The Moon Flower Project is an experimental music project that collaborates with different musicians, filmmakers, Performance artists and poets. This project first started in 2015 with a few covers by Maimun Khan and Quazi Aquib Ahmed. Later on, they took the initiative to make it a platform where they could do things that they love involving music, art and creativity. Michael Shirsho Das joined this platform in between and this trio started their journey to bring a unique twist in the music industry. The genre cannot be specified as they spice it up with a mixture of blues, fusion, jazz and latin-fusion.
We had a small chit-chat with the project members to get a bit on the in-scene.
To begin with, tell us a bit about your inspiration.
MK: Anything can be an inspiration between the heavens and hells. But I am mostly inspired by the dreams and limits of my imagination.
QAA: I think I fell in love with Santana's records and have always wanted to play like him. However, each individual has their own way of being an inspiration and I can’t name them all but everyone out there, who have been either close to me or not, have inspired me in their own way.
MSD: The Nature and the Stars.
Which genre do you guys follow and what is the reason behind doing so?
MK: I don’t like to differentiate between genres, rather I am more inspired by places. We’re inspired by mountains and oceans and deserts. Africa is fascinating.
“The Moonflower Project”, what does it mean? How did you come up with it?
MK: The Moon Flower Project is more of a zone where you exercise the freedom of being. It’s an experience that aims to talk about the possibilities. I think that’s what art aims to do, talking about good and bad possibilities. We call it a project because there are no boundaries, this is a project to open the doors of perception.
How long have you guys been in the music scene for? How did you guys meet?
QAA: It took me a while to get into music because it was extremely difficult for me to begin learning with a right handed guitar. It has been eight years now. I met Maimun in the most random way possible. I was in a café with a guitar and he came up to me and asked if I listened to Santana. We got into talking, agreed on jamming one day and that was it. Met Micheal many years later during the beginning days of this project.
Anything can be an inspiration between the heavens and hells.
What makes you stand out from the other rising groups of musicians?
MSD: Our audience will be able to answer this question better than us.
Do you guys plan on publishing any records? If so, when is your album coming up?
MSD: We have so far recorded quite a handful of songs and instrumentals so far. Ones which have not been published will all be released gradually either as single track or as album as we see fit.
Tell us something about your most successful gig so far.
MK: We are at Cox’s Bazaar at LL7, it was magical. We would start playing at midnight till dawn. That’s one of the best trips we had so far.
MSD: Will go with Maimun on this one. We were on an alternative state of mind and created music that we would never be able to recreate again.
What are you guys up to when you are not playing or making music?
MK: We’re thinking music. Other than that, the usual stuff, working, travelling, relaxing.
You guys have a unique gig going on but the market surely is niche for such music. Do you think people will accept your genre? And to what extent do you guys plan on sticking together in the long-run?
MK: We gotta do what we gotta do. Our part is to make the records that we feel connected to, whether people will indulge in it or not is up to them. We can just hope and try.
As Maimun said above, musicians nowadays can just hope and keep on trying to make a stand amongst the stereotypical pop-cultural society where there’s less room for rising talents and appreciation. Though this is a huge drawback, we have been noticing some changes in the picture. In the long-run, the industry might shift turns by letting go of faded talents and bringing up fresh ones.
