Kolkata-based rock band Goshai Gang to release three singles this year

The mysterious singer called Goshai, who came into being at the recording studio of a popular radio station, on a rainy night, six years ago — is back with a slew of new singles this year, with his band Goshai Gang. Kobe Shobdera Pran Paabe is the sixth single by Goshai Gang and will be releasing tentatively around their gig on April 25, at all leading music streaming sites. The video, directed by Atindra, will premiere on the band’s YouTube channel.

“The song Kobe Shobdera Pran Paabe deals with the trials and tribulations of a struggling songwriter, who wants to make it big in the music industry. Our songs deal with different themes, from love to social messages or the singer’s life itself,” says Saurav Chatterjee, the lead singer or the Goshai of the Goshai Gang, who released their last single six months ago.

“But it happens both ways — sometimes I have a tune in my mind, which I flesh out into a full-fledged song, to which I add the lyrics later. At other times, it is a song that I had written long ago, which I set to music for a performance,” shares Saurav.

“The band was formed in 2016, when I had left the radio station, but wanted to keep the memory of Goshai alive. I collaborated with a lot of musicians I had known personally and we started the trend of performing live at the Hard Rock café every Thursday night when the café was newly opened,” he adds.

This Thursday too, the five-member pop-rock band which specialises in recreating music from the 1980s and ’90s by Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, Queen and Eagles, will be performing popular numbers like Highway to Hell, Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple, and others, apart from their original songs, like Maya and Shudu Tomay Bhalobashi, among others.

But we were intrigued by such a unique name and asked Saurav, when did it start after all? “I was working as a music manager for a radio station in 2013, when one night, me and my RJ friends, including RJ Sourav Ghosh, who is a popular stand-up comedian now, decided to come up with an impromptu song request show. It became popular from the first day itself and that is how the mysterious singer was born,” recollects Saurav. “We used to be bombarded with random requests by people and I performed songs on the fly, looking up the lyrics on my laptop,” shares Saurav with a laugh.

The gang, comprising Arijit Chatterjee on bass guitar, Swagato Banerjee on electric/acoustic guitar and vocals, Sayantan Chatterjee on keyboards and backing vocals and Dipayan Chakraborty on drums and percussion, is gearing up to release three more singles by the end of this year — namely Bhorshatai nei, Jontro na Manush and Raat.

“While Bhorsha tai nei is about the current state of the world, torn apart by war and intolerance, Jontro na Manush broaches the common dichotomy between humans and machines, and which path are the listeners aspiring to take?” says Saurav, who is an engineer by training, but followed his passion for music. “Raat is a soulful melody which evokes nostalgia and love,” he adds.