Campus Buzz

Behind the scenes…

Nazia Ahmed

As DRockstars approaches the last leg of the quest for the ultimate rock band, Star Campus gets on the phone with the six finalist bands for a cozy chitchat about their adventures so far.

What influenced your image?

Bortoman: [Masum] "We are mainly influenced from Miles, Souls, and Scorpions."

Power Surge: [Nahian] "We are mostly influenced by the old Metallica, Kreator, Lamb of God, Sepultura in their former days, Overkill, and Dream Theater."

Dour: [Shaon]"We garner a mellow rock and punk rock genre. As such we are mostly influenced by Guns n Roses, Bon Jovi, Dream Theater etc.

Eclipse: [Diep] "Artcell and Warfaze to some extent, influence us. Other than that there's Symphony X, Circus Maxima, Seventh wonder, Dream Theater etc."

Dreek: [Mushfeeq] "Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Dio are mainly what influenced us."
Radioactive: [Mitul] "White snake, Skidrow, Guns n Roses, Warfaze etc."

How does your pursuit of music affect your education?

Bortoman: I have completed studies, the keyboardist is in his third year at university, and the drummer is enrolled in a Masters degree program. So it is quite tight and challenging."

Power Surge: "We formed our band around January 2006. Yes it is tough at times, but we have managed to balance both worlds till now."

Dour: "In Bangladesh we don't really have institutions for these kinds of music; thus we need to put a lot more effort from our end to go places. The other members face a lot of difficulty in managing music and education together but since I graduated I actually had to quit my job to pursue music. But I would say it's worth it."

Eclipse: "It did affect our education in a negative way. We had to bunk classes more than ever, and make compromises that were not easy at all."

Dreek: "We are all from different universities. As we are all in our final semester, the pressure is pretty hard. We try our best, however, to continue with music."

Radioactive: "Affecting the studies pretty badly. Grades are going down without a doubt."

What was the hardest thing about the rounds?

Bortoman: "We did not have too many sms to count on, and other than that the round where we got eliminated was very challenging too.

We campaigned in Khulna and got a lot of support from the Zillah schools and rotary schools and our family and friends. As the common mass doesn't quite watch the show, it being rock-band oriented, we don't really get the necessary amount of support. But we would specially like to mention the support we got from the friends in Bondhur Mor from our area."

Power Surge: "That would be the 5th round. It was right before the finals and a lot of things depended on it, making it quite a tight challenge."

Dour: The competition got critical as the bands decreased in number. The fact that we had to make a brand new song before each show was pretty challenging. In round 3 there was a technical problem onstage, which is why we couldn't quite render our best. When we think of it, though, it all paid off in the end as we stand with the finalists."

Eclipse: "Each round had its challenges, but the third round was especially hard, as we had to prepare for the show 2 days ahead since everything got rescheduled."

Dreek: "As we went through a lot of changes during the competition, we faced a lot of difficulties in maintaining our standards, putting up the best show on stage and so much more. But when we made it to the finals, we felt as if a dream came true!"

Radioactive: "There's no consistency in the sms rounds, and since there is always partiality involved, even after getting the highest marks from the judges we are behind the other bands for the lack of sms."

Any In-house conflicts and resolutions?

Bortoman: "To maintain a band is very tough but we always try to space out the arrogance that comes as a package with fame. The best thing about our band is that we all love Bortoman."

Power surge: "We do have arguments about the composition and lyrics, but don't all bands go through that one time or the other?"

Dour: "The best thing about our band is that we more or less think alike. So there were very few times where we did not agree with one another, and even if that happened we reached consensus very quickly."

Eclipse: "We distributed our administrative and technical tasks evenly among us. Which is why we never really had conflicts or serious arguments in our band."

Dreek: "We have a 3-year line up; as such we have very good internal communication. Any arguments we have, we resolve head on."

Radioactive: [Mitul] "OH yes!…I hate Polash's attitude! [Polash] Yes I hate him too!

Apart from the jokes, we do face a lot of difficulties merging our tastes.

How did you get along with other bands?

Bortoman: "Initially, during the grooming phase, we did feel out of place since we weren't from Dhaka. But thanks to BAMBA, we got past that very quickly and had a lot of fun with the other bands who were very cooperative and friendly. The whole competition felt like a dream come true with all the famous musicians and so many talented people from all around the country."

Power Surge: "During the grooming session, perhaps because of our chosen genre, everyone had assumed we weren't sociable. We managed to prove otherwise with time. There was a rather funny incident that happened at Water Kingdom with the folk rock band, New Rainbow.

They came to our room to use our guitar amp at around 1 am. As they started settling down, Jack (vocalist) brought out an octapad, a pop music instrument to work as alternative of the drums. We began laughing as the whole thing felt like North Pole in South Pole's room. Immediately red dot arrived with the camera to tape the whole thing! That was hilarious! “

Dour: "The most amazing part of this competition is that we actually got to meet so many versatile talented people. There was fierce competition, but that never got in our way to make good friends."
Eclipse: "We were friends with Power Surge way before the show. So we had more fun with them than we had any on our own. We also loved to hang out with Mechanix. But to be honest we did not really get to make too many friends or get close with the other bands, as the competition was too tight all throughout."

Dreek: "We made a lot of friends during the grooming session. It was without any doubt one of the most fun times we ever had. With all the senior musicians and so many different talents around us, we had the time of our lives within these few months."

Radioactive: "We are friends with everyone. We took it very casually.

One of the funniest things that happened was when Pappu walked in on us with his video cam when we were in our pajamas playing the weirdest instruments."

If you were to vote for one amongst the five other bands, which one would you pick?

Bortoman: "Power surge! We just love their performances. They have a lot of talent and potential. We hope their endeavor to make thrash metal popular gets to go places."

Power Surge: "That would be Radioactive. As a Rock band they are definitely one of a kind and have managed to establish their ground in this contest. We greatly praise Polash and Shakil's talents as musicians."

Dour: "Powersurge! They have the talent and ability to help them establish a very important yet difficult genre 'Thrash Metal'. We think their music makes a lot of sense as it can be compared to international standard."

Eclipse: "The only band that could successfully garner the long awaited appreciation for thrash metal would be power surge. And we definitely think they deserve to win it for their effort and amazing talents."

Dreek: "Outside the 6 of us, we would definitely mention Off-street as one of the most talented ones. But if any other band other than us who deserve to win, it would be Radioactive. Their talents and efforts complimented each other and they could prove themselves in every show they put on."

Radioactive: “Powersurge! They are just exotic! Composition wise talent wise they deserve every bit of it.”

Any plans for the future?

Bortoman: "We are looking forward to our new album, with at least 10 good songs that we hope people would love. We are hoping for a good production."

Power surge: "We do have plans to release our album with 10 to 11 songs, which we will be recording soon."

Dour: "Right now we are not thinking that far ahead. But we do want to cover a good number of segments in this field. Especially fusion."

Eclipse: "We want to improve the songs we already composed. We are definitely looking forward to our own album release. And given the opportunity we will go for recording as soon as possible."

Dreek: "Our main focus now is our Album which we will start working on very soon."

Radioactive: "We are looking to bring out our own album. Apart from that, we don't want to just be confined to the rock genre. We want to do fusion. And to some extent we did it right here in DRockstars in our love song with the flute. We have some intercontinental instruments in our mind for the fusion such as santoor, flute and violin"

Well, the bands have spoken. Now it's all down to the final results on the 11th. Keep your eyes on Star Campus as we take you to Gala night event and the DRockstar winner next week. Any guesses? Who would it be? I have my bet on my favourite and have my fingers crossed! Also tune into Channel I and Radio Foorti 98.4fm to keep regular updates on Drockstar, The hunt for the ultimate rockband.

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