A Brief History

The Khampas are a band with roots that go back close to two decades. What started out with a bunch of high school swimmers blasting Pink Floyd and The Who to get psyched up for meets has morphed into a driving rock band dedicated to pursuing a musical journey that seems to leap over boundries faster than they are discovered.

Originally formed in 1989 as Surgeon General's Warning, the band's first lineup included the Gizard on bass, Bagus on keys, Johnny B. behind the kit and the guitar playing cousins, Adam Begun and Joe Paykel. SGW formed as a Grateful Dead cover band that played house parties and local bars in Madison, Wisconsin, and later, bigger venues in Chicago, while the band tried to make it through school. After graduation The Gizard moved on to teach English in Taiwan and Bagus moved off to the Maryland Shore to pursue a wildlife biology career. In the days before email it would have been easy to move on and forget, but once you've found a groove with an outfit you make sure you find that outfit again!

Somewhere in the early '90's with Jama taking an early retirement from his career as a professional high diver, he found his way back to Wisconsin and clawed his way into the off and on SGW filling in for Paykel who was busy in Law School in Ann Arbor. The band did it's best to get together every year or so, but with half of them living on the West Coast and half living in the Midwest they could only manage a few Christmas/New Year's Eve gigs.

With the bulk of the band on the West Coast The Gizard and Bagus got together to form 'The Chasers' but uncertainty in the .com world led to panic attacks and a general evacuation of the Bay Area. When The Gizard announced he was off to Dharamsala to build websites for the Tibetan Government, Jama, now in a wheelchair and writing corporate schlock for a sports company in Oregon decided to pack up his rollers and join him on the other side of the world.

The time in Dharamsala proved to be a watershed era as The Gizard and Jama played every Saturday Night at Tea O'Clock, probably the only cafe in the Himalayas that featured two amps and a constant influx of musicians from all over the world. On his way home from Dharamsala, Jama hung out with Indian Handicap advocate, Ajeet Pal in the cafes of old Delhi. During this time Jama agreed that he would host a benefit concert upon his return to help start a school for Ajeet and his friends. Six months later under the name 'Fork' the old members of SGW started to reform.

Armed with a satchel of new songs and a rekindled passion to play, The members of Fork continued to pass songs back and forth and jam together as often as travel would permit. In 2003 after a mind-wrecker of a second set at the second Ajeet Pal concert, it was decided to thoroughly rededicate and put this act on the road.