Typically, the word “band” refers to a group of singers, drummers, guitarists and bassists. Lemonstand Boys, however, is somewhere in between a band and a record label. Unlike a traditional band, the group contains their own producer and videographer and unlike a record label, they are bound by trust, rather than contract.
Lemonstand Boys founded itself amidst frustration — when members from a Nepali record label wanted to be free from companies who exploited young artists like themselves. The group aims to bridge the gap between the viewers and the artists, giving all the revenue generated from a song to creators without keeping a percentage of the profit. Since their inception three years ago, the group has come a long way—now consisting of eleven members, with popular scores like “Atti Bho” and “Raksheesh”.
Some of the best times of our lives were when we rented out apartments and built blanket fortes and put our mics in the middle to record our songs”, singer and songwriter VZN fondly recollects the beginning days of Lemonstand Boys.
Although predominantly rap, the group produces anything from pop music to indie music and everything in between—drawing inspiration from Brockhampton and Odd Future. Most of their music comes from a place of spontaneity when members gather together to make a beat and create songs on the spot. His audience generally finds solace in the lyrics of their creations, sharing the same struggles and anger insinuated in the songs. “Raksheesh” in particular, is a piece that channels one’s frustrations into its angry verses.
The group recognizes the amount of impact social media can have in introducing them to the world. Manager and outreach officer of Lemonstand Boys, Shery T Magar marvels about how TikTok skyrocketed their views from one thousand to forty thousand in a short span of time. Their song “Timle Garda” is particularly famous on TikTok with thousands of users using lines from the song in a video with their own twist. The group remains optimistic about the role of social media in their future ventures.
One of their ventures to watch out for in the future is an on-spot music production session with Producer Francis. The show will consist of Francis coming up with a beat on the spot and an artist from the group writing a 2-minute song— all within the span of 30 minutes. The session and song will be available on YouTube for viewers to see.
Without having to adhere to the regulations of a record label, founding member VZN emphasizes upon how much creative freedom owning one’s own production house has given them. Recognizing the place of privilege VZN comes from, he has been giving smaller upcoming artists in his group the same platform as him and coaching them on making music. With their in-house videographer, producer, graphic designers, and singers—this self-sufficient group of talented artists have so much to offer to the Nepali music industry.
The cohort of artists behind this production house is as follows—Sajish Shrestha (VZN: Singer and Songwriter), Shery T. Magar (Manager & Outreach Officer), Salin Bajracharya (Videographer), Manish Bista (Francis: Music Producer & Engineer), Pranish Thapa (Caesarboii: Rapper/Singer/Producer), Siddartha Chhetri (BloodyVinci: Rapper/Producer/Engineer), Pratik Bhattarai (Blitzy: Producer), Aayush Poudyal (Ace: Rapper), Aditi Sherpa (Noela: Artist), Satkar Karki (Packey: Rapper), Vardaan Khatri (Producer).
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