I’m sure you have all heard the song Despacito by Luis Fonsi. Over and over again! The last time I heard it was in the taxi last night, sandwiched between Nepali songs. And that was after listening to yet another version played live. What was different about the live version is that the artists performed on guitar and sarangi. And, their version has over 3.5 million hits on YouTube!

Comprising full-time musicians, Manice Gandharva on sarangi and Tunna Bell Thapa on guitar, Skin and Bones was formed in early 2018 with the idea to promote Nepali traditional music and instruments. To do so in a folk style, they thought, would mean it may be difficult to catch the attention of people. So they tried doing something different; blending traditional with modern, guitar with sarangi.  

I have added a fifth string to another sarangi which gives me 3.5 octaves and increases the range of sounds

Manice Gandharva

There has been quite a revival of the sarangi over the past few years but even so, I was a little surprised at how enthusiastic a young guy like Gandharva (23) is about such a traditional instrument. I wanted to find out more. “I am from a Gandharva family (traditional wandering minstrels in India and Nepal), but out of the 50 members still at home in Kathmandu, only one plays sarangi. Watching him and YouTube videos I basically taught myself how to play from the age of 14,” explains Gandharva. On hearing Shyam Nepali (internationally acclaimed sarangi player) and Kiran Nepali (Project Sarangi), were relatives of his, I felt they must have been an inspiration. 

“Shyam is my uncle but he lived in Kirtipur so I couldn’t learn from him and the Project Sarangi came up only very recently.” Despite that, Gandharva’s aim —and that of Project Sarangi—appear pretty much the same: to gather those interested in preventing the death of this seemingly simple yet very complex musical instrument and age-old tradition.  

Pursing this dream further, Gandharva founded the Strings Ensemble Nepal a few months ago, by bringing together 11 sarangi players (whom he taught the instrument personally), and others who play the guitar, drums, tabla and flute. “My motive with the Strings Ensemble is to inspire and create more sarangi players.” The Strings Ensemble, following up on an idea by Thapa, are in collaboration with Skin and Bones, playing at various festive events around town including, the  Boudha Fest, Jazzmandu and Jamarko Jatra, held recently in Patan Museum.

Having heard them play, and also being a fan of Shyam Nepali I wondered just how versatile the sarangi really is. I was fascinated by the answer. “The sarangi has one octave only, so to increase the range I have taken the two basic strings and made four, giving me 2.5 octaves. I have added a fifth string to another sarangi which gives me 3.5 octaves and increases the range of sounds,” says Gandharva. “I also use gut from Switzerland. Traditionally sarangis would have used gut as strings but now it is hard to find and is expensive in Nepal, so steel guitar strings are used. By using gut on my large [around 3 feet] sarangi I can get bass line low notes, much like on a cello.”

Going back to their YouTube sensation, Despacito, I asked if they were surprised at its success. “We had only 1k subscribers on our channel. Next day it was 10k and we were texting each other, ‘how is this possible?’ A couple of days later it reached 50K and now it is at 3.8 million. We are truly amazed. Yes, we have other songs in the pipeline which we hope will be as successful”, smiled Thapa.

I couldn’t let the guys leave before asking where the name Skin and Bones comes from.  Thapa explained that it comes from a Switchfoot song ‘This skin and bones is a rental.” Laughingly he adds, “He is skin [Gandharva] and I am bones.” To find out more about up-and-coming events, check out their FB page.