Bipul Chettri and The Travelling Band embarking on UK-Canada-USA Tour

By Mannu Shahi

It was the year 2013 when Bipul Chettri first released his contagious massive cult-classic ‘Wildfire’ on SoundCloud. As with its name, the streams on the track rapidly spread around curating an instant momentum for the singer with everyone going fanatic over the brilliant new artistic realm this particular tune fortified. With an effortless charm in its melody, the track exploded out from SoundCloud into everyone’s playlist and Bipul Chettri became the star we all adore so dearly today. 

Two albums, six singles and an EP later, he is one of the most well-established names in the Nepali music fraternity. His glorious career can be attributed to the magic in his songwriting and arranging abilities, fabricating soulful tunes one after the other like some innate musical wizard.  

Born on September 5, 1985, in Kalimpong, India, the songster’s inclination towards music brewed early as his father and grandmother were musicians and his grandfather a poet. With many influences from creative adults at home, Chettri picked up the guitar and quickly escalated his way through as a regular performer during his school events. He later went on to explore western classical guitar further as a Licentiate Diploma disciple at Trinity College, London. 

When not on tour, the singer is working as the head of the Arts Department at the Vasant Valley School in New Delhi, where he resides. Lauded by an enormous fanbase, Bipul Chettri and the Travelling band have multiple times toured countries including the USA, the UK, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Hong Kong, and the UAE, and many cities across India and Nepal. 

Even though his songs generally employ Nepali as their primary language, the singer’s followers perpetuate further than only the Nepali demographic to a wider Himalayan folk sound craved by the competitive Indian market as well as a global audience. Being the first and only Nepali language musician to be endorsed by Epiphone Guitars (Gibson India), the singer was also the “Top Selling Artist” (2014-15) and “Top Ten Best Artist” (2015-16) according to OKListen.com, an indie retail music site based in India. 

In addition to this, the musician also bagged the “Pop Rock Album of the Year” (Sketches of Darjeeling), and “Best Pop Rock Composition” and “Best Male Pop Vocal Performance” (Syndicate) at the Hero Hits FM Music Awards. And since 2022, the singer has been elected as one of the voting members for the Recording Academy Awards, popularly known as Grammys, having the authority to vote for the official nominees in selected categories to determine the winners.

A big part of the singer’s profound personality encompasses his extensive live performances, which are enriched by his incredible accompanying group: the Travelling Band. Comprising an array of seasoned musicians the Travelling Band is Pranai Gurung on lead guitars/back vocals, Rahul Rai on bass, Aman Singh Rathore on drums/percussion, Kiran Nepali on sarangi/tungna/back vocals, Prince Nepali on sarangi/tungna/back vocals, Achint (Shivam) Khare on keyboards/melodica/back vocals, Binaya Man Amatya on sound design and Sonam Tashi as the band manager. 

The outfit is all set to hit the road for their upcoming UK-Canada-USA tour starting this weekend on September 2 at Aldershot, UK, and next weekend on September 8 at Toronto, Canada, followed by a month-long USA tour in seven cities stretching out till early October. Tickets and further info on the performances can be traced via the musician’s social handles and official website.