Dev Rana is the iconic drummer in the history of Nepali Music.
Rana was born in Malaysia on June 18, 1952, but raised in Palpa, Nepal. He went back to Malaysia for his study in British School. During his teenage, he became more attracted to extracurricular activities. He got into a drama squad and participated in every drama and also was a sportsperson. Later on, he started playing the guitar and fell in love with it. He was taught playing guitar and drum by his seniors in school. Among them was Man Singh Gurung who was his mentor.
Rana was a very sociable person and easily could interact and make friends. He made lots of friends including British friends. This made him fell into British music more. He used to listen to albums of rockstars like The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Elvis Presley. One day, when he was listening to The Beatles song ‘Love Me Do’, the beat of the song caught his attention and loved the drummer beating the drum. This inspired him a lot to be the drummer. His other biggest inspirations were Mitch Mitchel and Jimi Hendrix. From now on his musical journey began.
Rana came to Nepal and went to Lucknow, India to work. He used to play music in a Hotel with a Hindi Band there. In 1980, he joined a Nepali band Prism Band where Pemba Lepcha, George Subba, Prolad Rokka and Dinesh Rai were the founding members. He became the official drummer of the band. The Prism band started performing in five-star hotels like Soaltee and many stage shows. They used to sing songs of 60’s and 70’s . They were never failed to amaze the crowd and won their hearts. They were invited to every party to perform and also performed on many foreign projects.
After his band aparted, Rana still plays as a freelance drummer in Soaltee hotel and performs with various artists. He is presently joined with other groups and does live shows with them.
Rana has always been the biggest inspiration and idol to many young artists in Nepal. He has a remarkable contribution to bringing up western music in Nepal. He and other musicians had lots of challenges during the evolution of western music in Nepal. Rana said “It was difficult there was not proper technical equipment at that time but we were happy with what we did with what we brought into the world. And I cannot complain about time because that particular time was just beautiful.”
Rana has never given up his passion for music in spite of his growinge age. He is always been making new music, beating drums and having fun with the musical environment. His devotion and passion towards music is incomparable and indescribable. He is and he will always be the most iconic drummer in Nepali Music.
Watch an interview with Dev Rana on Kurakani with Subani on Nepali E-Chords.
