Bir Gorkhali | Gorkhali ko Choro Ma | Mantra Band | Live in Pokhara
Mantra is a Nepali Rock Band.
Mantra is a Nepali rock band from Darjeeling. The band was formed in 1999 with four members, Vaskar on vocals, Praggya on guitars, Pravash on bass and Bishal on drums. The same year the band got its first break at ‘WILDFIRE’, IIT Kharagpur,Calcutt. After 3 years of playing together the band released its first original ‘Timi Bina’ in a compilation album “GORKHA ROCKS” in 2002. The song gained unprecedented popularity and with it the band. They also won the Gantok Rock Contest the same year with Praggya taking the honours as best guitarist.
The band at this point of time had one original and mostly did covers. They were still trying to find their sound. And so in this search the band saw the inclusion of Manish on the Keyboard. They toured intensely for a year with major concerts in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, Nepal and Darjeeling. Touring and playing together for a couple of years the band decided that they would not be only know as a cover band with a one time hit original. So in 2003 Mantra released its first album by the same name with eight original songs including ‘timi bina’. The album was distributed through Indreni audio cassette center, Nepal. Songs like ‘ekantama’ and Bir Gorkhali became instant hits in Darjeeling, Sikkim and Nepal and still continues to be a crowd favorite at concerts. Encouraged by the huge success of the first album the band released its second album in 2004 titles “RockYatra”. This album also introduced a new member of the band Bidhan.
Melodic folk became more prominent with Bidhan’s Sax and flute. Sanskriti a song from the album was nominated for best rock composition in FM Hits Award, Nepal. After the release of the two albums and half of the songs became instant hits, Mantra went to being from a rock cover band to one of the most promising Nepali Rock band ever seen. They extensively toured Sikkim, Nepal, North east, Himachal Pradesh relying less on covers and entirely on their new songs. Mantra’s songs had crossed the borders of India and Nepal. The band successfully toured Bhutan, Hong Kong, Sigapore & Japan. In 2006 Bishal, the founder member of Mantra and drummer had to leave the band due to personal reasons. Birju filled in seamlessly and has been with Mantra ever since. “Himali Nepali” the bands third album was released in 2006and it enjoyed the same success as its predecessors . The title song was yet again nominated for best rock composition at the FM Hits Awards, Nepal. Later in the year Mantra also performed at the prestigious Great India Rock in New Delhi. For the next five years the band toured and performed at different festivals and concerts.
In 2011 they released their fourth album “Mantra Mugdha” with new sounds and a mature music sensibility. Their love ballad in the album Priyaashi became a world wide hit and was also awarded as the most played song in Kantipur. The band now has eight members with lead man Bhaskar, Praggya on the guitar, Pravash on the bass, Manish on the keys, Bidhan on Sax & Flute and Birju on the drums. Beepen is the band sound tech and Diwaskar the band manager.
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