Kronedge, a Bangladeshi band formed in Washington DC almost 3 years ago, is trying to assimilate the music boundaries from east to west. Members have said they are inspired by the pioneers of Bangla rock and metal.
All members of the band spent their childhood in Bangladesh and learned playing musical instruments from some of the renowned names of the country.
Later on, life brought them together and in August 1, 2016, five Bangladeshi musicians named Rafi (vocal), Tony(guitar), Sharif (guitar), Amit(bass), and Enam(bass), formed the band Kronedge.
The band's title was derived from their ingrained passion for rock music which brought them together in a foreign land to experiment with collaborative creativity to transcend 'time' and 'border', and hence the joining of 'Cron' and 'Edge'.
Rafi, the vocalist, a passionate musician since his early childhood, is influenced by his father who is a classical singer. He started his musical career as a vocalist in his high school days, and has performed as a solo singer at many concerts in Dhaka.
His re-creation of a popular Bangla folk song titled “PakhireTui” became very popular in Bangladesh and beyond. He joined Kronedge as vocalist in 2016. Apart from singing, Rafi loves to compose songs and play the drums and tabla as well.
Guitarist Tony started his music lessons in the 2nd grade and picked up the guitar in 8th grade. His first guitar mentor was the late guitarist Niloy Da. He later took lessons from popular musician Balam. Tony's first band was Koprophillia, based in Dhaka, where he played from 1997 to 2002. Besides Kronedge, he is engaged in a Bangla cover band, Jotil, in the greater Washington DC area.
Drummer Enam learnt to play the tabla as a child. He then switched to drums around 1995. His early musical inspiration was the band Feelings (now Nagar Baul).
Guitarist Sharif took basic lessons from Rocket, the legendary guitarist of Uchharon, during his Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam break. His musical ventures were limited to friends and students from cadet college or BUET. Bands he played for include Confused, Kinnor, Tirthok, The Scarfs, Kirtinasha. In the US he kept playing within closed doors, until he joined 'ArichaGhat' in 2013 as a bassist. He later moved on to work on a complete production with 'Old School Shop.'
Bass guitarist Amit started playing guitar back in 1998 when he wanted to become a musician in Bangladesh. He started as a guitarist/vocalist for the band Fumes until the band broke up as members went abroad for higher studies. A friend then approached him to play bass guitar for his band. He gladly accepted the offer and started to play bass guitar and has never looked back ever since.
He worked with a lot of projects and bands in the Bangladesh Underground music scene (Kral - vocals, Harmony - bassist, Limerain - bassist, DNA - lyricist, Subconscious - bassist; to name a few) until he came to join Icons as a bassist and released an album and 3 singles with them in Bangladesh, performing in numerous shows nationwide.
In 2011 he moved to Washington DC for his work but continued his journey as a musician by joining a local hard rock band named Above the Silence. He performed at various venues on the East Coast with the band and also recorded some material for their new EP. After 2 years of working with the band, Amit left ATS and joined a Celtic rock band named Dragon’s Head.
This was an interesting move for him as the music itself was very different and the band was also experimenting with the sound for their second album. Amit recorded and released a single with Dragon’s Head and was also composing their second album, but the band fell apart as the drummer and the violinist had to leave the DC area due to their work.
Amit started freelancing for a bit and performed with esteemed artistes like Anila Chowdhury and Shapla Salique, when he was invited by Kronedge to jam with them. After a couple of jamming sessions Amit became a part of the Kronedge family and continued his musical journey.