In January 2014, when a relatively unknown boy band named B8eight released their song ‘K Yo Maya Ho’, none of the group’s five members had imagined that their lives would go on to change forever. Within a matter of a few days, the song had already managed to become a huge hit and an anthem of sorts for the youngsters.

Post ‘K Yo Maya Ho’, the band released multiple songs that further helped the group cement its name in Nepal’s rapidly growing pop music landscape. The members travelled across the country and abroad for shows. The members were living the high life.

After making music for over six years, the band decided to take a break. What was supposed to be a two-year hiatus stretched to four because of the pandemic, and the band finally released their comeback song, ‘Oh Na Na’, in September 2022. The comment section of the song’s YouTube video got bombarded with fans reminiscing how B8eight’s music played an important role in their lives growing up.

After ‘Oh Na Na’, which has amassed over 500,000 views to date, B8eight released ‘Mayako Ghar’ in December 2022, which has over 400,000 views. Now in their second innings as a band, the members admit that they are treading a completely different music landscape, one that is crowded with so many musicians that the audience has no dearth of options.

It was the love for music that got the five young boys to come together to form B8eight. The year was 2009, Amit Dangol; Gyurmey Dorjee Lama, aka Cupid; Thujey Ngetup; Rajeev Chitrakar, aka Kim; and Samden Norbu Lama, aka Ice, met in a music studio and decided to come together to form a band. Most of the members were still in high school then.

“We all came from different backgrounds, but what we shared in common was our love for music which led us to form the band,” says Rajeev Chitrakar.

But success didn’t come easy for the band. Their debut song, ‘Missing You’, got released in December 2010, and failed to gain any traction. It was the same case with the other tracks they released in the following years. According to Chitrakar, at one point, the band members seriously thought about quitting the band altogether.

“But after discussing the issue, we decided to continue making music as a group,” says Chitrakar. The decision to carry on proved to be right for the band’s turning point was just around the corner. Their 2014 song ‘K Yo Maya Ho’ made them immensely popular. And post their first hit, everything the band touched turned into gold.

“We were quite young when our songs started becoming huge hits. Now when I look back, I realise that none of us were prepared for the fame and we did not handle things well,” says Kim.

Between 2014 to 2018, the band members performed in Australia, Dubai, Japan, and India. In Nepal, they also started doing back-to-back shows and soon the hectic lifestyle began taking a toll on the young members.

“We were so focused on pleasing our audience that we completely neglected our personal lives. We were doing too many shows, and our personal life and commitments took a backseat,” says Amit Dangol.

The band’s busy schedule also started impacting the member’s studies. “In a country like Nepal, it is next to impossible to make a career just out of music, so, focusing on our studies was equally important if we were to continue following our passion for making music. This fact was something we were very well aware of,” says Thujey Ngetup. “One of the reasons we decided to take a break in 2018 was to focus on our studies.”

Ngetup is now in Australia and studying IT. During the four-year break, other members also went on to complete their Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. In the same period, some of the band members even released solo songs, but none of them came close to getting the kind of love the band’s songs did.

At the time of release, ‘Oh Na Na’ was trending at no 7 on YouTube. However, the two songs the band has released in the last five months are yet to rack up the kind of numbers their songs used to a few years ago. And most of the group’s songs that trend on social media platforms these days are also ones released before their hiatus.

While ‘Oh Na Na’ sounds a lot like the band’s previous songs, the other new track they released, ‘Mayako Ghar’, is a pop-folk fusion, a completely new genre for them.

“As there are many new audiences listening to our music for the first time, we’re also experimenting with new genres, and we are liking the change,” says Gyurmey Dorjee Lama.

The band’s old fans have received their comeback very well. “During our break, many fans would write asking us to release new music. When we released two songs last year, many of those fans showed us so much love. We are very happy to see that our audience have stuck with us,” says Samden Norbu Lama.

The band now has plans to release new songs very soon and they are exploring various genres on these tracks.

“The music industry has changed a lot in the last few years. We are not here to compete with other musicians. We are here to do what we love, that is to make music,” says Gyurmey Dorjee.