Every song begins with one story. The most enduring ones become everyone’s. Bikki Gurung reflects on finding meaning in music, embracing uncertainty, and why the best songs are the ones he no longer has to explain.
“If you ask me when I decided to follow music, I would probably tell you I never really had that choice. Every chapter of my life left behind a melody before it left behind a memory,” says Bikki Gurung.
For Bikki, music has never been something he consciously chose. It has always been there, quietly accompanying him through every phase of life, becoming part of who he is long before he realised it.
Songwriting began as something deeply personal, a way to make sense of his own emotions and experiences. But over time, something unexpected happened. The songs he wrote to understand himself began helping others understand themselves too.
That realisation changed everything. Music became more than a form of self-expression; it evolved into a shared space where listeners could discover fragments of their own lives within his lyrics. Every performance, every city he visits, and every song he releases has since become another chapter in a story he says he is still grateful to be writing.
Years of creating music have also transformed the way Bikki sees both life and art. Where he once searched for answers through his songs, he now embraces uncertainty, believing not every emotion needs to be explained. Instead, he has learned to leave space for interpretation.
He believes art becomes timeless the moment it no longer belongs solely to its creator. Once a song is released into the world, it takes on a life of its own, shaped by the experiences, emotions and memories of every listener who embraces it. For him, there is no greater privilege than knowing a song can continue to evolve long after it has left his hands.
That same philosophy extends beyond music. He believes every season of life arrives when it is meant to, and every emotion deserves the time and space to exist without being rushed or defined. Naturally, that outlook has found its way into his songwriting.
It is perhaps most evident in his latest release, Yo Hawa Lai, a song he intentionally leaves open to interpretation. Rather than explaining its meaning, Bikki encourages listeners to immerse themselves in the music video, pay attention to every lyric, and discover their own story within it. To one person, it may be a love story; to another, it may speak of heartbreak, healing, longing or loneliness. For him, that openness is precisely what gives music its power.
Once a song is released, he believes it no longer belongs to the artist alone, it belongs to everyone willing to carry it in their own way. His hope is that Yo Hawa Lai becomes a song where listeners find not just his story, but their own.
Among the many songs that have marked his journey, one continues to hold a special place: Bholi. “Every time I perform it, it feels a little different because I hear it through the voices of the audience,” he says. Each performance transforms the song into something new. As audiences sing the lyrics back to him, he no longer hears only the emotions that inspired it; he hears hundreds of different lives finding comfort in the same melody. Moments like these have reinforced his belief that not every song needs an explanation.
“Sometimes the most honest thing an artist can do is simply let people feel whatever they feel.”
Despite the recognition he has earned over the years, success has never been the reason Bikki continues making music. “If music was only about success, I could have stopped a long time ago. I have other dreams, other businesses, other ways to build a life.”
To him, music remains something deeply human. It allows him to borrow pieces of people’s hearts and return them as melodies, a privilege he says he never takes lightly.
The moments that stay with him most are often the simplest. When someone tells him, “This song feels like my life,” he is reminded why he began writing all those years ago, and why he continues to do so. As long as there are stories waiting to be told and hearts waiting to connect with them, Bikki says he will keep listening, keep writing and keep creating music that people can one day call their own.
Text: Bijaya Shiwakoti
Photo: Bikki Gurung’s Management Team
