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Today is June 28th 2021. I am Yiyi Yang, an intern at the Houston Asian American Archive. We're pleased to be documenting Suman Gautam's oral history today. Thank you Suman for joining us.

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You're welcome. And I'm glad that you guys are having me. Yeah. So, we're starting from the very beginning. When and where were you born? Where I was born? Yeah, I was born

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in this tiny little village in Nepal. It's, yeah, it's a tiny little village. I was born in 1983.

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So, yeah. Yeah. So how would you describe the household you grew up in? Your family members and your house? We were a six family.

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Small, not–not quite small. But, we were four siblings total. And it was okay. During that time, a lot of struggle, but they managed still survive .

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Yeah, how was your relationship with your parents and siblings? It was good. I mean, we're pretty close. Like we–we are pretty social people in–Nepal,

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we like to be connected with our family members and relatives and friends. So, it was–it was pretty good. Okay, what are some of the memories you have with the neighborhood

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you're living in? Some of the memories, I would say like when I was in, like––when I was in my teenager, or maybe a little earlier than that, when we were back in grade

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school . Some of the memories like––I will––I used to–I used to go fishing all over the rivers, and we used to go to the forest to collect

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dead woods and stuffs like that. I, yeah, I can hardly remember a lot of things. But yeah, those are the things I can still remember. What was the language you speak growing up?

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I use Nepalese. And can you tell us a bit more about the educational preparation you received in Nepal? Like your primary school, middle school?

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Yeah. So from the very beginning, we all of–all of–all of us like, four siblings, we went to boarding school. Although we were not really rich

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that time, but my–my father thought that going to the better school was necessary, so it was a–it was a–it was a decent school, I would say, but we went in that village, and then after that, it was until my

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fourth grade. Nowuntil that––after that, I moved to city, the capital city of Nepal and then pursued my further education there, still in the boarding school.

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Did you also went to a college in Nepal? I did. I did went to college as well. So before I came to US, I I had–I had a master's degree back from

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Nepal. And then I got another Master's here from US. Yeah. How was your college experience in Nepal? It was good. It was–it was memorable. I would say. The

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high school was pretty memorable. My undergraduate or the Bachelor's was very fun. I–I chose to study geology, and during that time, I had

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to––I had the opportunity to travel a lot throughout the country for the trip, like for the geological studies and stuff like that. That made it very fun. Yeah. How did you make that choice of studying geology?

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It–it–it goes back to actually, when I was in my high school, I was taking this private tutoring with a teacher for maths and sciences, and then he turned out to be a geology—geology was not very popular

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subject of studies in Nepal. We only have one university that provides geology program, I think, and in the–in the entire country. So it's not many people is–is heard about it.

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And then but then I––I got to know about this––that tutor, and–and then from, I don't know, from that, it became just, it just stick to me. And then I decided, like, when I, like, finish my high school, I would probably

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pursue geology degree. Um, how was your parents' opinion of you studying geology? Are they supportive? They were not happy at the–at the beginning because it wasn't very popular.

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And it was not really demanding, like, medical doctor or engineers. So, yeah, they were like––they were not a fan of it at the beginning. They only realize that until—recently realized that

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it was good until I came to US. But then back then they were not very, like, they would not discourage me, but then they were also not very, you know, super excited about .

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Okay, um, what kind of food, music, and religious practice did you experience growing up? Early in my childhood, we were Hindu. I don't know if you are aware of it, which is, Hinduism is–is

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the main religion back in Nepal, and a lot of these South Asian countries, right. So. But then, when I was like, 10, or 11 years, my parents they converted to Christians, so––and

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so, I did go to churches for a couple of years. But then after–after growing up, after being, like being able to think about myself, I decided to, not to choose any religion.

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So–so I'm not really religious person at the moment. And, our food, yeah we have, we have our own food culture, and that's pretty—oh, there

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are some varieties of food. But one of the food that I–I would mention is the actually––is one of the most popular food in Nepal, but which seems that which is come from China, actually, or yeah,

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from Hong Kong. It's––we call it Momo. And it's actually dumpling. So, it's our own version of dumpling, and it's–it's the most popular food in Nepal. Do you like it?

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Yeah, all of us would like it, all of the Nepalese people will like it. Nice. Um, as far as I'm concerned, you're probably the first Nepalese that our archive is documenting. So I might ask some more questions about your ethnicity, if

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that's okay? Sure. Yeah. Um, so what kind of games did you play with your childhood friends? The popular one are soccer, ping pong.

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I was pretty good at ping pong. And then basketball, and then badminton, tennis. And then there were some other sports––there's not like really

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sports that is like, nationally. It's like little ethnically sport I would say––like little sports like invented by little kid in a smaller group or a smaller area so they just play that

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with the friends only, but there's no competition or tournament for that. Those are playing with the marbles, like different style of marble games, collecting marbles. I was ––when I was kid.

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I remember those things. Those were very fun, and unlike growing up and going to the high school, I picked up soccer and ping pong as my— and the Cricket–Cricket is also

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pretty popular. Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned that you moved from a small village to the capital city. So did you

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feel—how–how did you feel about the transition between that? It wasn't–it wasn't very difficult, it was, I mean, first few days in the school was difficult. It wasn't that difficult, it was just going to the

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bigger school, obviously, with a lot of new kids will be a little frightening and especially frightening of getting bullied or something and––but other than that, we—it just naturally become easier, it wasn't as bad.

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So I don't recall like being a difficult transition. Um, can you talk a little bit about the internet structure of Nepal? I actually, right now don't know, because I––it’s been a long time that I left country and the last time I

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visited... I mean, it has improved, but still, it is not really good. Like, the city area might have some good connect-connection with bandwidth.

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In–in a provider with power in the villages or remote area, this is still––people are still like lack of good quality Internet, and then Wi-Fi. I don't think there is really good

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Wi-Fi or any 3G, 4G network. So you have to rely on cable internet, I think. So how was your experience with the internet back in Nepal? When I was, so, yeah.

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I didn't have internet in my own place. So we used to go to this little–little shop that would provide Internet like you check your email and browse and stuff like that. I think–I think

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I only had internet–internet for like a couple of months before I moved to US. But then a lot of time, we'll just go out, pay hourly prices for that and–and then do your thing on the internet.

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And, um, what kind of educational system was Nepalese education? For example, is it based on the British model?

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Or something else? Yeah, for the university education, it is based in the UK curriculum. It was–it was based on that.

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But I think it is changing slowly. When I had my undergrad or master's our program were like a yearly program. So you have a first year, second year, there is no semester system at that time.

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Some–some institution provided in the semester system, but most of them still were yearly, which is based on a UK system, but I think now it's changing. A lot of university has adopted a semester-based systems.

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Okay, how about, um, middle school and high school education? That I am not really aware of like—how I think–I think it–it resembles the––what it is in India. And I

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don't know what Indian system was. But I–I–I assume it is still a UK-based. Do you recall the history classes that you were taking?

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Maybe there are some evidence from there. No, vaguely. It was only in the middle school I took history. We didn't have to take any history in–in

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our undergrad, so our undergraduate, we will still strictly go—like even actually––even in our high school, we will select what kind of stream that we're going, like, do you want to be a science major or you

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want to be a humanity or, like from high school we would choose that. And then after that, yeah, there is no history or any classes. So, I–I–I don't recall any history

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classes. And a lot of the history classes that I took in the middle school, they were––I think they were very ancient history, it’s–it's–it’s I don't even remember anything.

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That's fine. Um, another question, what are some of the values that your parents emphasized during your upbringing? Higher education was primary values.

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And then of course, be social–social-socially respectful and respecting other people, like a lot of relatives come and then have to, like, you need to socially respect your elderly people and relatives and stuff like that, but mostly social values

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and–and education. And then, of course, my parents would, want me to follow strictly Jesus, which I didn't, so–– So what were their opinions of

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you choosing your own belief? They don't have any opinion basis. I don’t think––my parents are not very educated people. So they

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cannot think in the logical way. Like, a philosophical way, so they––yeah, up till now, like they would like to— they would want me to, like follow a religion,

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but– but then me not following religion I don't think it really affected them that much. Are your parents now with you in the US?

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Or are they in Nepal? They're back in the Nepal. When did you move to the US? 2010. Were

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you a college student? Um, master student at that time, or were you working? Yeah, I–I was–I was just starting to work at that time. I was already graduated.

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And then–and then at the same time, I also applied for university in the US. Um, what were some of the challenges that you faced moving to the US?

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A main challenge was––I think–I think it just the transportation was main challenge. Because when I came to US, I–I didn't have any

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financial problem because I was supported by university. And so that was okay. But then back in Nepal, I––a lot of us won't have a private car or any means of

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transportation. So, coming here, it was like for at least a few years, like, actually, for two years, I didn't have transportation. I didn't need it, but it would have been made life easier.

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And that was main challenge. And then of course, new–new country, new region, being socially aware of things, what is happening in US, US culture, and

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that, of course will be challenging and that slow process to learn. Were there any cultural shocks? No, not really. Not really.

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Um, how did your parents think of you moving to the US and have your current life? They supported me because we were–we were financially weak at that time, so I am, so me

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being able to come to US and get a job or education would be beneficial for the family back there. So they were excited about it actually.

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What was your first job in the US? I work for Schlumberger. If you look up my LinkedIn that was my first job. Well, my first job was a

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––I was a teach-teaching assistant at the university that I went, so, but that's not really a job. It's just a part of the program. But–but after the graduation, I–I joined Schlumberger, which

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is oil and gas company. And that was my first job. Yeah. I noticed that you have spent almost eight years of your career with Schlumberger.

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And that might be a long time commitment for a young professional like you. So do you plan on continuing your career in the same field?

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Yeah, actually, well, I am no longer with Schlumberger. And, it's pronounced Schlumberger actually. It's a French name. Yeah, I'm no longer with that.

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But yeah, I did spend a long time in eight years. And I'm currently trying to switch my career to the tech field. Although geology or geophysics that

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I did was still tech, but I am now looking for a change career. So, um, why did you decided to make a change? Well, there are a lot of things.

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After working for eight years. It's––it was natural for me to seek something new. And also I've been in the oil and gas industry which has been very–very unstable

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field. So something fairly stable field that I am looking for, and it’s–it’s really, the mo–the main reason is it’s really narrow and focused, and especially in oil and gas only. So I just wanted to diversify where I can

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contribute. Um, what do you think is the near-term or long-term prospective oil and gas business in Houston? Well, I mean, oil is gonna be there for a while,

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so it's not going to go immediately away. But from my, from my side, like my–my field of study like geoscience is getting difficult everyday so––and

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that's why there is a lot of business has been down and on that side, so it's not looking really good at the moment for the near–near-term. For the long term, there might be still some jobs available, some

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work, but it's really uncertain. And it also depends on the government administration, whether it's the Democratic or Republican. And yeah, but there will be some

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businesses still out there, but not as lucrative as it was five years ago. Do you think Asian American professionals are well represented at Schlumberger?

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Yeah, I think we had a lot of Asian American people. My work, especially, so it was pretty well represented. And especially in the highly technical field, there was pretty good, present––presence.

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Were there any specific examples or cases that you recall? My last manager was a Chinese. And then a lot of my colleagues I remember are from China or

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Taiwan, and a lot of Asian and Indian. And yes, I think–I think it is, my company is really very diverse company. It has a lot of ethnicity.

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Um, what do you think is the best way for minority to be recognized in a major corporate environment? That's a difficult question. Well, I mean, well, in a lot of technical

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field, although, as a mid-level, there were good presence of Asian American, but on a higher, upper management, there wasn't. There is not– there is not, still it's predominated by European.

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And so in that regard, yeah, if the–if the upper management also had more diverse presence, I mean, there were some Indian people or Middle Eastern

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people, a few here and there, but it's still, in general, the upper management lacks Asian American community. So that's where it needs to be in my company. But what can we do about it, I mean,

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it's a–it's a bureaucrat-bureaucratic company, so it just takes time, and you–you have to make your way up. And if you're not born here, or grown up here, then the

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one of the barrier could be language. And I recall a lot of my Chinese friends, they were brilliant people, but they were having issue with

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communication. And that–that makes a huge difference in companies like Schlumberger. If you don't speak up, you will be left behind. So–so improving

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language communications would help. So you're now a data science fellow, right? What do you do in that school? Can you introduce a little bit?

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So it's a, it's––I don't know if you know about it, but it's a–it's a new emerging or a new hot field in the US right now. And everybody's like, in data, more of a data science, but it's basically working with

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data, getting meaningful insights from the data and–and finding something of the business value for a company, and that’s so–so basically, a data science is a–is a form of using mathematics to the business

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problem. So we use a lot of statistical and machine learning techniques to predict something from the data. Hopefully, that helps business. So do you work physically in New York, or remotely from Houston?

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It is remotely. And the program has ended right now, so I am actually going to change that profile soon. Yeah. Um, so can you talk a little bit more about this

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school that you were doing the program with and the reason why you decided to be affiliated with that school? Yeah, so–so, when I was in, I was at Schlumberger, I started exploring this data science for machine

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learning. And then when the pandemic hit last year, I was let go, there was a huge layoff. And then, so at that time, I decided I should invest more time ingetting proper

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education or—instead of going to grad school, which would take two years, I decided to go to a boot camp which would finish in about five to six months, and–and be able to get more experience

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with that subject as soon as possible. And that's the main reason that I chose to go to the boot camp. Do you think you are well prepared now? Well, I think I am prepared to some degree but I am, I–I

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still believe I am not fully well prepared, but I am prepared on a level that I can apply for new opportunity. And also, I'm in a position to that I can provide the

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experience to actual problem that I can solve. But I can do more with more education. Yeah. Yeah. Are you currently looking for jobs?

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Yeah, I am now. Yeah, I'm starting to apply for different jobs. Okay. Um, so, what is your attitude towards the current anti-Asian hate, given the COVID situation?

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Yeah, that's ridiculous. Like, I haven't really experienced anything of that myself. But it's–it's not good. Like, a lot of–a lot of friend of mine, I mean, they

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posts in the social media. I don't know they encounter the same situation, or they just saw other being in this similar situation. But it's–it's very bad

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thing to have that kind of behavior against some particular race about––and that's America. And what can you––can expect from?

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It's a wide range of people that are living in with. So there could be––there are a lot of people who is ––which support international community, but then there are a lot of people which––who don't, so it is––it was––it is

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sad to see that kind of things happening. But it is also, I'm not completely, like, shocked that people still do that. What were some of the worst situations you have experienced since COVID?

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I personally haven't really experienced any situation other than getting laid off. So yeah. But since I'm not really going out, I–I haven't really experienced any–any bad behavior from people yet.

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So I'm lucky in that regard. I–I don't have to really experience. But especially in Houston it's not bad, because

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Houston is a very diverse city. And so it's really–really hard to, at least I haven't really experienced anything like that in this city.

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So not going out pretty often means you cannot socialize with other people. Did that have a big impact on you?

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Yeah, I mean, I think everybody's having–having an impact by that not going––not being able to go out, have fun. And I mean, you can go out if you want, but people

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are just, are being self-aware. And so they are not risking themselves by going out in a–in a public meeting. Especially–especially going out to

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the restaurant, to the mall and other stuff like that. Um, besides Houston, what cities in the US have you been stayed for a fairly long time? It was in––it was near Chicago where my university

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was. I stayed there for two years. So are there any differences or similarities between them as they're all big cities? Yes, it's very different.

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So well, I didn't spend in proper Chicago. It was a small suburb of Chicago. So it was a small college town. And so in US like if you go further North, and further

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South it's very different. Like, here, it's–it’s very diverse. There, it was not diverse, only, because it was only the college

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town maybe during the college season will be––it will have some diversity, but it's still it was, it was pretty American. I would say like more–more white–white folks,

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predominantly, and then few minority. And then other than that, the food and everything is very different. And then transportation system everything and it–it was the––yeah, I

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mean, very hard to describe but there's a–there's a big difference in Houston and growing up in Chicago area. And of course, the–the weather and climate, it's

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winter––snowing, freezing over there most of the time, while in Houston it is hot as hell, so. Um, so, we can talk about your music a little bit now.

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So how did you first become interested in music? Oh, yeah. So I picked up guitar when I was a kid, like eight or nine years old, started learning

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that––from that years, and then slowly, I started to––so I sta-I first like, started to listen to like some of the–the 70’s 80’s classical rock songs. When you–when you listen to rock music, then the guitar becomes

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very natural, it’s the primary instrument for you. So that's how I started. And then I learned mostly by myself, and–and then I

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developed this idea of being a very, I don't know, one of the best guitarist from Nepal, which I couldn't. And but yeah, and then–and then I had a choice if I wanted to be a full time

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musician, or–or a science––scientist, or whatever. And I decided to pursue education. And because we don't have a lot of music institutions, so I couldn't really

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go into that direction as well. Also, it's really hard to survive being a musician, really. So I chose to––I chose to become

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a scientist. And then I chose to keep music as my secondary, a passion–passion project for me, but I never abandoned it. So I kept playing

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it. And then I started learning more about it, and then starting to compose music. From, back then, I had––I didn't like write any or record an album back then.

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But then I had all this memories of tunes and melodies that I composed. And then after I came to US, became financially stable, and then be able to buy some stuff that I could make a small

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studio at my home. And so––and then I started, like, going back to my old memories and started putting them into the song or whatever. And now I am collaborating with different artists from Nepal and then here, and creating

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music. And I already published a couple of songs and then we are in the process of publishing a few songs actually, one song will be published next week, hopefully.

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And then album coming up soon. Great. Um, when did you first start composition? The–the, I'm sorry, can you repeat again, composition or competition? Yeah, comp-composition, composing music.

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Composing. So when I was in my undergrad, that was back in home. At that time, I started to

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improve my playing. And then I also started to compose a melody at that time. So I would say, at the age of 19, or 20, something like that.

00:40:00.660 - 00:40:16.060

Were there some friends also into music with you at that time? Yes, we had a small band back home. We would perform at our school program and college program.

00:40:16.060 - 00:40:30.150

But as soon as I moved to US and the band is now no more. We didn't have a particular name for it, but we had a group that we play together, jam, have a jam session if we were all together.

00:40:30.860 - 00:40:52.600

Now back home, we would have been some official band at this time, but unfortunately, that didn't happen. Are there some artists or music groups that has influenced you a lot? Yeah, a lot of my music is influenced from European music.

00:40:53.380 - 00:41:12.450

So I–I listened a lot of European bands from Germany, and Nordic countries, and I'm also really like, into like folk music. But then at the same time, I'm also like, into hard rock and this kind of

00:41:12.540 - 00:41:28.450

music. So these bands from Europe did, they combined both, they bring their folk melody, and they put them into this hard rock, metal music. And then they are–they are driven by classical music as well.

00:41:28.710 - 00:41:44.490

So it's like a very blend of all this kind of style. And–and that was, that was the reason that I––or, those are the typical band that inspired me, and in my composition as well.

00:41:44.670 - 00:41:58.040

Some of them, I would, if you want to know then, like one of the bands that I was inspired is Blind Guardian from Germany. And there are some other band from Norway, and Finland.

00:41:58.760 - 00:42:14.440

They had this weird, Finnish name. But yeah, those bands inspired me. And very few Americans, I was–I was not very much into American band, except there

00:42:14.810 - 00:42:32.200

is one band. Of course, Metallica is very popular, but I wasn't really a fan of that, I was a fan of Negative, which is a heavy metal band. And that actually is, I would say one of the biggest inspiration for me, especially the–the

00:42:32.680 - 00:42:53.700

guitar, improved my guitar playing. So, um, is your current music genre similar to those that you like? I do them also, but I have now a very wide taste, I do different kinds of genres.

00:42:54.300 - 00:43:11.960

So I also like slow indie style music, fairly mellow so–so I am currently doing multiple genres, I would say I have very mellow style genre that I–I would keep it to myself.

00:43:13.280 - 00:43:32.360

And then I have this band that I formed recently with a friend and then which is more towards rock and heavy–heavy metal with folk influence. And–and then I'm also, I also do instrumental like there is––there will be no

00:43:32.950 - 00:43:50.200

voice, just the instrument where I would play guitar or–or arrange different kinds of instruments, so. Are you currently in a band now? Yes, I am––I ––we just opened–we just

00:43:50.780 - 00:44:06.500

opened an Instagram account for a new band last week, actually, and then. Yeah. But it's a band–it's a band but we don't have like official band members.

00:44:06.980 - 00:44:19.470

It's only two of us, and we do all of the work. And then whenever we need it, we will hire some musician or other members right? Like it's really hard to get all the people together

00:44:21.400 - 00:44:38.440

and–and spend time for the band in US when everybody's like, trying to survive. So are these people––are you working remotely together? Mostly? Yeah.

00:44:38.440 - 00:44:48.940

So yeah, well, it's mostly remotely, specially’ the band consists of me. I–I do a lot, I do all the musical part.

00:44:49.020 - 00:45:03.130

And then I have a singer who is from another city, which is Austin, and we do a lot of work remotely, but then Austin and Houston are in a driving distance about two hours or two and a half hours

00:45:03.130 - 00:45:19.130

so, and time to time we meet–we meet up together and we just plan things like if we needed to. But then both of us has had our own little home studio. So we just work from home and share our work.

00:45:22.390 - 00:45:35.740

Can you talk more about that friend? How did you meet? And when did you all decide to make music together? Yeah, that's interesting.

00:45:36.650 - 00:45:52.840

It was two years ago, there was this little Nepalese gathering in Houston. And that guy, the friend of mine, he was there performing, he was performing for the crowd.

00:45:53.760 - 00:46:07.170

And actually there was a popular singer that came from Nepal to here for perform. And so––and then my friend was like, supporting the artist, who came from Nepal. And so he was singing.

00:46:07.170 - 00:46:20.720

And then right after that, I went and talked to him, and then we, like, shared about ideas. And then–then I invited him next day to my apartment, and then–and then we just became friends.

00:46:21.240 - 00:46:35.030

And–and then it was, after a few months, when we–we meet together. And then I came up with some ideas to share with him. And then–and then we just

00:46:35.030 - 00:46:46.160

decided, okay, let's just work on a song. It was a very indie style, very slow, pop song that first we–we started to work on that.

00:46:46.240 - 00:47:01.250

And after that, one day, I came up with this tune, which is really, it has a folkist melody, some kind of folk melody, and I shared with him, and then he just like randomly, like,

00:47:02.520 - 00:47:18.140

randomly to pick up few words in the center, which is like a one liner. And then–and then that's–that's how like the whole idea of album is that maybe we should just like work on this one and make a whole

00:47:18.180 - 00:47:30.270

album about this. And so, from that we're currently working on completing an album, they only recorded a couple of songs, so we still need to finish two or three more songs, and then we'll be

00:47:30.270 - 00:47:49.810

ready to publish. Um, what concept is your current album like? Yeah, it's a–it's a–it's a fictional character that we, in the first tune that will develop fictional

00:47:50.360 - 00:48:06.900

character, this character is from ancient history, or our some, like your ancestor or something. So there is one character who is your ancestor, and there is another character, which is you as your

00:48:06.990 - 00:48:18.190

younger generation. And so you're trying to remember what the ancestor is doing? Or–or how the ancestor went

00:48:18.340 - 00:48:35.830

through during their time and then tried to call it that, and maybe can you follow those kind of footsteps and those footsteps, the ancestor did was difficult, and more like showing that they were powerful entity

00:48:35.910 - 00:48:51.650

or I don't know how to explain, but it's just like, imagine there is a mountain and then–and then your ancestor is one of the mountain and there is a person who–who–who reaches the summit

00:48:52.350 - 00:49:06.930

of the mountain, like it’s Mount Everest or something. And then–and then he's like, after going through that–that summit, and he's like, descending down, and then eventually, in his experience, a

00:49:06.930 - 00:49:22.010

lot of thing and eventually coming to the end of his life. Finally, finding, or finally, in a death bed or something. It's a whole like story of like something like that. So and then–and then there's a new character

00:49:22.100 - 00:49:36.870

like, whoa, hey, here's your ancestor. This is the story of ancestor and he you are now. And then those–those climbing mountain is just like a metaphor for climbing or fighting against your

00:49:37.270 - 00:49:53.660

difficulties in your life or something. So–so the album is actually all the songs are related to each other. So it's–it’s not like one song is one particular kind and the other song is other kind––it’s like every single we tried to like

00:49:54.830 - 00:50:04.980

put together as a novel or something. So, it's the concept. That's really interesting. How many songs will there be in total?

00:50:07.040 - 00:50:24.450

It was originally six songs. But then we decided to cut it to five songs, where there will be four actual song with voice and one will be instrumental. Yeah. How did you come up with that concept?

00:50:24.990 - 00:50:41.460

Were there any inspirations? Yeah, the concept was actually that the same tune that I shared with my friend. And then initially, we were only supposed to work on one song, that one song, it

00:50:41.460 - 00:51:01.050

was very long, like about 10 minutes long. It that––one song describe the whole life story of that person, that character. And then–and then later on, I added a few more music, or instrumental tracks,

00:51:01.770 - 00:51:15.190

or I shared with him. And then–and then we came up with the lyrics. It seemed like, all of those lyrics or––of different songs might be fit together.

00:51:15.700 - 00:51:29.700

And so why not just like, make it a concept album, and then change the lyrics here and there and so that they connect with each other. But the whole idea came from that very first tune that

00:51:29.700 - 00:51:46.820

I came up with. And from that everything like I started from. Do you think your identity influenced the music that you create? Sure, yeah, of course.

00:51:47.750 - 00:52:02.430

Literally in some–in some instances, it–it directly reflects. Yeah, are there? Um, would you think about your home when you're creating music?

00:52:04.410 - 00:52:18.890

Yes. Like––this kind of this, especially this album it is inspired by folk melody. And of course, that will remind me of home and remote

00:52:18.980 - 00:52:37.160

places from Nepal that I visited a long time ago. I'm also curious, what are the lyrics about? How do you come up with the lyrics?

00:52:39.560 - 00:52:55.340

Yeah, so the lyrics is, it's not a love song or anything, it is story, right? It's a–it’s a kind of a based on novel. And so the–the one of the song, for example, is–is about

00:52:58.730 - 00:53:13.110

the climbers of the Everest. So in Nepal, we have this ethnical group, who lives in–in the higher altitude region, is pretty close to Tibet. And these

00:53:13.110 - 00:53:28.210

people are––they are known for their–their ability to climb the top mountains. So they are the–the champion of that race.

00:53:28.210 - 00:53:41.700

So I wrote that song a long time ago, actually, the melody, and then I, later on, I added the lyrics on that. So basically, based on that, we were creating in

00:53:41.800 - 00:53:56.890

character around those people that who climbs the Mount Everest, and so they are like, they are the winner. And they are the people with such a immense power.

00:53:56.890 - 00:54:14.430

And so initially, the song was originally like, dedicated to those people, but I just like, modified it to represent a character, or something like that. And then––so that's like one song about

00:54:14.670 - 00:54:29.700

the mountain song. And then there is another song called the desert. It's not, the lyrics are in Nepalese, I'm just singing English meaning of that, the desert. It's like, you're a character, you–you win a, you scale a

00:54:29.700 - 00:54:43.560

mountain, you–you win––you got the victory, right? So but then, what next? What is your biggest mountain? Or, but then the next step

00:54:43.560 - 00:54:59.820

is like, there is a lot of places that are like in desert, meaning that a lot of people life is in trouble or there is a biggest struggle lying ahead, how do you––what can you do about that? How do you–how do you turn that desert into an

00:55:00.700 - 00:55:18.780

oasis? That's a next challenge. So one of the song talks about that, about overcoming challenges of a desert life or something. And then one of the song talks about, so you win

00:55:19.110 - 00:55:36.300

the, oh, you went to the highest, so–so getting up to the Mount Everest mean that in your general life, you–you got to your highest point. And then what next, so–so that talks

00:55:36.300 - 00:55:51.400

about like after you––sorry the kid is––after the–after the success, the character is going downhill. And he's experienced different things.

00:55:51.950 - 00:56:04.340

And he describes the things in terms of nature and beauty, along the nature, but those are correlated to your life as well. Like, you went to the highest point of your life, and then now you're going down.

00:56:05.300 - 00:56:20.840

And you're experiencing other stuff in life that could be related to your relationship or your marriage, and your friendship and everything like that. So that’s kind of an analogy that can be made. Yeah, the lyrics are mostly metaphorical.

00:56:24.120 - 00:56:35.410

Do you put your personal experience into that? Into the music creation, lyrics, or something else? Not–not ––yeah, not on this. I usually don't.

00:56:36.950 - 00:56:54.130

Yeah, I haven't really put my personal ex-experience in any of my songs because these songs are––a lot of my songs are actually fictitious. So I––they–they come

00:56:54.170 - 00:57:13.810

from some–some imagination, so. But there are some songs that I actually wrote, but the lyrics were written by some of my friends. And, but their lyrics kind of relate to my personal life,

00:57:14.080 - 00:57:27.500

although I didn't write the lyrics for that, but I compose the music and melody. And I will probably sing as well. But then I didn't write those story, but then they relates me, it kind of

00:57:27.960 - 00:57:41.680

interesting. I don't know when I'm gonna release them. But it's something I'm going to release them. Can you give us an example of how others’ works relate to you personally?

00:57:42.930 - 00:57:59.040

Yeah, there's one particular song––it's a very sad song, tragic song, I would say. It's very sad. That's why I'm really reluctant to publish yet. Yeah, it–it describes, it describes a lot

00:57:59.580 - 00:58:15.370

of events that happened to me that I went through a few years ago, mostly related to a breakup in a relationship and stuff like that. But then it also, it might also relate to other people as well, so not just me.

00:58:19.570 - 00:58:33.430

I noticed that you were in a program called Confluence, right? Can you introduce that a little bit? When and where did you learn about it? Yeah, so the Confluence is a–a very small program,

00:58:34.930 - 00:58:49.560

hosted by a–a band from Nepal, which is one of the members happened to be or my friend from the past. And then they started this program after the CO-no, before the COVID.

00:58:49.590 - 00:59:03.280

But then they started this year, or last November, they decided to do it remotely because of COVID. And they also decided to include some people there. They were originally

00:59:03.280 - 00:59:15.710

like, focused on Nepalese artist only, but last year they also decided to include, like international artist, who is not from Nepal, because they were doing remote. And basically, they were trying to

00:59:17.770 - 00:59:33.160

bring together upcoming artists or new artists, and make them go through some––or make them or teach them how to interact with other musicians.

00:59:33.300 - 00:59:49.740

And then–and then through the process, come up with new songs and hopefully new songs, or at least you will learn about collaboration with different artists. So in the program, there were six people and–and six people divided into

00:59:49.740 - 01:00:02.390

two groups, three and three. And so after that, they were––or we were told that it will be nice if we can come up with some songs.

01:00:03.280 - 01:00:18.200

So–so three of us, we just like started working on something. And then at the end of the program, we compose songs and release them. What kind of song did you contribute?

01:00:19.840 - 01:00:37.300

So, for that program, there was this singer. He originally came up with some lyrical idea that he only wrote, and he also had some melody for it. And I took it, and then we decided to modify it.

01:00:37.570 - 01:00:48.250

And because I was not contributing on singing, what I was mostly contributing on arrangement. And so I also added some lyrics and melodies.

01:00:48.930 - 01:01:04.780

And then–and then modify the song a little bit, and then adding instruments and everything, and putting together a song. And the song is about nature, it's like one person's imagination of the nature.

01:01:04.780 - 01:01:18.660

And so it is somehow driven by folk melody as well. So it has a combination of some of the folk melody, pop melody, and then a little bit of classical melody as well.

01:01:22.730 - 01:01:41.710

What have you learned from that program, collaborating with others? Yeah, it was–it was very interesting, and especially learning from countries like Nepal, that there are so many good artists, but they don't have a mean

01:01:44.450 - 01:02:02.980

of–they don't have a mean of expressing their talent easily. Because I'm here, I have at least some instruments and recording studio at home that I can quickly come up with idea and then share with people but then back home, they don't have that kind

01:02:04.000 - 01:02:20.000

of facility. And it's really hard to sometimes to really collaborate. And so although people are talented, but the financial burden is one of the biggest challenge, especially in countries

01:02:20.240 - 01:02:40.390

like Nepal, to really collaborate. And then–and then also, like, being respectful of the other people's idea when you collaborate. Yeah, how do you think we can make Nepalese musicians

01:02:41.390 - 01:02:57.850

be heard more widely? Through creating more of these programs? Or are there other ways of doing that, in your opinion? Yeah, I mean, especially in the US, our presence is very

01:02:57.850 - 01:03:13.840

low. And one of the–one of the ways that we can do is that invite some of the–some of the bands from Nepal. And like, for the performance as a

01:03:13.900 - 01:03:29.300

cultural program, or something, and we really do like a lot of, if one of the–one of the reason is that there is a very, there's not many Nepalese crowds, so that not many bands comes here to perform, but then for

01:03:29.300 - 01:03:50.050

international crowd, yeah, somebody has to take initiative and we invite those to program that would help them to actually be known. Yeah. Do you think the representation of Asian musicians

01:03:50.530 - 01:04:08.870

needs any changes? You mean, like representing in US, or like–– In the US or in the world. Yes, I mean, I think

01:04:11.690 - 01:04:33.120

that's–that's–that’s very obvious, like it–it means it needs some changes, but then it is also difficult that I understand, but…how–how to put it together... a band from a countries like Nepal

01:04:33.240 - 01:04:51.610

and be able to perform internationally. So, first thing is that the band itself, they cannot–they cannot support anything for themselves to go out on the stage. So there has to have some kind of sponsorship,

01:04:53.100 - 01:05:11.630

so some–some art institution or something, somebody has to provide a sponsorship for that, so that artists from Nepal or Asian community can come up or go to different places and perform.

01:05:17.530 - 01:05:40.760

Yeah. So how do you keep the balance between your daytime job and music? Yeah, I mean, it depends like I––at this point I am, I invest in music, when I am

01:05:40.980 - 01:05:54.230

like inspired by something, right. So, it's not like every day thing that I do music; it is like maybe a weekly thing, or maybe a monthly thing, sometimes I’m just––I'm very busy in my

01:05:55.860 - 01:06:11.540

corporate life, then I will forget about music once in a while, excuse me, something will inspire, and then–then I’ll pick up my guitar or my recording interface, and then I would

01:06:12.110 - 01:06:27.330

just like, come up with something, and then I will work on that. So it's not really that hard to balance. The only challenge is that when you have to put together something and you wanna publish, but then, when you're working with

01:06:28.450 - 01:06:36.860

someone with collaborating with them, they have to like, you have to make happy, everybody happy. And that is difficult. So that will take time.

01:06:37.610 - 01:06:51.510

But personally, it has been––it hasn't been that difficult for me, because I do not–I do not keep a lot of hour for music. I only put hours when I'm inspired.

01:06:54.460 - 01:07:12.820

What usually inspires you? Usually it's a mood, like, a particular day or something, if I'm feeling good about it, and then listening to some songs or tunes, and some songs are

01:07:12.820 - 01:07:24.490

really good that this connects to you then. And then from there, the new things start to pop up in your head. And then that's how it works for me.

01:07:27.490 - 01:07:45.600

What else do you like to do outside of work and music? Oh, um, a lot of things, like go out in nature, hiking and stuff. Photography is another passion of mine, I do a lot of landscape nature-related photography,

01:07:48.190 - 01:08:04.780

and food, trying different foods. That's a big part. And then–and then learn I study a lot, actually, quite a lot. I don't read many novels and books, but I

01:08:05.370 - 01:08:21.330

read technical stuffs outside my work. Yeah, I see there are a lot of photos that you take on your website. They're really amazing. So how did you first pick up the skill of taking photos?

01:08:23.080 - 01:08:40.790

Oh, yeah, I–I went on a trip to Arizona a couple of years back. And then a friend of mine was taking this amazing, brilliant photos. And then–and then after that I came back, and after a year I–I–I

01:08:42.990 - 01:08:56.830

broke up. And then–and then that left me sad. And then I needed to do something and then I bought a camera and started to use it. And so then it just felt good.

01:08:57.820 - 01:09:12.340

And then I started going out to the nature and taking pictures and try to improve my skills of photography. And it was–it was a––it was just like another music project for me at this point.

01:09:13.170 - 01:09:30.490

So I spent a lot of hours in learning techniques and then going out to and trying that kind of shots and then buying new camera gears. But mostly, I would

01:09:30.580 - 01:09:48.850

credit that to this one friend of mine. We were visiting Arizona and based on his photos I was inspired to. So you mainly take photos of the nature or are

01:09:49.580 - 01:10:08.040

you also interested in taking photos of people or other stuff? Yeah, I mean, mostly it is nature but then once in a while, I would also take picture from–from my friends, or if somebody hires me to do like a small gigs.

01:10:09.210 - 01:10:24.710

So yeah, I've done like, a couple of paid photoshoot for some friend of mine. But it's not really a professional photographer, like I do that if somebody asked for–for me.

01:10:28.550 - 01:10:47.140

Okay, now a big question, what do you think you will be doing in the next five or ten years? Well, I will be, I'll be, of course, doing some daytime job, which is part of my life,

01:10:47.420 - 01:11:04.550

I guess. And then I would still be continuing my musical career. Or it's not a career or musical passion. Because I have–I have a lot of songs on my pipeline that I need to

01:11:04.640 - 01:11:18.720

complete them and finish them and release them. So it will probably take a couple of years. Because not being a full-time musician will take some time to listen . Yeah, that's, and then of course, I'll be traveling

01:11:21.260 - 01:11:35.060

internat-at-I haven’t really done any international travelling. So I will be traveling internationally quite a lot in this next five years, if the COVID situation improves. Yeah.

01:11:36.110 - 01:11:51.330

If you can go back to your childhood, would you choose to be a full-time musician? No. I would not choose to be. You can still be a musician without being a full-time musician.

01:11:52.060 - 01:12:04.890

So I would still be, like, I–I studied geology. It was also one of the passion at that time. So it is–it is kind of a

01:12:04.890 - 01:12:25.280

music to me as well. So science and music need to go hand in hand with me. Yeah. About your career, you said that you're gradually changing to the tech industry. So what kind of–what kind of

01:12:25.380 - 01:12:41.210

positions are you especially interested in? Or what kind of things are you passionate to do? Something related to data analytics. So I am–I am, well, I would, if I have

01:12:41.240 - 01:12:54.540

to, if I have–if I have a choice, I would definitely would like to work on climate or environmental studies, especially climate change, but–but that's–that’s narrow in general, something that is

01:12:55.250 - 01:13:14.220

data driven, data––something that involves data analytics, that is something I am looking forward to do. Yes. Data Analytics. In your past work environment at Schlumberger, did you also

01:13:14.220 - 01:13:29.630

encounter with data science a lot? Yeah. So the work that I did, it's a, it has a data science embedded in it. It is within executed the way the data science community executes.

01:13:29.720 - 01:13:47.040

But it is––it’s a part of the–part of the–the work that we did, I did with Schlumberger. So that's one of the reasons that we have some overlaps with the data science. So that's why I am trying to go to data analytics, because it

01:13:47.160 - 01:14:00.900

would make it easier. It's not like a day or night shift. It's just like a gradual transition for me. How different would you say from your past work

01:14:01.530 - 01:14:20.770

to the job that you are looking forward to? It will not be–it will not be huge difference. The only difference will be the way you execute it. In the past. I would say it's mostly like the new

01:14:20.770 - 01:14:33.510

job will be you have to be coding order to program and use a programming language. Well in my past language, I didn't have to use, write codes. I just had to use some

01:14:33.640 - 01:14:55.690

kind of software and then do it so that's–that's a big difference. Like, now I have to write my code. Yeah. Um, from your perspective. What do you think of the amount of false information

01:14:57.070 - 01:15:13.840

on these days on the internet? And, what do you think that can be done from the technological side of things? Yes, there is a lot of false information. Some of the technology even allows you to do false things.

01:15:15.950 - 01:15:35.540

I mean, well, I mean, raising awareness to the people, is what you can do. If it goes out of control, then some sort of restriction on the government level

01:15:36.370 - 01:15:48.930

might be helpful. Yeah. Okay. I have no more questions for now. Thank you so much for the interview with us.

01:15:49.960 - 01:15:54.100

Sure. Thank you for having me, hopefully you–– Yeah.