In April 2018, Yugal Gurung, a UK-based Nepali musician, uploaded his first single ‘Timi’, a dreamy, laidback track on YouTube. Gurung then launched an EP, ‘Afno Sansar’, later the same year. He recently released his first full-length album ‘Lukamari’ on April 7, 2020—but not in the conventional manner. With the lockdown in effect, Gurung launched the album online and then decided to donate all its proceeds towards response projects tackling the Covid-19 crisis in Nepal.

In an interview with the Post’s Tsering Ngodup Lama, Gurung talks about his love for music, the inspiration behind his album ‘Lukamari’ and his contribution in assisting Covid-19 relief efforts in the country. Excerpts:

Let’s start with the album. What are the inspirations behind ‘Lukamari’?

‘Lukamari’ is my first full-length album. It took me over a year to write this album plus another three and a half months of production. The sound is in some ways different from ‘Afno Sansaar’, my first EP. ‘Lukamari’ is mostly my attempt to stay in touch with my aspirations and dreams I had as a child. Adulting in a tough competitive society can surely cause you to drift away from what you purely enjoy, and while I’m learning adulting I don’t want to lose the child in me. That’s what the album is about.

Do you think you have matured as an artist since you launched your first single, ‘Timi’? And do you think that has affected your music?

I have definitely matured as an artist/musician since the launch of my first single. I’ve learned to deal with people judging me as an artist and my songs. I’ve also learned to be bold to put out more stuff. Writing a song is personal which comes from a personal space and it’s not always easy putting it out there.

You decided to launch your album online and are donating all the proceeds from the album sale to COVID-19 response teams. What made you decide to do this?

I travelled from the UK to Nepal a few days before the lockdown was announced. Our plan was to play a few album release shows, which were planned months in advance. But then the lockdown got announced and all our shows had to be cancelled, and then I thought why not launch the album on a digital platform. As we started planning the album’s online launch, I was becoming aware of the impact of the lockdown on people here in Nepal. The impact of the lockdown on daily wage workers and travellers who were stranded with nowhere to go.

We—Biwek Shrestha, Nripesh Basnet, Salil Kumar Thakuri and I—decided to start a campaign to raise as much money from the album sales and donate all the money to organisations that are directly helping the people affected by the lockdown. The first thing we did was create a website yugalgurungmusic.com for people to purchase a digital copy of the album. We also created a page so people could track how much funds we have collected each day.

We then researched organisations that were helping people whose lives have been hit hard by the lockdown, and with the help of Nepal Coronavirus Response Group we got in touch with Hiteri, a crowdfunding platform, and Volunteer Corps Nepal (VCA), a non-profit humanitarian and development organisation. Currently, we are working with them to distribute essentials to a few places in Kathmandu and in Ward 3, Haripur Municipality, Sarlahi district of Nepal. We have also donated some of our funds to Kat Centre, an animal welfare organisation.

How has the response been so far?

Overwhelming! We have already raised Rs 329,569. We have received incredible support from people in Nepal and abroad. Listeners and fellow musicians have also been kind enough to share what we are doing. This has helped widen our reach. We’ve also had support from local businesses 108 wears and Fishtail Ultra Flights, both of which have helped us raise funds for the campaign.

How lasting of an impact do you think Covid-19 will have on the country’s music industry?

Until a vaccine is created it’s very unlikely that we will see shows with mass gatherings. This will make it very tough for musicians who depend solely on live shows to make a living. Unlike in the West, musicians here in Nepal make almost next to nothing from digital sales and streaming. But I also feel that Nepal’s music industry hasn’t reached a level where musicians can fully rely on music alone to support themselves and their families, so I’m sure many musicians/artists have other ventures too. Having said that, the pandemic has and will go to impact the industry negatively, and even after the lockdown opens, I think it’ll be one of the last industries to recover.