Interview  with  Shadows Bass Guitarist Amit Pradhan

# Introduce yourself! What are your current projects?

Well, my name is Amit Pradhan. I am a Guitarist of the band “The Shadows”. I play bass in the band. I have been playing in the band for 15 years. I know it’s a long year but it’s been a hell of a long last fun for me, with my music and music mates.

Currently, I am in Melbourne, Australia. I am doing Audio Engineering. I chose to be an Audio Engineer because it’s been my passion. When I was back in Nepal, I was always interested in sound, sound of different band, sounds from different musicians, since everyone has got their own style and genre of their sound. And I was one of them, I have always liked creating my own sound, playing around with the sound and coming up with the new sound.

Even in my band “The Shadows”, me and my other mate Prakash were the one who was really into the sound, into the technical part of the music. And as everyone knows that in today’s world, music is not just playing, and it’s not just singing, it’s more to that, it’s manipulating sound to make it sound better.

I have been working and studying, but I spend most of my time in the studio, I am trying to learn as much as I can. I am composing and singing myself. Hopefully I can give it a go pretty soon.


# How did you start playing Bass?

That’s an interesting question.:) actually!!. It’s always fun answering this question. It was a long time ago, I was just starting to play guitar, like everyone, I knew the chords of “Hotel California” and I was good with rhythm. And my friend knew that I played guitar, one fine day, they came to me and asked me to play bass guitar in their song. Till that time, I had never touched a bass guitar, or any electric guitar. I was nervous and excited at the same time, but without any hesitation I said YES and played with the band for the first time in my life. The first note that I played in Bass guitar was “G”.


# Did you start out with a teacher or were you self taught?

Like I said, I knew the chords of Hotel California. I followed the concept derived from those chords. I went to music school for 2 months after my SLC but was a waste of my time for me. What I learnt there was nothing. In my opinion one needs to have a big commitment if you really want to study music. I was more like into practical side of music. Playing, creating, composing and writing was what I was interested in. As for the learning, I guess it was too late for me. Just like me everyone in my band “The Shadows” are self taught students.

# What is your musical background and history?

It’s always hard answering this question because I get confused to take that part of my life out of my memory. I remember playing someone else’s guitar. I used to play lots and lots because it was not mine and I had to give the guitar back after I was done playing. I think my Dad “Late. Bhupendra Pradhan” and my brother “Ashim Pradhan” have one of the greatest influences why I was so interested in music. My father introduced me to the music, and my brother introduced me to western music. And like said I used to get attracted to the sound very easily. And then slowly when I had a little bit information about the musical instruments, I started playing. And when I started playing I was in the band. So, I guess this is a brief history of my musical background.


# What gears do you have or have you used?

Hmm, gears, these are expensive stuffs, I have always had trouble getting the stuffs that I wanted, and it has always taken lots of time for me to buy or get it in different ways. When I was plying in the band back in Nepal, I have used cheap guitars, I am not going to name, but the one that I have been playing since 3 years, is Vintage, I don’t know the Model. But according to its price, I think, it was a good deal for me. I paid 25,000 Rupees, which is not great amount money but it was a good guitar. I recorded couple songs for “Hidne Manche Ladcha” with the same guitar. And the fun part is we all had VINTAGE guitar in the band J I never used FX for my guitar, I have always played it dry. But I have used EQs from the amp to manipulate the sound. I love working with the low end of every instruments. And here in Australia, I have a small CONSOLE (Mixer) and its “BEHRINGER XENYX 802” and it has got Premium 8 inputs, 2 Bus Mixer, XENIX Mic Preamp and British EQs.

I have a large Diaphragm Studio condenser Microphone, it’s called B1, and it’s from Behringer. I work on PRO TOOLS in the studio and at home I use Adobe Audition 1.0. Pro tools is expensive for me to buy at this moment, but eventually I have to get it for professional purposes.

I have got suitcase full of wires, don’t ask me why.


# Who and what were your influences?

Well, talking about the influences, there are so many, I think every good bass player, or any good musician has influenced me with their style, genre and creation. Talking about national icons, Looza and Cadenza has great influence on me as a band. I think Bass guitarist from Looza “Riju” has a great impression on me as a bass guitarist. International Bass guitarists like Marcus Miller, Flea, and so on are on the top of my when it comes to solo bass guitar playing.

# What have you been listening to lately?

I am all over the music. I love all kind of genre. There are days when all I am listening to is Hard Rock, and there sometimes, slow rock (80s) sometimes alternatives and sometimes pop. Lately I have listening to Country Stuffs.

But I am a huge fan of Hark Rock Music. Rage Against The Machine is my best band. I went to their concert last January, and it was awesome. I have been to couple of international concerts since I have been here, to name few, G3 (Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and John Petrucci), Ywngie Malmsteen, Silverchair, Rage Against The Machine, Bjork, Tom Morello (The Nightwatchman) and so many bands from Australia.


# If there were one bit of advice you could offer about playing bass, what would it be?

I have always liked keeping my instrument in the front of the stereo image of the song. For me, playing bass is just not covering the song, it’s more to that, it’s about performance and identifying yourself to the listener. I have loved playing regular but different riffs according to the nature of the song. Playing exact note as the other guitarist of the band is a history not. I would advice all the bass guitarist to be aware of the notes they play. Involve yourself with each and every note of the frets. Because when you are good with the notes, you would never stop playing during any performances. Always focus on identifying yourself in any song, not just a song but in any song.


# What plans do you have for the future?

There are lots of plans. I have been trying to work on my songs at the moment. Prakash Rasaily from my band, who is in Sydney, is helping me with that. He is one of the most dedicated musicians in the band. Though he is in Sydney and me in Melbourne, we are trying to work out together for music. And when we are done we’ll be releasing it in the name of “The Shadows”, and the only difference going to be there is that it’s going to be from the other side of the world. So this is the plan that I am working on it at the moment.


# How do you feel being in Australia?

It’s been great all this time. It was weird being in here for the first couple of month, and it was pretty obvious. But it’s great. And the good this is, I am in Melbourne, which is also known as city of Arts and Music, and what else would I need more than music in my life. The other good thing is I have chances of going to concerts of so many International artists which I would not have done back in my country.


# What are you doing in Australia?

I am doing Audio Engineering here in Melbourne city at SAE Institute. If you want more information about my institution then you can log onto this, www.sae.edu .It’s one of the world largest Audio Engineering College in the world with its 49 branches all over. My course is about Audio, its about Engineering an Audio.

# Are you still in touch with The Shadows and how long are you going to stay or carry on with your studies?

Yes, I am in touch with my band members in some ways. I am in touch especially with my band manager and the singer. We talk about our music issues whenever we talk about band. We all always have been focused in developing music, and that’s exactly what they are doing back in Nepal and me here in Australia.

# So at last but not at the least what do you want to say to the fans form your side and as well from your band side?

Fans are the greatest treasure any musician earns in his life time, and I have earned it a lot. I have been honored with their respect, comments, advice and most importantly their time. Our Nepali music industry is growing, everyone is working on their own way to help it make bigger and better.

I thank Kiran Gurung Dai from the website, he is one of those musicians who is passionate about what he is doing, dedication is what one needs to make things better and I think he is dedicated. We always have to support this kind of dedication and I am always ready for that.

Hopefully I’ll come up with my project soon. Thank you for everything.
We nepalirocks.com Family is very thankful to Amit pradhan for his precious and valuable time . "The Shadows" are one of best Bands of Nepal which has a unique tones,lyrically,musically and a outstanding music.