Feature

Just for the Funk of it

Nazia Ahmed

Arif Hafiz

EVER since Lounge Culture started in this city, cover bands have been streaming into the music scene from every nook and corner. Their genres mainly covered Rock and Pop. But as days passed by, very few of them could persist as a band or even simply as musicians. I first saw Groovetrap when they were covering R.E.M at Kozmo Lounge, and I felt that I'll be seeing much more of them. They started off in the music scene only a year back, and had put together a lively blend of James Brown, Jamiroquai, Maroon 5, Stevie Wonder and Micheal Jackson from their own influences.

GrooveTrap also known as GT, released their very first self-titled album last November. An afternoon tête-à-tête with the talented trio - Saif, Simin and Jasper took me into the groove where all the magic happens.

“I used to send my compositions to Simin, one of my closest friends, in 2004,” recalled Saif. “We then started coming up with names that would go with our genre. Simin came up with the name Groovetrap and everyone agreed to it. It was perfect!”

As the band proceeded further, they realized that only funk wouldn't be legible for the listeners. So they mixed Pop, Jazz, RnB, and Rock n Roll.

Saif, the band's lead guitarist, is mainly influenced by Jamiroquai, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, and a whole lot of Funk. While studying in Teesside University U.K, this young musician also did compositions for a film and was fairly active in the cultural club during his short time in NSU.

Simin, the female vocalist, is one of the leading female singers in the mainstream scene. The GT compositions come alive with her soothing touch and her lullaby effects that are very popular among her ardent listeners.

“I got tremendous help from a bunch of friends with our lineup,” Saif continued. “And eventually it came to Emran (Keyboard), Adil (Bass), and Turjo (Drums).

“Most of the compositions are mainly Bangla transformations of English songs made by Saif, but in such a way so as to preserve the essence of the original compositions. The skeletons of the Bangla lyrics are given by Shaquie Ahmed and the rest of the work is done collaboratively by all the band members. Mayabi Choyay is a very special song for me. Its original version was called Magic of the Moment, which Saif wrote for me. You'll know what it's about once you hear it. I made it a point that those which we were deriving from the English compositions didn't lose the original thoughts that were behind them. The song Ek Ochena is a tribute to the famous Marvin Gaye song Grapevine, where a girl talks about her lover's betrayal.”

Proceeding further in the album, the second song Keno Bolona features playful piano tunes that blends slickly into the vocals. Andrew Morris's soulful saxophone tunes gave Shopno Abir a whole new color. But the backing guitar just uplifts its height into a whole different level. Osthir is inspired from La Villa Strangiato by Rush. A deviation from their default genre is Achi Ei Gaane, where Saif comes in with Simin on the vocals bringing out the core of the song with catchy lyrics by Ashique M Fahim, followed by Shesh Porichoy in a classic Blues style. The 9th and 10th tracks are in English with slap of Rock, fast riffing, piano on the run and a hit of Jazz. Jasper's vocals shape into that of an early '70s entertainer and leave the listeners begging for more. The album closes with an instrumental titled Aphrodisiac, a 4-minute blend of Funk and Rock, smoothly thrown in at the right places.Simin recollects, “In November 2007 we finished the album. As it's more or less a new genre for our country, we weren't expecting miracles.

Saif adds, “I remember a renowned record label company suggesting the name Simin and not GrooveTrap as it will surely sell more! Our musician friends on the other hand were really excited and cheered us all the way. They truly believed in our music!” The band's debut performance at Kozmo lounge in 2007 included Emran, Anabil, Pritom and Omar as guest artists. With no fixed genre, they received good responses from the crowd with their performances from Dire Straits, Michael Jackson, Seal, and Shania Twain.

March 2008 saw a versatile addition to the group when Jasper joined, bringing along with him his expertise in Hip Hop, Rap and the Blues. “I met Jasper through DJ Rafa,” Simin recalls, ”Then Saif and I performed as guest vocals in Jasper and Shanto's show, popularly known as JnS. We then approached him to sing in some of our numbers for the album. Saif instantly had a good feeling about adding him, obviously taken aback by his vocal grits and bluesy styles. But as he came in after almost 80% of the work in the album was done, you'll hear only 3 of his songs in it.”

“Working with GT is like working with myself,” Jasper says, with a smile. “I did not have to leave out anything, be it old-school Soul, Hip-Hop, Rock, or RnB. It's all here! All three of us come from very different genres of music. For Saif, it was Hard Rock / Rock-&-Roll, for Simin it was a mix of a little bit of everything and for me it was Hip-Hop / R&B. The mutual genre that we all loved was Funk. GrooveTrap want their audiences to experience GrooveTrap, feel the musical sensation rather than just listening to it.” The young performer is working to get his solo album out soon. With influences like James brown, Michael Buble, old-school Soul, Hip-Hop and R&B, his eastern classical expertise as well. He was also a producer in the mixed album Kata Tarer Bera. GT's live shows were instant hits. But they did go through quite a bit of hassle knocking at doors.

“INEX in 2007 sounded a little reluctant when I asked them for a show at X Lounge.” says Saif, “But I got introduced to Trilogy's Duke bhai who basically helped us come into the limelight, getting us shows in IC club, Le Saigon, and the high profile clubs where we started performing for Expats.” He also added that with continuous support and love from their new manager Shammu bhai, GT is striving to give more of their own flavor to the music scene. An interesting addition to their portfolio was the ETV phone-o-live last month where they performed on live TV for their fans on popular requests. Saif adds, “After our debut album, we released another one of our compositions The Nightshift in the mixed album RONG, last year. Our next album is due around June. We are almost done working on it and tried our best to include the ingredients our listener expects after our last one.”

A sneak preview of their unreleased track Nei Obhiman gave me a funky peek at what's coming up this June. Here's hoping to run into more of their groovy traps. Just for the Funk of It!