While the entire world is engulfed in grief and plight, having been harrowed by the debilitating implications and the inexorable damage induced by the unprecedented outbreak of Covid-19 for more than a year or so, a bunch of fervent individuals from the distant lands of North East India, strive to mitigate the impending woes with music as a tool for healing, with a message of ‘hope’ or ‘Speranza’ as they like to call it as a motivating factor even in the most egregious of times. The artists have been deeply afflicted by such a display of apathy and helplessness unforeseen in their pristine native land boasting lush green fields of rice paddies and tea, dense forests, and mist-clad hills. With the melody of their tunes, they wish to reinstate the lost smiles back on the faces of the affected and inspire them to combat the impending challenges with a reignited spark of optimism. It is believed by them that hope is quite important because it makes hardships endurable.
ABOUT SPARENZA: THE TRACK.
The 3-minute long instrumental track was released on 10th July 2020, under the label Ace Studio and Songdew Network. The track is written by Basil Rai and produced by the band Ace of Spade. It features the artists Ajnish Pradhan, Promod Gurung, Arun Pariyar, Asit Rai, Onesimus Thapa, Sandeepan Adhikari, Anupam Tamang and Basil Rai.
ABOUT THE MUSICIANS
- AJNISH PRADHAN
Ajnish Pradhan is a 19-year-old keyboardist from Darjeeling, West Bengal specializing in classical, blues, and rock while his personal music preference gives out rather dark and dolorous emotions. His musical journey set off when he was five years old. . He made his debut with an original “Tara Maya Cha” with Mr. Basil Rai and Mr. Zilbert Rai. To date, he has recorded about 8 – 9 songs and has been part of 2 collaborations. Recently he has released his instrumental single “The Reason For My Tear Drops”. He credits his success to three individuals, Mr. Dhiren Lama, Mr. Suraj, and Mr. Daniel from whom he has received education in pop, classical and classical music respectively as well as Mr. Basil Rai for guidance and support in his initial years. He identifies himself as an ingenious and creative artist who personalizes working with something heavy yet melodic at the same time.
- PRAMOD GURUNG
Pramod Gurung is a guitarist from Perbi, Namching, South Sikkim. He started to play and cover few Nepali songs on the guitar in 2009 and later started to listen to Iron Maiden which was a gateway for him to Western music and in no time became his idol. He was also influenced by the bands like Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold, Children Of Bordem, Megadeath, Pantera, Nirvana, Mr. Big, Lamb Of God, Dream Theatre, et cetera. He was part of a band named “5th String Paradox” during his college days In Karnataka and performed in different musical festivals in college and its vicinities.
Currently, he is the guitarist of the Kaluk, West Sikkim-based band “The Split Strings” which performs local gigs at different music festivals in the state of Sikkim. He has also worked on three collaborative projects with other musicians. At present he is deeply influenced by bands like Intervals, Periphery, Tessaract, Protest the Hero, Monuments, Riverside, Polyphia, The Midnight, Aviation, Architects, etc., and also by artists like Jakub Zytecki, Nick Johnston, John mayor, Martin Miller, Yvette Young, and Plini. He prefers listening to genres like Indie Rock, Progressive Metal, Djent, Math Rock, Synthwave, Alternative Rock, Neosoul, etc. and his all-time favorite guitarist is Guthrie Govan
- ARUN PARIYAR
Arun Pariyar is a guitarist from Sikkim. He is a part of the band Bipolar Shadows which plays a self-procured Genre, Math rock with Djent Elements. The genres he performs in are Progressive Metal, math rock, and Djent Music. His main instrument is Ibanez Egen 8, Herman li Signature Guitar and his Rig is a Minimal setup Guitar->Line 6 hx stomp-> Amp or FOH. As a choice of Instrument other than Ibanez he admires Strandberg guitars, Aristides Guitars, PRS Guitars, Abasi Guitars, Charvel Pro Series Guitars, and Jackson Guitars, and I am really fond of Fratcal Audio AXE FX 3 and Quad Cortex from NeuralDSP.
He has been hugely inspired by the Guitarists of the Shred era; to notate some of them are Steve vai, Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert, John Petrucci, Guthrie Govan, Herman ii. He also looks up to some new age horrific Players such as Plini, Jakub zytecki, David Maxim micic, Stephen taranto, tosin abasi, Nick Johnston, Aaron Marshall, Jason Richardson, Mateus Asato, etc. Some bands that have been a daily snack for him these days are Periphery, Intervals, Oceans ate Alaska, Plini, David maxim micic, and a fresh Aussie artist named Bodine Wirihana.
He has been playing the instrument for more than 15 years and has been indulging in music production as well since 2016. In the Production realm, he does some arrangements works and is further working on honing the craft of digital audio processing. With his band, he has released a single called “where am I safe” (https://youtu.be/NP64Jmi6z3I) and along with the band has been writing their debut album at the moment. The band has toured across the country winning several band Competitions and playing in a few shows nationally and globally. (For band Portfolio, visit info section, www.facebook.com/BipolarShadows ).
He was adjudged the Best Guitarist in two-band Competitions, viz., Rock-Clique, NIT, Arunachal Pradesh and Future Sounds of India, Guwahati. He has not received formal education in music but he did avail a few lessons from some local music teachers in his early years and still wishes to expand his musical knowledge in the coming days.
ASIT RAI
Asit Rai is a 21-year-old musician hailing from a small hamlet called Kalimpong. While growing up, he was quite fascinated and deeply inspired by the local musicians who’ve made it big, viz. late Sonam Sherpa from Parikrama, Pragya Lama from Mantra. Ever since he has been old enough to hold a guitar and understand its intricacies, he has been in love with it.
ONESIMUS THAPA
Onesimus Thapa hails from Gurubathan, West Bengal India. He has been in the field of music since he was 14 years old. He is mostly into gospel music and he works with a worship team called ‘Ablaze music ministries’. He gives the credit for his introduction to music to his late father who taught him every basic and has been his inspiration. His favorite genres are Blues, rock, gospel, ambient, and neo-soul.
He had been a great fan of many secular artists earlier such as Joe Bonmassa, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Larkin Poe, Keb Mo, Zz Top, Muddy Waters Shawn James, BB King, and a lot more but as he identifies himself as a gospel artist and his playing is all meant for to worship the Almighty so he has left listening to those and has been listening more and more gospel artists like Paul Baloch, Don Moen, Hillsong, planet shakers, newsboys, Adrian dewan, etc.
SANDEEPAN ADHIKARI
Sandeepan Adhikari is a 23-year-old guitarist from Arunachal Pradesh, India. His musical journey started from learning Indian classical from his mother, Ms. Indrani Adhikari and he also received education in tabla from Mr. Pranay Sen. He started getting more inclined towards western music or rock music to be specific since the time his father, Mr. Subrata Adhikari brought CD’s full of Bengali rock songs by Fossils, Cactus and some western bands like ‘The Eagles’, Westlife, etc. His father sent him to guitar class where Mr. Mukut Dutta helped him to form his basics strong.
While studying in college he met Mr. Arun Pariyar from the band Bipolar Shadows who he says to have always guided him with new tricks and techniques as well as introducing him to some more different subgenres of metal.
He formed a band called Backpocket with Mr. Gagan Pradha, Mr., Suraz Gurung, Mr. Kaustuv Singh, and Mr. Rhitosparsha. He has created an original called “Kamzori” which is yet to be released. And lately, he has formed another band called Sailors Paradise with Rhitoshparsha, Hibu Pullo, Dogin Omo, Anish Dural, and Donald Rai. Lately he is mostly influenced by Periphery, Monuments, Born of Osiris, Plini, Dream Theater, etc. He thanks Mr. Basil Rai for always motivating budding artists and his dearest friends Pranab Tripathy, Prashant Nawani, Gambo, Mayank, Bharat, Talyang, Reymond, Tayar, and also his parents for their unwavering support across all points of his musical journey.
ANUPAM TAMANG
Anupam Tamang is a certified sound engineer from Sound Engineering Academy, Kerala(2017-2018) who lives in Mirik, Darjeeling. He runs a recording studio “Anxiety Records” in Mirik, Darjeeling. He mostly produces music in trending genres like pop, metal, rock, hip-hop, etc. and his major instrument of interest is Guitar.
He plays in a metal band called Anxiety of Darkness (2010-current) which plays Modern progressive metal/ Djent style of music. He has been into music production/mixing since 2012. After he had a studio set up in Mirik for commercial projects, he had the privilege to work with great musicians/bands from in and around Mirik.
BASIL RAI
Rai was born on 2nd Jan 1996 in Geyzing, India. He is an Indian guitarist best known as a founding member of the progressive metal band Ace Of spade. In addition to being the guitarist, he is also the band’s main lyricist. He won the “Pause and Play Contest” award in Songdew Magazine, North East Project, and also won the Title Best Guitar tone which was initiative by Orange magazine.
Rai first played guitar at the age of eight when his brother was allowed to stay up and practice the vocals. He soon dropped it when his endeavor did not work out as planned. When he was 12, he resumed playing music and began to practice seriously, at least 5 hours a day. He was a largely self-taught guitarist who developed his skills through attempts to match the skill of his idols, who included Steve Jia, John Petrucci, Al Di Meola, Alex Lifeson, and Allan Holdsworth.
Rai attended St. Joseph’s College with childhood friend Subhasish Rai (vocalist ), where they met drummer, Richard Das. These three in addition to another childhood friend of Rai and Pempa, Aseem, went on to form the band Decepticons, which was later renamed Ace Of Spade.
Rai has released a guitar instrumental, “Melancholic inner sadness”, which is a balled Instrumental track and has won many titles with the same track.
Rai uses Ibanez GRG250DX, Hertz guitars Ibanez Classical Guitar. He mainly uses Marshall Amplifiers and various effects from other companies. His rig consists of Boss Me-25 Distortion, Reverb, Delay by Boss. For recording, he uses Guitar Rig 3/5 and Bias for now.
