At the Vault

” A song is to me what life gives.”

Last night at the Vault, five original composers and India’s very own Bob Dylan came together to pay a tribute, and to contribute to the independent music scene of the city. What came around as an upshot to this was the spawning of the genesis of songwriting.

Tathagata Bhowmik, the former songwriter of Do’s and Don’t’s, was the first one to perform. His compositions were that of fervour, where in most he spoke about the cherishing dwelling of love and its consistent inclination to drop out of sight. Tathagata’s song Clouds White Clouds spoke about the kind of affection which dematerializes itself after a point of time, and soon it cease to exist. Mellifluent with his compositions, they were the perfect blend between dejection and tribulation.

The next act by Ryhaan was nothing less than a pleasant merry making. The youngest performer in the house interfused Rock with Pop to keep the audience up on their toes- didn’t matter if anyone in the house was heavily stewed. His offhand improvisation brought the ambience off-the-cuff. His song which he casually announced to be the C Song might sound to most like a hasty headlong rush to notes, yet the boy was confident and the song sailed clear.

Amartya Ray came up with something absolutely different to offer. “When you add music to your poem it becomes a song.” His songs which deal with the impulsive temperament of the young mind, which often goes through an overflow of distinct emotions- sometimes in love, sometimes wandering beyond the horizon, sometimes only a little sad- probably for the first time in the evening brought the audience together. His song Little Man which is about the promised who still awaits for the day to turn and the dawn to arrive is possibly one of his most illustrious compositions. Amartya later paid a tribute to Leornard Cohen, as he was accompanied by Durjoy to perform the poet’s song Suzanne.

As Lou Majaw had told earlier that evening, “A song is to me what life gives.” Watching him perform was like being extremely young again. The man who is known to have carried on Bob Dylan’s legacy in India supports nothing more than originality in an artist’s performance. For him no one can possibly have time for hatred, ill will and abhorrence if all would only be with music, listen to it, play it, do anything with it. He shared a little bit of himself with us, as he went on to sing for the rest of the night:

“When you’re sad and when you’re lonely
And you haven’t got a friend
Just remember that death is not the end
When you’re standing at the crossroads
That you cannot comprehend
Just remember that death is not the end”.

Last night at the vault, there was a song, there was a thought, there was poetry. Last night at the vault people were happy.

A Song and a Thought

As Bob Dylan would say a song is something that walks by itself. Sometimes it just happens by itself, and maybe, that is why a song can be the most honest expression. A song has forms, it has dialects, it has structure, and it has a method of execution. However, as most songs are sung in their respective regional languages- which for almost all becomes a barrier when communicating among races- one can always decipher a song as a palpable language of its own kind.

“Language has never been a barrier for us.”

Mir Kashif Iqbal, the lead guitarist of Parvaaz, explained that the language of the song might often depend on its purpose. If a song is to walk by itself, that is, if it is supposed to inflect a certain impression solely by the lyrics then probably language might have a bigger role to play than the music. However, oftener a song takes its form on the intermixture of music and lyrics. Parvaaz takes it to a distinctive level where their offbeat variation actually punctuate the common mood. For an instance, their song ‘Behosh’, which talks about the self’s escape from the self and the drudgery of the constant urge to be free of inhibition, begins with the lines: “Meherbaan, khadardaan, wunbusu tayibayaan”, which is in Kashmiri/ pashto. It is immediately followed by the line: “Asaan bilkul nahin tha, khud se peecha chudaana”. The synchronisation between the two languages gives an edge to the core essence of the song.

Check out the song here :

Kashmiri songs are noted for the distinct sound of sarinda, rubae, sarangi and santoor. What makes Parvaaz stand apart from the many other electronically equipped bands is that, they maintain the individuality of those folk instruments through their guitars and drum. Their liveliness offsets the rather paintive melody and accentuates the rhythm. It is most well understood in their song Roz Roz which was written by the revolutionary Kashmiri poet Mahjoor and originally sung by Ghulam Hassan Sofi. The song begins with a trance beat, soon shifting its curve to the local tonal value of Kashmiri song.

Listen to their album Baran here:

Parvaaz can easily be distinguished due to their tendency to obliterate the grey zone between poetry and music.

As said by Kashif: “As kids we read many poems back in school, and they have remained in our subconscious for the longest time. We did not have to look anywhere else, where it came to composing music.”

Poems and songs share the similar pattern of structuring when it comes to verses, refrains and chorus. They give a regular rhythm to the otherwise despodent turmoil of the mind. Parvaaz maintains that regular rhythm throughout in each of their songs without distorting the essential sensitivity of neither of the art forms.

It is almost a privilege to listen to Parvaaz as they completely seem to abide by music as the only moral law. Their songs are like the invincible bridge between communities, revealing an older sense of wisdom and philosophy. They simultaneously work on both the conscious and the unconscious aspects of the self, reflecting physiological consequences.

THE PROJECT

Being one of the few descendants of the BEAT generation, it is our regular duty to know that politics can be nothing but the ceaseless pursuit of power, and as the Jack of All Trades, it is a necessity for us to interfere and interrupt and disrupt that ceaseless pursuit of power. Yet, at night when the fog sets in and we no more have to bother ourselves with everything that has gone wrong with the world and its leaders, a little grass and some good music brings us back where we had begun-it brings us back to the heart.

On a few such nights, we often listen to Tushar Lall and his cover of a few famous songs. I know it does not sound to be anything different than the usual amateur artists who all suddenly are deemed with the idea to produce all that sells, and not really work their minds towards something else. However, Tushar Lall was different. He had something to offer. He managed to pull the strings together between the contemporary western composers and the classical Indian instruments.

“Indian Jam Project is a platform to depict Indian instruments in a light which is approachable for everyone. The aim is to show people that Indian instruments are versatile and powerful to play anything.” 

Tushar Lall, along with several other artists, gives a different perspective to the background scores of Hollywood films. Although the music might predominantly sound like an Indian version of the western notes, yet the musicians take up the task upon them to highlight the instruments and give their listeners a chance to decipher as to how the instrument is being played and not who is playing it.

“The priority here is the Indian classical instrument, I keep switching the musicians so that everyone can show a different flavor…people should be fascinated by how a sitar is being played rather than who is playing it.”

Tushar Lall interprets the music that he listens to in his own way, and it worth the attention. For an instance, when covering Titanic’s theme song, there was a sudden drift to the Irish band The Corrs’ instrumental Toss the Feather. The transitions in the song are extremely well maintained and smoothly merges one note with the other.

Give it a listen here:

Radiohead, Hans Zimmer, Ustad Zakhir Hussain, Ustad Bismillah Khan, are the few musicians who have inspired Tushar, “it’s mostly a Hollywood score or an Indian classical, I keep switching between these two.”

With Bollywood eating away almost half the audience in the contemporary India, it is quite difficult for the independent musicians to put out their music out their larger platform. However, the audience, especially the youth today, is gradually taking a turn towards independent music.

“I think it’s changing now, but very slowly. People have started listening to a lot of new bands. I think I would love to be a part of that change even if it’s happening slowly.” And Tushar also believes that, no matter how gradually, this audience will stand the test of time.

“I think the audience is always your supporter and they will always be important. I think time won’t be a factor.”

A musician has always played an important role in the social fabric, exactly from the times when the wandering nomads would sing about an invisible Spirit till the modern time when music is simply not a passion but a way of life. Tushar Lall believes that a musician can induce some sort of positivity in the mind of the people.

Tushar Lall is on his way to orchestrating Indian classical instruments, like the hundred artists out there who are trying to hold on to what actually belongs to us. I don’t know if it is a sad situation for the present Indian society or a bravery on the part of those who are trying to safeguard that which already has been there. However, what I can say is that when I listen to the flute or the tabla or the sitar a sense of belonging attaches itself to it. Tushar Lall churns your emotion with the instruments making us realize that we are too busy longing for the outside when home itself has a lot to offer.

THE ORIGINALS

 

 

There are around a hundred singers in the city, each with thousand words tied together in an unconventional pattern of notes. However, most of the times, these songs go missing when it comes to the popular music scene. Segregated between the popular singers who sing for the big bucks and the singers who write solely for the joy of it, the city of Calcutta has recently seen an upheaval in the independent music scene; and Durjoy Choudhury has a major role to play in it.

Being in the independent music scene for almost 12 years, there can probably be no one better who could tell you about the kind of setbacks that the independent music scene has been facing in the city. There is no money, there is no recognition. The former lead singer of Bee and the Buskers, Durjoy Choudhury took up the initiative to bring to the forefront the musicians who compose their original music and write their own songs. Durjoy  was initially approached by Abhibroto who had told him, “I would like to record you.” Durjoy  came up with something else, “Why would you like to record me when you have the whole city to record?” Friday Night Originals (FNO) came to the city on 4 March 2016, and ever since it has been bringing out the original content of the original artist.

FNO had its initial recordings done at The Imaginarium, Abhibroto’s home studio in Kolkata. In the first season, they brought out several newcomers such as Projjwal Bhattacharya, Abhishu Rakshit, Namrata Nath along with several well-known independent musicians of the city such as Neel Adhikary, Rahul Guha Roy and The Bodhisattwa Trio. Over the next season, they covered artists across the country, from the foothills of Siliguri (MadNug) to the graduate from Berkley College of Music, Boston (Sanjeeta). FNO is probably one of those few initiatives which are absolutely independent in their own terms. “If you have a good song, and very new”, as Durjoy Da would describe it, your song has a chance to reach the audience even when the big bucks are unable to make it. Every season holds 16 slots where the musicians are selected through a demo. There have been times when the established good bands could not make it through the scrutinizing process.

FNO takes no money from the artists it records, nor does it allow any sponsor to dictate its cause. It strictly believes in the quality and the originality of the music. “We don’t judge anybody based on anything. You don’t have to be popular on the scene to get recorded. Whoever you are, if the music is good, we will do everything to help it reach the larger audience.” Durjoy Da, who is quite popular in the city for his own original content did not mind giving up his band to solely concentrate on providing a platform to the independent musicians. “One small sacrifice can always be done for the greater good.”

The FNO team holds members who are dedicated to the fact that the musicians should not sell off their dreams. Now recording from BlooperHouse Studios in Salt Lake, Kolkata, they have covered artists at a wider range. Their latest season, Season 3, has seen popular artists such as Under Ground Authority, Lakkhichara, and The Latination record their popular numbers with them.

Durjoy Da has a song where he says, “I came here just to sell my dreams.” However, on Fridays, he sells dreams of those who have probably not thought of dreaming yet. He sells dreams on a Friday as that seems to be the day more connected to independent music, the day when the weekly responsibilities come to a halt. Durjoy Da takes in nothing but gives out a huge platform to the struggling musicians of the city.

The members of FNO are as follows:

Durjoy Choudhury- Founder, director, editor

Abhibroto Mitra- Co-Founder, sound engineer

Subham Goyal- Business Analyst

Anushree Bhatter, Aditya Chowdhury, Harsh Doshi, Budhaprabha Roy- Cinematographer

Deepank Seth- Asst. sound engineer

 

 

 

 

 

The Year’s Last Loveliest Smile

 

There are these times when you listen to a particular voice and it sounds like an autumn morning. It is sweet, it is earnest, and it is a true-blue. Sanjeeta’s song Menos es Mas reminds me of an autumn morning.

 

Let me tell you, she laughs quite a great deal. When I asked her to say something about herself, the girl laughed and said, “Where do I begin?”. Daughter of well known painter Sanjay Bhattacharya, Sanjeeta was into Kathak ( taught by Pt. Birju Maharaj) and Hindustani Classical (taught by Smt. Sunanda Sharma)  until she finished school. She had to choose between music and dance and as it went, she chose music. I did not ask her why. She went to Berkley College of Music, Boston for her graduation-“you spell Berklee as ‘lee’…(laughs)”. Back in college she was exposed to Balkan music, which would later be the core genre to form her crew known as Voicestra.  However, she decided to come back as she believed that one must give back something to his/her own land, “If you are slightly good at something, you should give it back to where you are from.” And ever since her return last October she has been playing, gigging, composing and travelling quite a lot. It was during one of her gigs in Calcutta that she had come across Friday Night Originals where she was accompanied by Achyuth Jaigopal to record her original number, Menos es Mas.

Sanjay Bhattacharya, known most for his surrealistic approach in colors, gives his viewer a realistic image of the world surrounding us. I would say so; I might differ from many more. When I asked Sanjeeta what it was like to be the daughter of one of the most wonderful artists of our times, she gladly claimed that it was, “Perfect”. She told me that an artist can understand another artist, and hence, the father and the daughter would go on various trips and exhibitions together. “He is one of the most talented people I know, ever…and I look up to him.”

 

Sanjeeta is a singer who did not confine herself to a single style. Jazz, RnB, Hindustani Classical, Pop, she sings it all. “In every genre, you have so much to learn.” However, she does say that Jazz and RnB are the two genres which are “extremely difficult and extremely fun to sing and play.” She considers Latin Jazz to be the ‘best of all worlds’, “you dance, you sing…”.

 

Sanjeeta is one of the most humble people I have spoken. The pastel faced girl with the lilting voice believes in remaining humble, “You tend to drift from your roots…you gotta be humble and continue learning…you never stop learning, you never stop growing, and you’re never perfect.” She is not a person of multiple plans, “I love focusing my attention at one thing at a time.” She does not like planning things ahead, “because you meet with disappointments.”

 

I am eagerly waiting for her EP release. It is one voice I would possibly listen to on a loop.

SOMETHING YOU LIKE DOING

Abhinandan laughed when I asked him about the band’s original composition. “Let’s talk about it fall 2017.” I was curious. I had listened to Jazbah, and yes that was the first song I had listened to. I had to know more.

Initially known as the Cynical Recess, quite a successful band in Calcutta, the band stuck to what the country follows to be main stream. The audience would ask for more of the common music directors. “In a country like India, which is so Bollywood based…people are more into film music.” As he rightly pointed out, the huge industry which drives many of the creative minds has always been a part of the common people’s livelihood. I remember listening to R.D.Burman’s Oh Haseena, and then I heard Abhishek sing it in a back drop of jarring chords. It was refreshing to hear the old song in the new generation’s sound.

SPUNK! began its journey while performing in schools, colleges, and various other festivals. The band was shortlisted for the global band competition Hard Rock Rising and also won Channel [V] Launch Pad in 2012. Their music gives a unique essence to the old Bollywood numbers we all grew up with.  “Hindi music has a more common mass effect”, everyone in one way or more has always related to Bollywood songs. They did what they liked to do. They added their own taste to Bollywood and gave every single cover an edge. The fast tracking sound and the resonating beats bring out the old songs as almost something to step up to for the new generation. And hence that is where the name comes in, “SPUNK!…something that you like doing.”

The band has not yet done any such international shows; however, they have a number of followers across USA, UK, Australia, Bangladesh and many more. In their original score Jazbah, the band paid a humble tribute to the Indian Air Force; their cover of Rahman’s Urvasi is as quick-footed as it could be; their videos are as outlandish as they can get, and they are always great to watch (do watch their official cover of Tum  Kahaan).

The band does not take part in reality shows; they keep things real and genuine. Okay, that sounds odd. What I meant to say was that the band believes that their greatest success is when the audience knows them, listens to them, and understands what they play. Maybe that is what made Abhinandan leave his high profile marketing job and shift all his resources to music. “It is everything to me, it is love, it is life, and it is passion unlimited.”

The band will be covering A.R.Rahman’s Vande Mantaram this Independence Day. “It will be a lot different.” It will have SPUNK!’s unique touch keeping Rahman’s genius composition intact. I am most certainly looking forward to it. However, I am quite sure that those who have been following the band are eagerly awaiting their original scores. All the more reason to look forward to fall 2017, to realize what SPUNK! actually feels like.

TRAPPED!

Every one knows who they are. Every one knows what they are.
I first came across this band two years back, when my friend in a way forced me to give their cover a listen. I am not too fond of covers, however, this time I was listening to something different. I was listening to a group of boys play like there were about a thousand heads popping out to only look at them; and the boys were playing such that the heads would not rest. 
The first time I attended one of their concerts I saw the madness that was in front of the stage, and at the back, and everywhere. The audience would not rest, the boys would not rest. No body was tired and the violin jarred with the bass. I suppose the band is pretty much realized by now. 
As told by the violinist, Bhaswar, the band’s music is radical. No, it will not change your life. But it will drive you, it will make you hop out to purchase that last ticket to the concert. Bhaswar rightly mentioned that the stage was what had made him perform throughout. I would say, that is the same for every one of them. Listen to their cover where they pay a tribute to Satyajit Ray. The basic turns and moves of the music and the sudden juggernaut of a crambled bass and a vociferous violin gives you the exact hit in the head. When covering Game of Thrones there is a sense of trance present in the layout. Their original track Middle Earth might sound like an amalgamation of Irish Folk, progressive polyrhythmic and a little punk. 
The band is performing all around and the audience loves them. They remain loyal to the audience’s preference sustaining their own recognized style. They bring out a fresh essence, a sense of the youth back to the audience. They are among those few artists in Calcutta you would like to keep getting back to. If Amartya, Projjwal and Abhishu are the song that you would keep with you, TRAP is the sound that you would keep playing. 
What charms me the most about the band is their bond. You barely get to see it. Bands transform and alter every once in a while. TRAP decided to stay with the core. Maybe the violinist is the face, maybe the drummer is the favorite, maybe the bassist is chosen out-yet, you cannot keep them as a separate choice. TRAP is a band which might be perceived as a band with no frontman. You absolutely have to love them all. 
And so the favorite line up remains:
Bhaswar Sen – Violin, Viola, Electric Violin, Arrangements and Composition.

 Ronnie “Ronn” Chatterjee – Guitar, Vocals, Sound Designing and Programming, Arrangements, Composition and Production. 

Suanjito “Bindo” Dutta – Drums and Percussion.

Anupam Pyne – Keyboards and Vocals.

Swaphabha “Popeye” Roy: Bass Guitars.

Band Management/Bookings: Soumadip Das
P.S: Also do not forget to check out their new number PRADOSAGAMA which is to be released by the end of July…

THE PHOENIX

https://youtu.be/_V5Slqi_Tu8

What else do I play?” Deep asked, “Are you asking me why I don’t sing?” 

As limited as my knowledge could be, I had barely given solo percussive acoustic music a listen, until I came across another FNO artist, Deep. And Deep told me that he has always been a confused soul, who would play randomly on the guitar who was only getting by. 

A pianist at a very early age and a guitarist at present, Deep’s music might be tough to fetch for some, but it is certainly something easy to rely on. I know that was a confusing statement. What I mean to say is that, you don’t always need words to come up with what you feel. You know that gap you leave in between words, that gap which remains quite priceless as not every one is given the opportunity to fulfil it-Deep’s music fulfils the gap. 

The SPAG artist, who gathers inspiration from where ever he finds fit, be it Igor Presnyakov or the Calcutta based band TRAP, his music becomes a part of what most would call growing up. “No…not the kind of growing up you know, like the one where a 26 year old grows up, too…” 

Deep tends to think of music better when playing alone. He doesn’t seem to try and get by with a grand show or the granduer which is usually known to be attached to a guitarist-he makes music the way he wishes to. Unlike the lyrical pieces, or a song, which have a broader social outreach, Deep’s music might often feel about what he has gone through. He re-creates songs on his guitar, tilting them a little with his own style. He uploads a new song every day (#guessthatsong) and a new song every week (#songoftheweek). He has played in several places which include Piano Man Jazz Club in Delhi and Bengaluru’s B-Flat Bar. 

Deep wishes to keep playing. A self-funded musician who is able to pay his bills with his music itself, he understands that every age has its own taste. He knows that an artist ought to supply what artist’s age demands, yet only a true artist can maintain the topsy-turvy balance. He would not judge. He would not blame. He finds hope in the music he plays. 

I cannot say anymore about the artist, as he is somebody who stands by himself. You can find out more about this musician on his Facebook page ‘Deep Phoneix’, and certainly on the YouTube channel of FNO. 

“WHAT IS ‘ANY’ TO YOU?”

 

I have to write something about someone and I do not know what, to begin with. Honestly, after writing the first sentence I sat back for fifteen minutes and scrolled down the comment section on one of Projjwal’s videos on FNO. Someone had asked him to work on his pronunciation. Another person had asked the previous person to try and speak in Bengali, and soon there were two people commenting on each other over just a song played by just a boy. And the song went as:
“Who is to blame, tell me, love?
Who will we blame for the fire?
Amidst the hatred, we must build love,
And let’s be each other’s desire.”

 

Amid his ‘paradoxical situations’, Projjwal says that poems and songs are like Horcruxes, you divide your soul in them. He grew up in a family where literature, film, and music were the daily customs. Since the age of five or six, he would play in a toy synthesizer and by the time he was in the sixth standard he was playing the piano. A drift from the Bengali ambiance of music to the Western Classical style took place. Considering himself to be the “worst student”, he would struggle to maintain a balance between his education and music. There would be quite a number of obstacles. After spending four years in CSM, during the fifth year, he faced the changes which lay in front of him. “The society around me was changing. The environment, the education system, my own life they were all going through a drastic change. And then one day, I heard a guy shouting in a nasal tone: ‘the times they are a-changing’.” Projjwal started writing, all in English without a guitar.

He says that he has heard a number of Bob Dylan’s songs. It was something that made sense to him. There was also Cohen’s Book of Longing. He began to see and paint. He took up music as a language, a language speaking in which everyday nourished him. The boy was worried about his future, his country’s future, the education system. The system itself deteriorating. He believes that it all has to be taken back in form. He began to paint through music.

I asked him about his story. He told me several things, “…How can I say, there are so many stories…so many stories…I don’t have my own story…” And so he kept telling me a story to say why a story was being told. And somehow as he narrated and he re-told, I realized that his stories, a lot like his songs, were helping me read my story. Well, that is personal! Maybe, somebody would realize it, somebody would not. And probably, that is also the reason why I listened to Projjwal sing. He sang songs about religious fundamentalism, “Why must I hate that tree,/ For it is loved by someone I hate?” He speaks about love looking at love, as love moves out in a song called Suddenly Tonight. His song These Blanks are a straightforward promise of the void in between existence. Like a Milestone, which he had written two years back, is one where he identifies himself as a milestone. “I live by what I think,” he said, “it is important to think first…” I had to know if he abides by what he says if he would preach. He would sing. “Maybe that’s how, as you said, I would ‘preach’.”

He takes inspiration from Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach; he identifies with Bob Dylan, calling himself a ‘Dylan Freak’; he listens to Irish Folk, Bengali spiritual hymns; he wishes to research on Folk song and connect to people; he remains mindful of the surrounding. He keeps vinyl records of Bob Dylan, Kali Dasgupta, Debabrata Biswas, Benny Goodman, Hank Snow, John Lee Hooker, and many more. You might find in his bookshelf Umberto Eco, Boris Ford, Jack London, W.J.Hemmings, Joyce, Tolstoy, Orwell, and a lot more.
He says that he travels within himself and that he would change with the changing times. “I adorn my age, I may sing the blues./ For time is no poor country, to be conquered.”

I had to write about Projjwal and I did not know what, to begin with. And surely I do not know what to end with. All I can say is that I have barely met a person, a songwriter, a singer, and a boy as him; and yes about his songs…they are always somewhere after just now.

 

AMIDST ‘STOBDHOTA’

 

“Do you want anything to drink?”
“Okay, water will do…”
“Uhh…do you want Glucon-D with it…”Abhishu laughed.

Abhishu is a person who does not consider himself as a well-trained ‘educated’ musician. He says that he is an ‘uneducated’ songwriter. And he does not know what he is writing about. “Maybe I know after I am done, but until then….I don’t know what.”

Abhishu Rakshit grew up in one of the many Bengali families whose artistic enthusiasm carry them across the various aesthetics of music. Abhishu had his ‘only formal’ education in Rabindra Sangeet from Surangama. As his father had a transferrable job, he was soon encouraged into the Pop and the Folk Rock of the 60’s and the 70’s. Yes, The Beatles and Bob Dylan took over. This was also the time, some time in his early 20’s, around 2004, that Abhishu had started writing his own verse and chorus.

Like most youth, he was writing about what he was being told, “you know, that phase you go through, like, shob baje shob kharap. Shob palte debo…and all that…” He would claim that his work was a lot Puritanical and naive back then. “But then, I had to show my work to Dr. Sukanta Chaudhuri…” Most of us have that one person to whom we expose our most intimate work in order to push ourselves or give our work an edge. “…I was writing about war back then, and uncle asked me, ‘have you been to a war?’ I haven’t. I knew what he was talking about…Of course, I was not writing about something that I understood entirely. It was fed by the media. I was not introspecting…” And so he did introspect.

I need not tell you what our education system does to us, I most certainly need not mention what a person pursuing a career as a CA goes through. Hence, Abhishu who was at that time doing his CA was ‘sad quite a lot and wrote quite a lot.’ And hence, came up with lyrics which would remind you of being bothered with…with yourself.

“I like stuff that break the grammar, you know. I mean, form exists to be broken.” Chris Cornell, Eddie Vedder, Maynard James Keenan, Blur, Nick Drake, were a few names which he mentioned while he was talking about form being broken and mended according to the need of the song. To him, these musicians and songwriters were talking about a subject, reality and above all ‘insecurities’. “The entire Grunge movement, you know…The depressive movement against a system, the glorified slacker mentality, economic exploitation, they were all expanding their horizon to the ground realities and I think that is what hit me.” Grunge, which is a sub-genre of alternative rock and which had emerged during the mid-1980’s, is known for chronicling pain. Bands such as Nirvana, Sound Garden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains were the names which had defined Grunge music. “There is a continuous action and conflict, action and conflict…”Abhishu said, while he was talking about its sensation in the mind, “It is thought provoking.”

Abhishu never seemed to be a musician with a ‘preferred single’ taste. He spoke about Radiohead and Daft Punk. “You see, these guys were giving a whole new meaning to Electronica. Electronica is not just about electronics put together to make you dance, no…it can be thought-provoking if done right. There is so much to be read in between the lines. It has its own identity.” Not only Alternative Rock, or Grunge, or Electronica; Abhishu certainly spoke about those bands which we ‘Bong’ kids grew up listening to. “Hey the bands which are so close to us, us Bangalis, Mohiner Ghoraguli…they were a major influence for me. Also the first album of Krosswindz, Poth Geche Beke...ah, it was a beautiful one!” He says that a song should be a bridge between simple words and deep thoughts.

A songwriter of an indiscriminate taste, Abhishu says that it is almost ‘Romantic to think’ that he would live the rest of his life on a guitar and a few notes. The person who is working at the Vidorea Technologies at the moment, is actually the vocalist of a band, a band which is trying to push the elements in order to increase the merits of the song. I won’t tell you the name of the band, but I would also you to not miss out on it. With a little ‘case of luck’ I was able to listen to a few of their songs, and yes the punctuated howl of the drums taking over and the continuous reminder of the restless UFO Club was a psychedelic experience in itself. “Electro Alternative Rock Pop, oi jeta ke bolbo Hyalu…” is what Abhishu came up with when I asked him about the songs.

As a guy who believes in no barrier, be it taste or preference, he wishes to perform all over the world both in English and in Bengali. Although he at times does suffer from the “composers’ death”, Abhishu Rakshit is the Winner of the first season of Maruti Suzuki Colours of Youth. Yes, he is a big deal. I hope that the band is launched very soon, as the line-up seems promising. Also, I would ask you all you definitely check out their album once it is launched. You won’t regret it.

Do check out his song on the YouTube channel Friday Night Originals. In fact, after you are done, do check out the channel. It will treat you with a lot of fresh content, and if you like it, do subscribe.