Nusrat Jahan Pritom talks to the members of Rockstrata to get their insights on their reunion and latest release,
Photo Credit: Aninda Kabir
The flat in Gulshan 2 is now empty. Although just a few days ago it had been alive and resonating with the voices of this country’s renowned rock musicians. The reason for such a huddle was the legends Mainul Islam, Arshad Amin, Imran Hussain and Mahbubur Rashid of Rockstrata. Mushfiq, the vocalist and Arshad, the bassist are the only two members who still live in Bangladesh. All these years, scattered across the globe, the band reunited for one last gig. No doubt, the feeling among the members of the band was one of intense excitement and overtures of heavy baited anticipation.
The band pioneered the metal genre in Bangladesh at a time when men with long hair were considered ominous. They not only stayed true to the spirit of metal but did so in style. The electrifying guitars and the upbeat tempo were all new to the music lovers in the mid 80’s. The band actively participated in local concerts from 1986 to 1992. They performed some of the heaviest covers of Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Metallica.
“Back in those days, having a band was rare a thing,” says Arshad. “However, we were really into it. Imran was on bass, Mainul on guitar and Mahbub on drums. Imran wanted to switch to playing the guitar leaving the bass slot empty which, in turn, led to my recruitment.”
The band published their self-titled debut album in 1992. After recording nine songs, Imran had to leave for the US leaving Mainul to complete the guitar duties for the rest of the album. In those days recordings were done in cassettes with a capacity of sixty minutes. After recording ten songs there was still approximately nine minutes of recording space left and that led to the final number, Kaalo Raat. The song was based on the cyclone that hit the Bay of Bengal in 1991. Mainul, too, left for the US after completing the guitar tracks.
“It’s a little sad as we weren’t able to witness the response after the album’s release,” says Mainul. “From the US, all we could do was imagine the excitement of the fans. We only got to know the real momentum of what we had done on returning for the reunion concert. Almost every other day we meet other bands and they tell us how much the Rockstrata album inspired them. So for our second album, we went all out and struggled a lot. The results are fantastic and we are happy to be able to see the response first hand this time.”
For their second album Notun Shader Khojey, released in 2014, the fans where doubly excited. The band succeeded in keeping their original signature sound alive.
“The songs are related to who we are now,” says Imran. “Our focus was not to duplicate what we did. In fact, we made no effort to sound a particular way. We are all grown up now and see things a little different. The second album is catchier, more melodious.”
Time constraint was a factor to consider. A lot of groundwork was already done via Skype, Google +, etc. Lyrics were exchanged and compositions were made over the internet. The drum tracks for all eleven songs of the album were recorded in 12-hour shifts over two days. In addition, the composition of the song Ei Boshontey was completed while working on the drum tracks in the studio.
The guitar and drum tracks for the second album were recorded in the US. The bass and vocal tracks were recorded in Bangladesh with the final mixing and mastering done in USA. The album got produced and published by the record label G-Series. The much awaited album officially launched on 7 February 2014 at the same venue where it all started – Engineering Institute, Dhaka. The launching program was conceptualised, designed, overseen, and executed by Arshad Amin. Imran Hussain, Mainul Islam, and Mahbubur Rashid participated and interacted with the event over the internet using the Google+ video conference technology.
The big event Rockstrata: One Last Live took place this year on 9 January. The concert was organized by Livesquare. Mushfiq was unable to perform due to being ill. Jamshed of Powersurge, Polash, Sufi of Arbovirus, Shakib of Cryptic Fate and Lincoln of Artcell made guest appearances during the show. A total of eighteen numbers, that included songs from both albums, were performed. Legendary guitarist Kamal performed with the band for their final number.
The band may have said that this is the end and that this was the last Rockstrata show but honestly, a band of such significance can never have an end, really. They will continue to be with us in our hearts and minds as long as there is music.