By Tenzin Choephel
Phayul Correspondent
“if I play one note of my guitar I feel that I am playing for them (martyrs and political prisoners of Tibet), and to show way to future Tibetan musicians. A band is not just singing one or two cover songs and public applauds. A band should have a mission, we are people who don’t have freedom so we could use music to influence people.”
JJI Exile Brothers Band Jamyang, Jigme and Ingsel, 
three brothers, an interesting and young talent of contemporary Tibetan music from Tibetan refugee hotbed of Dharamsala have transformed themselves from local boys into a radically different contemporary Tibetan musicians. Their songs are revolutionary in nature and provokes Tibetan nationalism, loyalty and unity. They are probably the one and only Tibetan band in the Tibetan Diaspora at par with international musicians so far. As an established name in the contemporary Tibetan music scene, they have their own inimitable style that has endeared them to a plethora of music fans outside the Tibetan community as well. I met them for a candid interview when they were visiting Nepal to perform at a concert.
Phayul: Tell me a little about the schools you attended?
Jigme: I went to lower TCV (Tibetan Children’s Village), I was lazy; Used to steal sweets from shops, fight, do mischief secretly but I studied well..
Jamyang: I went to lower TCV and studied painting for a while in Mussoorie, Ingsel went to Patlikul. Finally, we became hippies in McLeod Ganj….(laughs)
Phayul: Did you learn music at school?
Jigme: We love music normally. When I finished high school, my brothers also came home and we got together, I thought we should do something to remember. My brothers are talented, so we decided to create our own music that would help us and our freedom movement also. We did not learn anything particular, we listened to songs and practiced with other artistes and that was how we learned.
Phayul: Who are your music icons?
Ingsel: I don’t listen to many songs; I like Techung La and late Jampa Tsering La.
Jigme: I like many, I like Jampa Tsering, Rangzen Shunu, Muddy Waters, Cold Play, Blur etc but my music guru in my life are my brothers.
Jamyang: Same like them; I also listen to old Hindi songs.
Jigme: We also like Yadong and Vajra Band in Tibet.
Phayul: Is music your profession or passion?
Jigme: It is totally our passion.
Phayul: How was support from your parents?
Jigme: I think we are very lucky to have a mother like ours. She encouraged us to form our band, she is our first fan, our source of inspiration and music.
Phayul: When did you start your band?
Jigme: We started in 1998 on July 6, His Holiness’ Birthday.
Phayul: When was your first album launched?
Jigme: We launched our first album in 2002.
Phayul: How did you form your band?
Jigme: We are not actually a music group. We are three brothers who like music and sing. I think all Tibetans love music. When we were young, our parents sing when we return home from school; we used to sing and play instruments. suddenly one day our Amala (mother) came and said we had very good talent and advised us that it would be good if we showed our talent and used it. So we organized a show with family friends and at last we decided to organize a concert at TIPA (Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts) in Dharamsala. It was our first concert.
Phayul: Did you face any difficulties?
Jigme: We did not face any particular problem because we don’t sing to become rock stars but because we love music. We did face some difficulties with technical equipments but until now our support and first fan is our Amala. She did everything and our friends and by the grace of His Holiness the Dalai Lama we did not face any particular difficulty.
Phayul: What music genre would you slot your music into?
Jigme: There are many music genres but we did not follow any particular genre. We sing what we feel, in short, when we were young we used to listen to Tibetan opera song, Tibetan song, Indian song, English song and Nepali song, with all these flavor we understood music. Then we sing according to our style and age, in general it is rock and roll but we don’t know what our music is. It would probably take ten years for us to understand what our music is or probably whole life;
Phayul: How was the public response to your first album?
Jigme: We did not plan to launch an album first, we thought to do it gradually but at last we recorded our song with our friend Johnny and decided it’s time to launch our album. We targeted Tibetan audience because if Tibetans are united then our freedom movement would get energized otherwise if we wait for outside support I don’t think it would help our movement, so we have tried to put new things in our music unlike in the past when the words were poetic yet very difficult to understand. Our songs have straight and simple messages like “we don’t have country, we don’t have mountains, Chinese occupied our country and mountains”. Those who understood music and the media supported us very much, especially Tibetan musicians respect us and it makes us happy; I play music for myself, I love my music and secondly I remember my father and grandfather and all those Tibetans who suffered in 1959 and all those martyrs who are still in prisons in Tibet and all Tibetans, even if I play one note of my guitar I feel that I am playing for them, and to show way to future Tibetan musicians; a band is not just singing one or two cover songs and public applauds, band should have a mission, we are someone who don’t have freedom so we could use music to influence people.
Phayul: In your concerts, do you perform cover songs?
Jamyang: We went to perform in some places like Dehradun and South India. we normally sing songs from our album and some of our own English and Hindi numbers, on few occasions we performed Hindi remixes, as people love it..
Jigme: Brother you forgot one thing (addressing Jamyang), we also performed songs of late Jampa Tsering La because we feel that he was the first one in Tibet who sang freedom songs directly against Chinese and so we pay tribute and respect him, nowadays musicians in Tibet could not sing directly against Chinese.
Phayul: What would be the lyrics of your future songs?
Jigme: We don’t sing many love songs but maybe it’s time to sing love songs also but I think it is important to give messages to our people, we have recently written some new verses, “we Tibetans are jeering, you cannot bother us, we are proud, don’t interfere in world matters, look at yourself…” in short there are many Tibetan organizations but we miss unity, if all organizations and youth push our freedom movement then I don’t think we need to tell world to save Tibet, we can do ourselves..
Jamyang: I also focus mainly on freedom and love songs.
Ingsel: I also feel same.
Phayul: How many opportunities do you get to circulate your album and perform concerts?
Jigme: We get many invitations and buyers but we did not sell our album to others because we worked hard and produced a different kind of music, it contains analog sounds of 60’s. If that goes in others hand, we thought they might change our music, so we distributed it ourselves, we were able to distribute it well in foreign countries but we could not distribute much in India and Nepal and I think it was a little mistake; we get many invitations to perform but since music is our hobby and passion, we have to cancel some due to various reasons. This time we got invitation from Drokpo Team to perform here in Nepal and we accepted because they are also young like us and we like to get more involved with youth, besides this is our first performance in Nepal.
Phayul: What do you think about new Tibetan singers who don’t have proper music sense but sing nonetheless?
Jigme: I don’t listen to them much not because I don’t like them. For one reason they might be good as many Tibetans like them. These are good for parties but I don’t think they are good music that you could listen to again and again. I am not criticizing or discouraging them, they are also struggling, they also have fans, even though some of them can’t play instruments it is difficult to make songs.
Phayul: Do you think these new Tibetan singers would help in the development of contemporary Tibetan music?
Jigme: I don’t know about my brothers but I think it would harm contemporary Tibetan music in the future because you can make songs, for example, my friend Sherab Gyatso recorded songs but he did not like the music so he could not bring out his song. I think many modern Tibetan pop singers are not making music in the right manner because when you make music, it should be for generations, something like our Nangma Toeshey that our future generations would also listen to and love it. Nowadays they are not working hard to create and develop music but focus on the outside appearance, I told them directly not to go after looks but to first develop their music.
Phayul: What do you think is the most important quality in a musician?
Jigme: The most important is that when you sing it should touch your heart and the rest would follow.
Phayul: Do you think our Tibetan Government in exile should do more for music development?
Jigme: Our government established TIPA to preserve our culture and upcoming artistes also get fund from various sources. I think it is very good, so whatever they are doing is enough, they also have to work for our freedom movement. In the future when we are independent then we can complain.
Phayul: How do you support your livelihood when all of you play music?
Jigme: Until now our mother has supported us. Now we are beginning to take responsibilities, help in our restaurant, ask and tell people to go to our restaurant, that’s how we help for now. (JJI cafe is located in the Mcleod Ganj town in Dharamsala)
Tenzin Choephel can be reached at omniconnect@yahoo.com
