Suwal used to see his seniors perform on stage and become fascinated by the instruments they played. Like most teenager aspiring to become a musician someday, he picked up the guitar. But for him, learning the instrument was not just a phase. His interest in music was genuine and he took lessons and practiced whenever he could.
The Unburnt was formed while he was in college to participate in a musical competition. Suwal handled the bass duty. After that, they decided to continue their collaboration. This year, the band took part in ‘Band Champion Nepal’, a national rock group competition. Suwal also plays for the band, Side Project. “Every member of this band has his main band and this is just a side project,” he says, “So we decided to call ourselves Side Project.” Apart from his music career aside, Suwal is currently studying Bachelor’s in Hotel Management at IST College. He says his family fully supports his musical ambition, but he too would like to one day take over his family business. “My family owns a travel agency and I am also planning to look after the business someday,” he says. “But my main goal is still to become a professional musician.” Besides playing the bass in his two bands, Suwal is also heavily involved in song composition and recording process with his fellow band mates. “All of us in the band sit together and work on our music,” he says. Suwal enjoys being in a recording studio, working on their music, but he loves the feeling of playing on stage in front of the crowd. He says it can get monotonous being in a studio for days on end and doing live event can break that tedium. “The biggest satisfaction of playing live is watching the crowd love your music,” he says. “It is thrilling and exciting at the same time.” Talking about their work, the band made public their first original ‘Bisadu’ in July, and they are currently working on an EP (extended play record). He says the tracks they are bringing out will be both in Nepali and English, and one of them has an eastern music influence. Suwal and his The Unburnt members are also trying to explore other musical genres like the more progressive and experimental math rock, which is characterized by non-standard time signatures, and complex and odd rhythm and melodies. “We are all excited to take the journey,” he says. “The band is still growing and we want to experiment a lot of things.”
