By Sanchita Paul
Tshering Nongyal, who goes by the stage name Pencapchew, fell in love with Shillong’s “cafe culture” and the musical vibes instantly after arriving here from Sikkim in May this year.
“I am super impressed by the cafe culture in Shillong which is not there in Gangtok except a few places. Sikkim is more of a place with good restaurants or pubs and fine dining. In Shillong, there is a motley crowd of music lovers. There is a lot of cafe hopping for music,” says the 33-year -old solo acoustic artiste.
Music, says Nongyal, is not really his career. A state government employee in Sikkim, Nongyal is currently pursuing a diploma in e-Governance and is in Shillong for internship.
“It is actually part-time if you go by my job, but it has always been with me. I still write my own songs, I love performing my own songs, it’s easier to perform. You can call it a part-time hobby, I’m not professional,” says the singer and songwriter and confesses that he never had any formal training in singing.
But Nongyal says he learnt to play guitar at a young age and his greatest inspiration is his father who is a trained guitarist. He started singing when he was in Class XII and wrote the first song when in college.
Nongyal, who loves listening to folk music and dreams to lead a band some day, has already performed in many cafes in the city — like Cafe Shillong, Dylan’s Cafe and Mellow Mood Cafe — which are known for their musical soirees.
“I can’t perform songs that need a drummer. So I am only an acoustic singer and songwriter who plays a mixture of folk and alternative maybe. I’m experimenting a lot with modern music. I don’t have a proper recording yet but I have started on gigs,” he says.
Nongyal has also performed in Delhi and was part of the Uttarakhand project of 2012 after the natural disaster.
In Shillong, he is looking forward to performing more gigs. “I have met a few musicians and artistes.”
Talking about his childhood in Sikkim, Nongyal says he remembers his father giving him lessons in guitar. “We had a gramophone and we played songs of The Eagles and The Doors, whom we love. My dad is my biggest inspiration. Though it is hard to say my other favourites but Freddie Mercury of Queen is my all time favourite because no one else had the passion for music like he had. For song-writing, Bob Dylan would be my favourite,” says the government professional.
The singer says it was not just his father but the entire family supported him in his musical journey and they do not mind him perform in Shillong. However, Nongyal feels it’s too late for him to take up music as a full-fledged career.
“But I personally feel that you don’t have to pursue it as a career. If the passion and ability is there, you will get noticed. There are so many media like Instagram, Facebook, SoundCloud, you don’t really have to follow around people making them listen to your music and get noticed. If you’re good, you’ll get noticed,” he says with confidence.
Though people’s mindset about music as career is changing, there is a lack of event management in this part of the country, rues Nongyal and adds that if this sector improves, then music will “automatically become a lucrative option”.
When asked about mainstream music, Nongyal outrightly rejects claims that Bollywood has taken over the music scene in the country and cites examples of Indian bands in the North East, South India and other parts of the country.
“The North East has always been the hub of music. Bollywood, as we all know, has always been a big thing in India but people fail to notice that there are really amazing bands in India beyond Bollywood music. Bands like Parikrama for example, bands from South India, they are really amazing. We have a lot of really cool events happening all over India… Bangalore is another place where we have numerous international concerts. It would be wrong for us to say Bollywood has completely taken over the music scene in India because there are other avenues for other artistes,” he says.
About his unique stage name, Nongyal has a simple yet bewildering explanation. “Well most people ask me this question and I usually do not answer that. But actually it’s very obvious. It’s an old habit from school and the habit is still strong. I mean ‘chewing pen caps’.”
