Seven years back, Beat Blasters opened for Danish soft rock band Michael Learns to Rock at CCFC and cemented their position in the local music scene. The launch of their first album Tribal Tribute at the concert garnered attention and over the next few years, they went on to broaden their horizons with performances across the world. In 2019, Beat Blasters went on to collaborate with Grammy Award winning artist Ivan Santos.
“My sole intention was to bring drummers and percussionists to the forefront. It is quite striking how there are numerous instrumental bands but none to focus primarily on the rhythm section. I had to do something for my fellow drummers and that is how Beat Blasters was born”, shares Das who wishes to collaborate with Mike Portnoy and Gavin Harrison sometime in the future.
To commemorate their eventful journey, they recently launched a music video ‘Paracyclone’ on their seventh anniversary and Himadri talks about the same.
Is there any particular musical genre that you try to adhere to while creating music?
Since we are focused on rhythm and it’s a complete instrumental arrangement, we have the liberty to flow across genres. We promote global music through the musical equipment we use and it has opened doors to fasci vast opportunities for experimentation
Besides our original tracks, we also experiment with Bollywood numbers and Rabindra Sangeet alongside our originals.
What were some of the challenges of being the only percussion based band in Kolkata?
Since the audiences are more accustomed to focus on vocals, we try to be interactive with them during our performances about the instruments being used. To make our jigs visually attractive, we resort to special acts with laser and liquid drumming.
What brings together distinct arrangements from different parts of the world?
I have always been fascinated by lesser known instruments and have grown up trying to recreate drum sounds through whatever I could get hold of. Whenever we create a musical piece, we pay attention to the prospects of enhancement through unique instruments like Hand drums, Balafon, Xylophone and so on. All of us at Beat Blasters are primarily drummers who love to learn and explore.
What was the idea behind Paracyclone?
The composition of Paracyclone has existed since our inception and was a popular choice for us to perform on stage. We have often received requests to turn it into a music video and the pandemic pushed us to finally do so.
The contagion has left its share of irreparable damage on musicians and Paracyclone is a tribute to them. The music video has been released with the tagline “save artists” and visually represents the urge to make a comeback after a period of darkness and gloom.
What are some of your upcoming projects and collaborations?
The month of April will see us launching our multi-piece album which is yet to be named. The numbers will create a rare fusion of the West and the East through instruments like Balafon, Xylophone, Hand Drums, Sitar, Sarod, Violin and Dhak & Dhol from Bengal.
Paracyclone is streaming on YouTube.