It's all about music

Musician Palash
Talks to
Rakibul Hasan

Courtesy: Palash

I completed my SSC and HSC from Rangpur Police Line School. As the school was administered by Police officials, there was no compromise regarding the rules and regulations. Throughout our school life, I had to keep my hair short and tuck my shirts in. However, I have never been an obedient student and I used to bunk school regularly. There was this one time, when I was caught red handed by a guard while bunking school, as I was having problems climbing the high walls at the school compound!

From a very early age, I fell headlong into music. I used to listen to a lot of music and I took singing lessons as well. I did my first stage performance when I was in Class five. I put my name in a cultural competition at the school and sang a patriotic song which brought me the first prize at the competition. There was a cultural club at our school of which I was a very active member. I still feel indebted to my friends and mentors at the club who helped me to grow the passion for music within me. The college (higher secondary) was a new experience for me as I felt more liberated than school. After finishing school and college I moved to Dhaka for higher education. I did my undergrad form Eastern University with a major in English Literature. Though the hectic urban life of Dhaka irritated me at first, I began to love this city as I got to make a lot of friends. As I discovered myself in a whole new world, the new insights made me more responsible and ignited the urge of doing something new within me. It was in university when my childhood friend Mitul and I came up with the idea of forming our own musical band 'Radio Active'. My teachers at the University were always very supportive about my interest in music which helped me a lot to pursue my passion and studies at a time. We did many stage performances and our band Radio Active won the title of first runners up in D- Rockstar 2007, while I won the prize for the best vocalist. When I look into my future I see myself completely submerged in music. Besides being a vocalist I also love playing flutes. As I was always up to doing something creative with music I fused flute with western instruments in a rock ballad named 'Shopnokotha' which was awarded the best song in D-Rockstar 2007. My first solo album 'Let's play' was released this Eid.

I would like to encourage the youngsters to stay lively and listen to a lot of music. If all the young people in Bangladesh buy the original cassettes and CDs and avoid the pirated ones then it will come as a major boost to our music industry and the artists would be more confident to come up with innovative creations.