If you do a quick search for the covers of British musician Ed Sheeran’s chartbuster Shape of You, you will come across a host of covers.  Among them is one particular cover that stands out for Nepali viewers: the Jatayu Records’ rendition of the song, featuring vocals by Palsang Lama. The cover makes use of traditional Nepali instruments such as the tabala and a sarangi among others and infuses the song with a unique Nepali flavour.  This is perhaps why the cover, within one month of its release, has received over 617,000 views on YouTube—sizeable feat for a Nepali cover of the song. The Post’s Alisha Sijapati recently caught up with Lama to talk about Jatayu Records—a newly-formed record studio which has been continuously producing covers of Nepali and English songs—how the idea to cover Shape of You came about, and further plans. 

What is Jatayu Records? How was it first conceived?

Jatayu Records is a recording label and a studio that was founded in 2015 by Niran Dangol, a sound engineer and a musician. Niran, after returning to Nepal from the US, wanted to start something on his own that specifically promoted Nepali traditional and folk music. As a part of his mission, Jatayu provides an opportunity to new and aspiring artists to explore their musical flairs. What makes the studio stand out is the fact that assortment of Nepali instruments and sounds is vital in anything that Jatayu produces—including cover songs. Since its inception, the studio has been experimenting with covers of popular songs—such as Sheeran’s Shape of You—by infusing them with Nepali sounds. This is something new and exciting. 

How did your collaboration with Jatayu come about? 

I am just one of the many aspiring artists working with Jatayu. It was my friend who recommended that I connect with the studio when they were looking for an aspiring singer. Passionate about music from a young age, the collaboration came as a good opportunity to further explore my talent. It was without doubt a good platform to showcase my singing abilities. 

Your recent cover of Sheeran’s Shape of You has over 611k views on YouTube. For an aspiring artist like you, this is a huge motivator. How has the experience been? 

My first cover as a vocalist—Let Me Love You by Justin Bieber—was only mildly received, but the response that this cover has received has inspired a whole new kind of energy (in me and the band). Honestly, we had not anticipated such a massive response. When we set out to record, the numbers were not what we cared about. It was, for all of us in the band, more about the passion for creating really good music. Bringing in Nepali instruments into a chartbusting English hit in itself was a completely unusual and exciting move. I guess, people could resonate to the love we put into making the cover and the response has been phenomenal. It came as a surprise that we have been acknowledged internationally too. After we released the cover on social media the US-based radio station iHeartRadio shared our video on their Facebook page, which was loved by many people abroad. We were showered with love and well wishes from across the world. The song was out in June and I still get messages from people about how they loved the cover. 

For someone like me, who has never had a professional training in music, it comes across as a huge motivation. We are definitely going to come up with more performances. 

Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You is a very peppy, lounge-ish song. 

And you have given it a uniquely Nepali touch. Why did you choose this particular song instead of, say, some Nepali original song? 

Since the foundation of Jatayu Records, we have been trying to promote traditional Nepali music. We were just pondering upon how it can be done when it struck us that we might as well start by covering songs that are trending worldwide today. We wanted to connect to the youth. We wanted to touch their sensibilities and show how beautiful traditional music can be. Infusing Nepali tunes to popular international numbers would also mean producing something that the youngsters of the country could call their own. 

One of the most flattering feedbacks we have received is how despite the song being a cover still comes across as an original of sorts. 

Apart from the covers, are you also considering coming up with your own original songs? 

Yes, we do plan to come up with originals. It is just that since we are new to the scene, we are taking it slow and starting out with covers. We first want people to learn about our studio and the kind of work we do. Once we have built an organic audience base, it will be easier for us to roll out originals.