.
Written by Mr. Sareen.
My opinion
Imagine what happens when you mix elements of rock, blues, punk and garage music together in a meat grinder. What you end up with is Monkey Temple. Sure, it sounds tasty...but wait until you hear it!
Hailing from the valley, Monkey Temple's music comes straight from their gut. Unlike some bands, Monkey Temple is never afraid to embrace and flaunt their influences. The weird thing is that the band probably shouldn't work when you take each member's individual traits, tastes, and influences. But yet somehow, everything falls into place to create much more than just a sum of its parts. This is a group that writes and plays what they feel: no guidelines, no certain genres need to be met, just pure music.
Latest Smash:
SHADES OF GREY
