Kurseong (West Bengal)
As folk dancers, brothers Kingchum and Nimchung Lepcha from Dzongu had found all the support from their family and friends. They were doing well but had a desire to expand their ambit. And thus the pursuit of a folk fusion band started.
LasoMung Kup Band (the Oomph of Generation) was, subsequently, formed on the night of September 18, 2018, when most people were in a deep slumber. The group of young and energetic individuals set up the Lepcha folk fusion band with a hope of inspiring and awakening people’s dreams and desires.
The band is named after one of the first legendary ancestors called ‘Lasomung’, also known as the first Lepcha.
The Indian Tribal caught up with band members Kingchum Lepcha and Rinzing Sherpa, together with their manager, Penchung Lepcha, and band assistant, Thinley Lepcha, to hear out the story of their folk fusion band.
They inform that there are six members in the band. Kingchum Lepcha and Sunom Lepcha are the vocalists, lyricists, and composers. Additionally, Kingchum also plays Tungbuk (a Lepcha folk string instrument).
While Nimchung Lepcha is the bassist and plays the Tungdar Bong (Lepcha folk drum), Rinzing Sherpa is the guitarist. Tshering C. Lepha is percussionist and back vocalist along with another vocalist Chusong Lepcha.
It’s heartening to find the young members, aged between 25 years and 30 years, use traditional folk musical instruments to keep the heritage alive.
The Lepcha folk fusion band writes, composes and performs their own music, and the band members, especially Kingchum and Sunom, also collaborate with Nunaom (a Lepcha music production group from Gangtok) to produce their own songs and music online (YouTube).
Kingchum Lepcha, band member and co-founder, discusses his desire to preserve the Lepcha music he listened to while growing up. He and his brother were greatly supported as folk dancers, and later on, they decided to pursue music as their careers, even though they didn’t come from a musical household.
Although the band has incorporated rock into folk music, they are naturally inclined to convert entirely to folk music but are afraid of alienating young listeners who are enamoured by western music genres.
Lead guitarist Rinzing Sherpa tells The Indian Tribal that young people are more interested in fusion music than in traditional folk music, which quickly prompted them to decide to combine other styles to preserve their music and make it more appealing to a wider audience.
During their conversation about their band life, Penchung revealed that getting all of the members together at one place is difficult because they all have other jobs and are mostly family men. It is, therefore, not surprising that once he gets them all together at the precise moment and location for the music, it turns into a boys’ club. A day filled with music, laughter, and “lengthy conversations after booze,” adds Rinzing, making everyone cackle with him.
Lasomung Kup regularly attends music festivals featuring indigenous artists from all over the state. They recently took part in Rhythm of the Earth, an event in Jharkhand that welcomed tribal performers from across the nation to showcase their talents in February of this year. They had a great time engaging with other tribal artistes and musicians.
They rue the government’s lack of initiative in planning such events, preferring to wait for people and organizations to start these kinds of activities. They hope that the government will give tribal artistes, bands, and musicians a stage, as it ought to, to give the music a secure environment where it can flourish.
For them, it means everything to be a tribal band. They take great pride in their unity, and the lead guitarist—the only non-Lepcha member—says that being in the band and seeing the other members become so engrossed in preserving their musical heritage has motivated him to look into his own tribe’s music and as well consider keeping his tribal history alive. He hopes that eventually, even the younger Sherpa people will be inspired by his Lepcha folk fusion band, as well as motivated to fulfill their cultural obligations.
“We have motivated the youth and after years, many new bands have taken birth. We have promoted female singers and also collaborated with renowned singers. While we have represented Sikkim in the G20 Summit in Delhi, many of our songs have been added to the list of lepcha music world,” the band members point out.
“People (including the younger generation) and especially, those who are staying outside the State were more keen to listen to our folk songs which indicates that they are coming back from western songs to own cultural songs. There are so many people who still don’t know to write and talk in their own mother languages so basically, we are also preserving and helping them to learn and feel proud of,” they say.
The group’s dream goes far beyond the mere desire for fame. They want to serve as an inspiration to the upcoming generation and aspiring artists who may come from a small village, looking for people who have come from a small place and realised their dreams, like Lasomung Kup. Currently, the band is in the process of producing a single that they wrote and composed themselves.
