Kolkata’s first rhythm and percussion band Beat Blasters is all set to release their debut album in the first half of 2023

Kolkata never fails to mesmerise with its repertoire of talented musicians and Himadri Sekhar Das is one such example who has put his foot forward to innovate with his drums and percussions. The rhythmist known for his collaborations with Sonu Nigam, Sourendro-Soumyojit, Timir Biswas and Bolpur Bluez also runs his own institution named Adwitiya Institute of Music & Dance with his wife, where he imparts his knowledge of rhythm. Seven years back, Himadri however realised that he is inclined towards something more than what professionally defines him and established the first rhythm and percussion band of Kolkata- Beat Blasters, along with some of his students. Today, they are travelling the world making melodies out of known and unknown rhythm instruments, and also working on original compositions to set them apart from others. We catch up with Himadri to know more about their ensemble and upcoming album.

How did you conceive Beat Blasters?

It all started when we opened for a Danish soft rock band Michael Learns to Rock at CCFC in 2015, where we also launched our first piece Tribal Tribute which till date is appreciated by many. Live shows started coming in thereafter and eventually in 2019 we went on to collaborate with Grammy Award winning artist Ivan Santos, which happens to be a milestone for us as a band. My sole intention behind forming Beat Blasters was to bring drummers and percussionists to the forefront who are essential parts of any music composition yet are often overshadowed. Today, we are an ensemble of five that goes up to ten members in total as per show requirements.

Apart from regular rhythm and percussion instruments, what other global tunes have you introduced through Beat Blasters?

We have previously worked with uncommon instruments such as the Balafon and Xylophone, and over the past one year introduced the Hand Drum along with some percussion instruments of Chinese origin.

Take us through your composition style.

Almost all of the original compositions are ideated and orchestrated by me and I try to put in some Indian components in each of them. It is important to keep a track of audience preferences so as to not impose them with my personal choices as a rhythmist. We keep creating and re-creating tracks to perfect them with every performance. There are some pieces that are entirely based on rhythm while in some the percussion is used in such a well-tuned manner that it lends a tune to the tracks. Hand Drum for instance is a melody percussion that was used to create an entire composition named Peace of Mind.

Are you working on any new compositions?

After multiple original tracks we have finally started working on our debut album that is due to release towards the early half of 2023. The album includes four tracks involving both powerful rhythms and melody instruments.