Spotlight

The Fiery Finale

Nazia Ahmed

Amidst the glitz and glamour on the gala night of Drockstars2, the fate was decided. The entire team of Djuice, BAMBA, Bitopi, Spotlight and Red Dot welcomed their guests with an armband through the red carpet at Hotel Sheraton. The show fired off with a glimpse of the Drockstars2 journey on the big screen, followed by welcome speeches by Stein and BAMBA.

The trio of the emcees Sazid, Laura and Neda added vim and vigor to the event while they hosted the show starting with the performance of the six finalist bands on stage. The bands one after the other kicked off with their performances and their journey in the contest shown in a nutshell on the big screen. The first one to perform was Dreek. Then came the band from Khulna, Bortoman, followed by Eclipse, Dour, Powersurge and last but definitely not the least Radioactive. After the mind-blowing performances, the emcees moved across the hall to the luminaries present at the occasion and asked to share their comments and feedbacks on the bands.

Mr Reza Ali(Managing Director, Bitopi), Rubaba Doula Motin (Head of brands, GP), and Stein Naevdal (Chief marketing Officer, GP) expressed their views appreciating the young talents and acknowledging their dedication.

Next the mike went to the eminent stars of the music industry namely Tishma, Jewel, Sangita and Manam Ahmed. Some of them found versatility while some found the lack of deshi flavor in the bands.

Then came on the screen some footages from the popular Dgolmal followed by a quick glance of the Djuice , Red Dot, Spotlight Bitopi and BAMBA team working behind the scenes. After a short break Rubaba Motin stepped on the stage and acknowledged their partners and co partners of Drockstars2. On that note they gave away crests to Channel I, Ericsson, Radio Foorti, Hairobics and Trendz.

The BAMBA members then got together on stage to perform a theme song dedicated to the bands they left behind.

And then came the long awaited moment. And to make it more dramatic the results of the 6 bands were declared similar to the way they did in the contest. And when the top two bands Radioactive and Powersurge stood side by side on the stage awaiting their scores, the audience was surprised to see how close their judge marking was. But with a noticeable difference in the SMS voting, the confetti blew out declaring Powersurge as the winner of the Drockstars2 contest!

In came the awards one after another. A check of 5 Lakh taka, latest Sony Ericsson handsets for each member, an album contract with G series, membership in BAMBA and the honor of the brand ambassador of Djuice for 1 year.

With screaming cheers and tears of joy the show ended. But it was a brand new beginning for the winners. Lets take a peek at what the winners are planning to do, in our tête-à-tête with Powersurge, the ultimate rock band of the country!

After the gala, we went behind the scenes to have a cozy chitchat with the winners about their reaction and what they are currently up to.

“Honestly, it's a dream come true! We struggled so hard to bring this genre out of the shell and it just feels amazing to have achieved the target we all aimed for.” Says Jamshed with an ecstatic grin. “We are so glad that the normal mass could actually relate to our music and give us so much support. And now the mainstream awaits for thrash metal which was long overdue” added Nahian with a similar smirk.

We asked them about how they are preparing to celebrate their victory; sadly with all the press meetings and photo shoots, they could hardly get anytime to rejoice even on their own. “With Ramadan coming, we can't really throw parties or celebrate properly right now. But we will, after Eid, with our friends and family.” Says Samiul. “Three days have gone by, and we are still at a loss of breath. Looking forward to chill with friends” says Jamshed.

Celebrity treatment comes as a package with the fame. The young bunch is going through the similar process now that they have become the music idols. “We started getting the superstar treatment right from the end of final round. People shouting our names! Asking for autographs and taking pictures, feels very exciting!” exclaimed Jamshed. “I got several different phone calls and messages asking for a reply so that they can show it to their friends! Besides that I have received 500 calls right after I got off the stage after the results. I could hardly respond to 10! Feels a bit weird, but loving it!” added Nahian. “My Facebook is overloaded beyond words!” exclaims Arefin.

Powersurge is a band that undoubtedly showed amazing showmanship, strong confidence through their exotic lyrical and compositional skills. They consider these to be their strongest points as a band. “Even as a thrash metal band, we manage to include melody in our songs, which the judges acknowledged to be one of the best in the lot. And we have a very good understanding among ourselves while we are on stage. Hence even if there are mess ups, it kind of falls into the groove of the music.” Says Jamshed while describing their strong points. “The showmanship comes in naturally as we never hesitate to try our limits on stage.” Adds Nahian. The self dedicated song 'Powersurge' in one of the rounds clearly showed their confidence level and how much they believe in themselves.

If you listen to their songs closely, you will catch the theme they are trying to project which is mainly against social and political mishaps and corruptions that are prevailing in our country. “Most people think that thrash metal is something that creates nuisance and projects drug addition as well as aggressiveness and war through vigorous head banging! But interestingly enough we manage to project the exact opposite through our compositions. For instance our already hit number 'Mithher Aggrassion' is a song where we strongly protested the mishaps and corruptions in our society.” Tells Nahian.

As found from the feedbacks of the general audience, Powersurge hadn't quite projected what we call Bangladeshi music. In reply, they said, “To be honest, a lot of the elements in our culture are adopted from other cultures. Music is one of them. If we take the example of Azam Khan the pop idol of Bangladesh, we'll see that he brought in the flavor of western pop and with time it got blended in our culture and music. We have a similar expectation from this genre. If we can find some space for it, in the near future we are more than confident that thrash metal will also get blended just like any other genres in Bangladeshi music.”

Winning the Drockstars2 fame was a package of 5 extraordinary gifts! We asked them what they have in mind for their awards. “First thing first, we will build our own practice pad with the prize money. And as for being the brand ambassadors, we are definitely looking forward to the trips around the world and the shows we will be doing and represent Djuice.” Says Nahian.

“Being a part of BAMBA is undeniably the best part of the package! Its more than what we could ask for, as this single opportunity will take our career to the highest peaks.” Says Jamshed.

“We will start working on our album as soon as we can. Looking forward to go with the hype and come up with new songs keeping its original flavor yet mixing our own melody.” Added Samiul.

Among the special awards given out among the 20 bands, Powersurge also earned the prestige of having the best guitarist in their band. Samir the young guitarist who is doing his A-levels (private) started learning guitar since 8th grade. “The person who initially encouraged me to learn guitar is Navid Kaiser, who made me listen to Metallica when I was in 8th grade. Later, Rumi Uncle got me a guitar and hence I started taking lessons under Labu bhaia from Feedback. In this contest, Eclipse was a very hard competition.” Says Samir.

On the other hand, Jamshed (A student of Bhuiyan Inst of Technology) the vocalist always garnered appreciation from the judges for his remarkable control and loudness in his voice. “I can sing normally too!” with a sarcastic smile Jamshed adds, “James Hetfield is one of the vocals I follow. I always try to focus on his depth and punchy tone. Aside from him, I use the tutorials of Jim

Gillette. There was a time; I used to give out the pressure from my lungs. Eventually I got to learn that it's the brain and the chest that should work in order to maintain the depth and loudness. Even though I wanted to become a cricketer, I don't lament one bit of what I am today.”

The Bassist Arefin started playing his instrument sometime around 2003. As he knew Nahian from the different shows he did as a single musician, as soon as Farhan (Powersurge's former bassist) left, he joined them at the beginning of this year.

Samiul the drummer started his self-tutorials around the year 2001, after which he got to know Nahian from NSU and planned on forming the band Powersurge.

As for Nahian, he has his signature look with his hair all gelled and spiked up in that one of a kind manner, head banging onstage projecting his extraordinary talent as a guitarist. The band pretty much formed circling around him on January 2006.

Well BAMBA as promised, has given us an extraordinary band to look up to, who will take the band music of the country to a whole new level and make something out of their talent to show the world. With the long awaited fame and the prestigious awards, the young group is looking forward to a future full of countless possibilities that they are ready to grasp and give our generation a different variety of music. Even though it seems hard, however till now they haven't disappointed their crowd, and seeing their vigor and confidence, it is only clear that their dreams wont remain farfetched for long.

Spotlight Photo: Zahid I Khan