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Linking Young Minds Together
     Volume 6 | Issue 38 | September 23, 2012 |


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Star Chat

Successfully Rebellious

Guitarist
Emon Chowdhury
Talks to
Naziba Basher

 
 
Courtesy: Emon Chowdhury

I studied in Brahmmondi KKM Government High School. I was a very naughty child in school. I hardly ever paid attention in class. The only thing I paid attention to were my music classes. I was always up for making music with my friends. Whether in class or somewhere outside, I loved playing my guitar. My teachers used to get frustrated and when they would come to hit me, I remember asking them not to because I won't be able to play my guitar with an injured hand! I remember this one incident when I was not paying attention in class, so my teacher asked me to go and get a big twig from the tree outside so that he could hit me with it, but I ended up going out and going home instead. He actually had to go to my place and bring me back to school!

A memorable thing that happened to me during my days in school was winning the Jatiyo Shishu Purushkar in 2002 as a musician. That was one of my first achievements.

I went to Narshingdi Government College and even in college, I never attended classes! Instead, college days, for me, revolved around the puri store downstairs, friends and my guitar. When I was in college, I also joined a band called War and was involved with it until I left for Dhaka.

I then joined Dhaka College for my Honours degree. But, once again, I never attended classes! The teachers were very annoyed with me and everything about me. They hated the fact that I had long hair and wore a lot of bracelets. Then in my second year, I took part in DRockstar and the people in my college started liking me more.

I never anticipated becoming a musician even though I lived and grew up around them. My father is the one who taught me music and taught me to love it. He is the Principal in Nazrul Academy in Narshingdi. There was also a senior who lived around my area. He, I believe, was a true rockstar. He's the one who I learned guitar from and he was a huge influence in my life.

Chirkut kind of happened out of the blue. One of my friends took me to Hobiganj for a show where Pintu bhai (Chirkut's male vocal) had performed. I got to know him and we made some good music together. He then left to Dubai and we were out of touch for quite a while. After he returned, I met him one day in Charukala (Faculty of Fine Arts, Dhaka University) and he introduced me to Shumi apa (Chirkut's female vocal). Then we all started hanging out together. I took my guitar over to Shumi apa's place one day, we jammed for a long time and that is how Chirkut happened!

Right now we are working on a lot of soundtracks for films and cinemas. We are also working on an album.

Chirkut is a fusion band where we collaborate folk and classical music with western composition. There are so many different genres now, like Brazillian rock, Sufi rock and so much more. What I have always wanted to do was make a different genre that would highlight Bangladeshi music. Blending rock with folk is something I always try doing with my own guitar work. And I hope, future musicians of Bangladesh can achieve that and take Bangladeshi music on an international level and talk about a new genre--Bangladeshi rock!



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