Music has been Swoopna Suman’s life for the most part of the past decades. That is what he has done. Write, produce and release… Working tirelessly and passionately, the 26-year-old has touched the heart of thousands of people through his melancholic songs that tell a story.
But, as years went by, he started to feel he needed to offer something new. His peers and fans also felt the same as people started to tell him how most of his songs sounded the same. That is when he realised it was time to reinvent himself and change the way he wrote songs and music.
“You come to a point when you keep following a pattern and when that happens, things start to get monotonous,” he says.
That is why Swoopna Suman decided to use the free time he had during the Covid lockdown; he decided to reinvent himself and started to work on his album that would be different to the other songs he had released prior to the pandemic. To make sure of that, he decided to work with different producers and has even collaborated with artists from different genres for the album which he calls his best work yet.
Quest for a difference
“It was fun making that album. I for one am very proud of what I have been able to do,” he says.
The change started when Swoopna Suman was writing Khelauna, a song about his experience with a girl who was different to what he thought she was. Like always, he was planning to write a melancholic song, but he decided to ditch the process and try something different.
He usually wrote mostly through one perspective – sadness or love. But in Khelauna, he tried to use anger, disappointment and frustration to write an upbeat song that talks about being treated like a toy.
“I felt I could use a rapper in the track and approached Manas (Ghale) dai who was sceptical at first, but when I played the song, he was on board instantly,” he says.
When the song was released, Swoopna Suman was nervous, but he loved how it has turned up, so he would not have been disappointed if it had not done well either. But, the song did well, not as well as his other songs but it was received well by a lot of people.
“I think I had to change to stay relevant and to motivate myself to continue doing music. I enjoyed doing that song and the entire album a lot.”
In the album, Swoopna Suman worked with artists like Indira Joshi and Yodda along with producers like Firoj Bajracharya, Diwas Gurung, Foseal and Rohit Shakya. He says that he choose different producers because he felt each song was different and in the hands of the right producer, he felt he could do justice to them.
“You learn so much from everyone.”
Singing for the fans
Given his fanbase, he had the chance to sell the album, but he refrained from doing so because he feels that music should be available for people to listen to.
“Unless they listen to your music, how will they come to your show,” he questions.
Swoopna Suman says so because he knows it is the love of his fans that has got him where he is. And, going through the comments on his Facebook, Instagram or YouTube page will give people an idea of how loved he is.
There were times when people would crowd him to click selfies even during late hours when he would be going grocery shopping. There have also been instances where he has been followed by people in the paparazzi-style as they wanted to tell how much Swoopna meant to them.
“It feels me with joy to receive this kind of love from people. This is genuine love they have developed for me because I sing. How wonderful is that,” he says.
The course correction phase
Despite this, Swoopna Suman has had his share of low moments. He says that there was a time a lot of people would envy him. Likewise, his peers’ success frustrated him as he felt he was better. He would go through their YouTube channels and think that his songs were much better than them. But gradually, he started to change this thinking. He sought the help of legendary artists who told him how it was important to be in a correct state of mind if he wanted to do this forever.
“That is when I started to accept there is always going to be someone better than me and that is why I’ve been trying to be more appreciative and continue to give my all. That is how I got through the envious phase,” he says.
And, maybe that is rubbing off on his work too. Swoopna Suman’s new single Raat ko Maya is proof of that. The song is sombre but packs a lot of punch. It tells the story through the eyes of a prostitute who roams around the streets of Kathmandu looking for people who buys her for the night.
“For the most part of my career, I’ve written songs from my perspective. But now, I want to change that and look at them through the eyes of someone else and then write. I’ve got a lot of positive feedback about the song,” he says.
