Rachana Dahal’s Daagbatti expresses feeling of losing a loved one

By Mannu Shahi

Born on June 8, 1997, Rachana Dahal is a singer, songwriter and entrepreneur based in Kathmandu. She initiated her musical career as a cover artist from the Thamel music scene. 

Discovering an aptitude for music from her childhood days, Dahal fancied guitar and enrolled herself in for guitar lessons at a local music institute. There, the mentors acknowledged her singing abilities and facilitated her with the opportunity to perform for an event; it was an affirmation to commence music as her career.

Nearly after half a decade of being a part of the hustle culture of Thamel, the singer decided to quit and submerge herself and contrive her own imaginations into peculiar melodies and stern words. The result was the brilliantly executed 2019’s ‘Bhumari’, which was in coordination with Channel Arbitrary.

In December 2019, the songstress reclaimed the publishing authority and released her much celebrated experimental rock tune ‘Soch’. It was an angry outcry of a victim of sexual abuse and portrays the rage of the silenced voices surviving within this society and requests them to speak up against their abusers. 

Her third single ‘Sapanako Raja’, released on April 2020, is an antonym to the pop culture norm of love infused songs, contrary to its title the song is about self-love and the journey of manifesting nurture and care for oneself and becoming the saving heroes of our own lives.

This was followed by her somber fourth single ‘Daagbatti’ based on the real life tragedy of her family, Dahal pours her soul into this tune with every developing line transcending the audience to the mournful feeling of losing a loved one. The singer explains, “When my uncle decided to kill himself, my aunt grieved his death, longing to feel his love again. The feeling of anger at his actions but guilt for not being able to save him, haunted her. It was a despair to see how she felt responsible for his death. Whole of my uncle is gone but he took half of her with him. The void that she feels is still empty till this day. Years have gone by, but the grief comes in waves. There are dark days when it seems as though nothing can ever be right again.”

Penned and composed by Rachana Dahal, ‘Daagbatti’ features Anikesh Maharjan on guitars and her longtime collaborator in all her other work and Firoj Bajracharya of Jyoti Records on arrangement, audio production and mastering. The poignant video was written and directed by Animesh Sapkota.

And recently the singer returned home from an eastern Nepal and north-east India tour with her band. The entire crew also participated in this online musical session presented by Stormcrow Framework, titled as Gems of Nepal. Rachana Dahal Band performed a couple of tunes for the session and the foremost to release was their live take of ‘Daagbatti’ on June 10, 2022.

Stormcrow Framework is a research and development project which creates various types of online content and Gems Of Nepal is a series launched by the channel that features different genre-based musicians to perform live and share their personal experiences. Recorded at Studio 5150, the audio recording and processing for the live session was executed by Ratish Thapa and the video was shot by Niranjan Pradhan. The band consists of Anikesh Maharjan and Suyesh Singh on guitars, Nilesh Nakarmi on bass and Rojen Shakya on drums.        

Following these wonderful series of events the shocking news of the demise of Suyesh Singh, guitar player of the band, appeared on social media on June 12, 2022. Singh, who is an incredible guitar player hailing from Surkhet, was an independent instrumental guitarist collaborating with likeminded musicians. The untimely departure of this earthly soul has shook the entire Nepalese music community, many musicians posted condolences from their personal social media pages. 

A mourn gathering was organized at Birendra Chowk, Surkhet on June 16, where the attendees lit candles for the eternal bliss of the departed soul and celebrated his life by playing music that he was so fond of. Hope his family and loved ones find the strength to cope with such a tragic turn of events, our deepest condolences, may his soul rest in peace and his life be rejoiced through his eternal music.