The band that introduced the “heavy metal” genre to the History of “Bangladeshi rock” music has returned. After more than two decades the 2nd album titled Notun Shader Khoje (NSK) of Rockstrata is now out in the market. Dhaka Tribune caught up with the members of the band, Arsad Amin and Mahbubur Rashid to learn the unspoken story of their new album.
What took you so long to return?
It took so long because all of us were dispersed geographically all over the world. Imran, Mainul, and Mahbub were in the US, while Arshad and Mushfiq were in Bangladesh. Except for Imran and Mahbub, none of the others were involved with music on a regular basis. Also, we were getting ready to establish our careers because we never intended music to be our source of income.
After Warfaze’s reunion concert in 2009, we were seriously thinking about doing a reunion show, but we did not have enough material. Therefore, we decided to record a second album. Now we have enough songs to play in a two and a half hour long show. Even though we are still separated in different countries, we were able to eliminate the geographical distance and collaborate on the album with the help of technology available at hand.
Tell us about “the moment” you decided to return.
The gathering was not physical. Arshad wrote the lyrics for the first song of the new album, Ei Amar Jibondhara. Then, we exchanged ideas on Facebook. We had a little get together (without Mushfiq) in Minneapolis to record the drums in May-June of 2012, but there were no formal meeting to initiate the work on the release.
There is confusion about the genre of RS after the release of the album. Would RS like to clarify the issue?
RS always has been a heavy metal band. We would call the genre, the Rock Strata genre, which is plain old heavy metal focused on melody. We did not shoot for any particular genre, but we consciously wanted to avoid the sub-genres like thrash, death, and progressive metal genres as we could not relate to those. With Notun Shader Khoje, I believe that we have been able to create our own sound. The album is meant to give something new to the metal fans of Bangladesh. Hence the name Notun Shader Khoje.
Tell us more about the song titled “Oshanti” featuring Ibrahim Ahmed Kamal.
It was Arshad’s idea to have him to play in our new album. We were greatly honored to have one of the finest guitarists that Bangladesh has ever produced, our good old friend Ibrahim Ahmed Kamal to play in Oshanti. We are very satisfied with the work he has done on his part. It mixes very well with the passage of the song. We are very happy.
When are we going to see a live performance of RS?
This December hopefully, given that everything goes right.
