Dreaming Wide Awake

He’s dressed in a t-shirt and knee-length shorts, a biker helmet on his head, and a bag slung over his right shoulder. It is past lunchtime and he tells me he just cycled to work from home; it is Pedestrian Tuesday. He can come and go as he likes because he doesn’t have any bosses to answer to, he is his own master.

Meet Choeying Jatsho, a 25 year old Electronics and Communications Engineer-turned-Music Producer.

He leads me to the basement of the building where his studio is located in. As we descend the steps the air becomes cooler and the smell of freshly-sawn timber rises into my nostrils. We settle down into comfortable chairs in the producing room while being looked on by computer monitors sitting all around the room.

We’re in M-Studio, a multimedia studio owned by Choeying’s Uncle, a graphics designer; the recording studio was conceptualised by Choeying and bankrolled by his Uncle. Choeying produces music while his Uncle and other employees take care of the graphics and design arm of the studio.

M-Studio broke out onto the Bhutanese contemporary music scene last November with their own genre of music, B-Pop. Choeying explains that it stands for ‘Bhutanese popular music’. They have taken it upon themselves to promote it and make it heard throughout the country as well as the world.

It is Choeying’s love and passion for music that has led to this unique evolution of Bhutanese music.

With no formal training in music and having largely taught himself how to play the innumerable instruments he plays deftly, Choeying set out to chase his dream based on the keen sense of music he developed as he was growing up.

“Music was always in my family; my Dad and his sisters used to play the guitar, my mom and my grandparents used to sing. At family functions we always had a great deal of singing and dancing. Even before I was aware of who I was, music was already conditioned in me,” he says.

He also credits one of his Uncles who was very passionate about music. “He used to play a number of instruments ranging from traditional to modern and had them lying around at his house. I taught myself how to play all these instruments,” he shares.

He maintains that he still does not know the technicalities of notes and chords; he says he goes by the feel of the sounds, not by the book.

The same Uncle also introduced him to Fruityloops, a music creation software. It was then that he moved from singing and playing instruments to laying tracks and producing musical pieces.

He was part of the Cultural Troupe in high school and that helped keep up his budding interest in music. A brilliant student, he held on to his passion by finely balancing his studies and his musical pursuits.

He even had a chance to sing and make music for a Dzongkha Rigsar album while still in high school. He was paid a handsome sum for it, but more than that, he jumped at the chance to get exposed to recording and producing music. Even after an album under his belt he still had not considered music serious enough to be pursued as a full-time profession.

“Back then it was all about bringing good marks in school, going to a good college, finishing on time, coming back home to appear for the RCSC exams and landing a government job; even that was something conditioned in me, and I guess all students, right from school days,” he confides.

Bring good marks and go to a good college he did, to study Electronics and Communications Engineering in India. He continued to pursue his music interests while in college; he formed a band and played at college functions.

It was only in his 3^rd year of college that he started becoming serious about his musical interests. He started reading books and watching movies about artistes who followed their dreams, struggled, and made a career in music. He was inspired by these stories and started believing that music as a career was possible for him too, although he was a little disappointed about the situation in Bhutan.

“We didn’t have artistes who made music their full-time careers, neither did the public think it was a viable profession to be in; the majority of people consider music as an interest which is to be pursued as a hobby in our spare time,” he says.

When he came home after finishing college he discussed with his parents, for the first time, his intention of pursuing a musical career.

Having played music all his life Choeying now thought he needed to do something big. He was no longer content with merely singing and playing instruments but became more and more interested in the process of producing a song.

It was a casual conversation with his Uncle that the idea of a recording studio was born. His Uncle shared with him his intention to open a multimedia studio and Choeying pitched the idea of a music recording studio as one of the arms of his new multimedia house.

But the setting-up of the studio was going to take time and patience, so Choeying appeared for the RCSC exam, like he was expected to and passed, but he did not like the jobs on offer.

Then a job opening came up at Tashi Cell for a marketing manager with an ECE background. The job required him to be a bridge between the commercial aspect of the business and the technical aspect, with a certain amount of creativity involved as well.

He says, “The job was good – there were so many interesting things to learn and my work was appreciated. I was paid well and there was a good career prospect ahead. While I worked there I gave it my 100%. But there used to be days when the work was light that I’d sit and wonder if this was what I wanted to do forever; there was some dissatisfaction deep down.”

While he worked at his day-job, he was working on the side on setting up of his studio. He had already given his employers the condition that he’d be with them for a maximum of 2 years; he left one and half years later when the studio was completed.

He and his Uncle set out to build the recording studio with neither of them having any prior knowhow about how to setup one. Choeying chuckles as he points out that his knowledge of sound and acoustics was the only thing he could rely on.

He went online, read a lot of articles and watched a lot of Youtube videos on how a studio is set up. They chose not to consult any technicians or go visit other studios because, he says, “That way we’d have made something similar to the others or only slightly better; we wanted to build something, if not at par, then atleast half as good as the studios that world-class musicians record in.”

He rates his studio a modest 7/10; it has good acoustics, noise isolation and is spacious. Most of the materials that were used while building the studio were best possible alternatives of what is being used in good studios because the original materials were difficult to procure.

“We had to make do with what was available to us locally because waiting for the original materials would have taken a lot of time and the delay would’ve waned our enthusiasm; we simply couldn’t afford to let that happen,” he says, “In future we’d like to replace these alternatives with the original ones.”

Seven months since their launch, Choeying shares that the studio hasn’t really been making money, but they haven’t been idle either.

He says, “In the beginning it is important for us to establish ourselves as a place that fosters creativity. People have to identify M-Studio with good quality work, something that is new and different.”

The “new and different” he’s talking about is B-Pop, a new style of Bhutanese music, not restricted to any language or genre; as long as Bhutanese have worked on it, it is B-Pop. Choeying came up with this concept and proudly stakes a claim to it.

When asked how B-Pop is different from the already popular Rigsar brand of Bhutanese music, Choeying says, “Rigsar is just traditional Bhutanese music packaged in a new melody; there is a very limited range. B-Pop spans all genres from Pop to Reggae to Soul etc.”

He tells me in Rigsar there is a certain level of predictability which brings a sense of sameness to the tune and melody whereas in B-Pop they try for something unique and individualised. “You can just feel the difference as soon as you listen to it,” he says, “Rigsar also doesn’t have mood variation within the same song; the songs just have verses and no definite chorus. While we don’t limit B-Pop to any set formula, we try and incorporate verses, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge etc.” He says there is also a lot of Bollywood influence on Rigsar songs which he has consciously tried to keep out from B-Pop.

B-Pop has also received its fair share of criticism from people saying it is not Bhutanese music or that the Dzongkha accent of the singers isn’t Bhutanese enough.

Choeying tells me this is the very essence of B-Pop – that it is the singers’ own style, something natural and felt from the heart, and highly individual. He explains that this is not the case with our traditional Bhutanese music where there are set rules about the style, the flow of melody, and there is not much deviation from that to stamp one’s own individual style.

“I have respect for traditional Bhutanese music and I feel it should be preserved, but at the same time, it should be allowed to evolve keeping with the times. If Bhutanese music doesn’t evolve it will not be palatable to the younger generations and people will not have respect for it,” he says, “Even the music we’re producing in our studio, in a few years, will evolve into something different, and we’re open to that possibility.”

Choeying firmly believes what they’re doing is unique, another step in the evolution of Bhutanese music.

Choeying spread the word through Facebook and uploaded all B-Pop songs on Soundcloud.com for free download. Since their artistes are all young people he felt people from the same age group would be their primary target. He did not intend to earn any revenue off the songs.

“We wanted to develop a taste of B-Pop among the young people so that they identify our studio with that sound and keep coming for more,” he tells me with confidence, “We are promoting something entirely new, something that has never been heard of before, so we had to start small and focus on brand recognition first.”

He’s already seeing signs of a growing popularity of B-Pop among the youth; recently a boys’ dance troupe danced to one of the popular B-Pop numbers on a dance competition show, broadcasted live by the national television channel, BBS. Choeying had nothing to do with how and why the boys chose one of his songs but he says with a smile that he doesn’t mind the publicity.

Choeying works mainly with young people; he lets them write their own songs and create their own melody. Before they set out to work he sits with them and talks extensively so that he can understand the artistes and where they come from; that way he can know how to offer suggestions to help them improve on their writing, or their singing.

“I encourage them to feel what they’ve written, so that it can be expressed in their songs; if they feel it, the listeners can feel it too,” he says.

He offers suggestions as to how one can better project one’s voice and how to add expressions, in a way, connect to the song. He says these are some intangibles which are really important to set a song apart.

Choeying Jatsho (second from right) with some of his artistes

The young artistes come to the studio out of their own interest; they don’t have any contract signed with the studio. They come in with their lyrics and melodies, and sit and discuss how to proceed with producing the song. Choeying provides them with a lot of creative freedom, with a firm hand of guidance, so that their creativity is not restrained by any sort of pressures. “Creating music is something that has to be done in a relaxed state,” he says.

They try to work in a pressure-free environment where there is no worry about deadlines, the earnings, and the target audience. “We have no restrictions as far as creativity is concerned,” he remarks.

He tells me he works mostly with the youth because they are a curious lot; they like to experiment and think outside the box. “Their mindset is malleable and they accept new things much more readily than the older generation which has a particular taste ingrained in them,” he says.

One other reason why the studio wanted to work with the youth is that in future M-Studio wants to hone their talents, nurture their skills and then launch and promote them as full-time artistes.

“Their families still think of their passion for music as a hobby which is to be pursued at the side; the studio wants to step in and give them a chance to develop this passion into a full-time career,” Choeying says, “We will not make high and mighty promises and show false hope; we will explain to them and their families the hard work and struggle that goes with it and the kinds of risks involved; at the same time we’ll assure them that they will give the best from our side.”

Choeying wants to create a pool of talent who call M-Studio their home; they’d like to produce songs, make CDs, and distribute their music and go on tours around Bhutan, maybe even out of the country. He tells me they have the capacity to go commercial; they’re just biding their time while they promote their studio and their artistes.

“I would like to see kids in future wanting to be B-Pop artistes and dreaming about a career in music,” he says with a smile.

The current situation in Bhutan is that almost all the artistes still have a day job which pays their bills and they pursue their interests on the side, maybe for a little extra income. This discourages new artistes and their families to take up music as a full-time profession.

But the trend is changing; like Choeying, there are youngsters now who’re following their dreams and doing not just what they’re expected to do, which for a majority of them is to land a government job, but are also making full-time careers out of what they’re passionate about.

Choeying is of the view that this is something that should be encouraged. Yet, he says, the number of people who dare to follow their dreams is rather measly.

It has something to do with the kind of upbringing we all have had while growing up; we were expected to aim for secure jobs and be content in them rather than take risks with our careers by chasing our dreams. It, thus, is not an enabling environment for innovators and those who dare to tread off the beaten track. But the ones who do dare and put in a commensurate amount of hard work and dedication, like Choeying, go on and sustain themselves just fine, maybe even earn a whole lot more.

Choeying shares, “Where there is good work done, money will automatically follow. In Bhutan, where the arts are concerned, it is seen as a risky career path because, while we are people who appreciate music and paintings, we’re not really in the habit of paying to appreciate them.”

“We take all the hard work that goes into it for granted and just linger our attention on the finished product for maybe a short while. For a quality product, actually there should not be any hesitation to pay money. For example, if we have a free, open-air concert in the Clock Tower Square thousands will gather and enjoy the performance; if we were to charge for the same, the crowd would be considerably thinner,” he says.

Compared to his previous job he says his current line of work has a lot of struggle involved, a lot of risks, not much money, but there’s a lot of satisfaction in what he does.

The smile on the artistes’ faces when they listen to the completed song is priceless, he says; he happiness it brings them, their families, and their friends, is what keeps him going.

M-Studio has a Facebook page and with 5-6 followers in the first 1-2 months, they now have more than 670. Choeying says it has been interesting to see the statistics of who all have been visiting their page and how many keep coming back for more; all this has been very encouraging.

“That is what drives me and keeps my mind fresh. I did not quit my earlier job because I didn’t like it or I was frustrated there; I started that job to earn some money while I setup M-studio,” he confides, “I’m doing something I love and I feel totally in control; it’s up to me to make it or break it.”

As a business venture they’re running at a loss, month after month. But since Choeying’s Uncle values creativity more than the money it brings in, he’s able to keep doing what he loves. He tells me his backup plan was to keep working at his earlier job and save enough to setup his own studio.

The fact that his Uncle also has a creative mind, had gone against convention and followed his passion encouraged him a lot. He understood Choeying and his passion for music and whole-heartedly supported him, morally and financially.

Choeying’s parents are happy and he says he’s surviving with what he saved from his earlier job. He says he hasn’t made any money from the studio; whatever the studio charges has been used to buy instruments and the like, putting it back into the business. He says doesn’t have any regrets and is in fact really proud of what he’s achieved so far.

He beams as he says, “Everything worked out for me just great. A series of fortunate events and an enabling environment helped me chase my dream – I had an early exposure to music; my parents encouraged me and supported my decisions, and they are financially independent; my Uncle supported my creative interests and financed the project so that I could realize my passion; the help of social networking sites and the internet as a whole which has helped spread the word – I have no pressures from anywhere that would deter me from doing what I love.”

A week after I had spoken to him M-Studio launched its Youtube channel on June 21^st, 2012, coinciding with World Music Day. As the first video played on, it reminded me of something Choeying had said earlier, “I’m not content with doing just one thing; I have to keep all my options open and do new things to keep up the passion.”

Picture & Video courtesy: Deepika Adhikari