Insomnia (rock band)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| INSOMNIA | |
|---|---|
| Image:Insomnia logo web.jpg The mark of sleeplessness
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Kolkata, India |
| Genre(s) | Alternative Nu age Progressive rock |
| Years active | 2002 - |
| Label(s) | Asha Audio HMV |
| Members | |
| Vocals - Sayantan Neogi (Ninnai), Vocals/Guitars - Rajarshi Barman (Dodo), Vocals/Keyboards - Souvik Gupta (Savvy), Guitars - Bodhisattwa Ghosh (Bodhi), Bass - Prasenjit Chakrabutty (Pom), Drums - Rohit Nandi (Rohit), Manager - Rahul Mehra (Paiya) | |
| Former members | |
| Subhojit Roy Chowdhury (Subho), Sudipto Banerjee (Buti), Dipanjan Mukherjee (Ebu), Santanu Das Roy (Tito), Ayan Dasgupta (Boom), Sougata Basu (Papa) | |
Insomnia is a Rock band based in Kolkata, West Bengal. The band's repertoire includes both English and Bangla songs. The band has an album each in English (Cry of the Spirit - self released) and Bangla (Proloyer Shomoye - Asha Audio).[1] Insomnia is one of the most notable new Rock bands from Eastern India for its unique sound, stage presence and bilingual repertoire. Insomnia are also quite adept at executing live music for theatre, being part of the act itself, in plays such as Peacewards[2] (directed by Jayant Kripalani, produced by Red Curtain Productions, based on monologues written by Manjula Padmanabhan), a 3rd theatre version of 'Rokto Korobi'[3](written by Rabindranath Tagore, conceptualised by Badal Sarkar, directed by Parnab Mukherjee, starring Sudipta Chakraborty) and numerous other plays. Opekkha from their Bangla album Proloyer Shomoye was part of the original soundtrack of the first Bangla sex comedy movie Aamra[4][5] (produced by Venkatesh fims, directed by Mainak Bhaumik, cast - Parambrata Chatterjee, Jisshu Sengupta, Rudranil Ghosh, Nilanjanaa, Ananya Chatterjee, Kaushik Ghosh, Rajatava Datta, Momo).
Insomnia plays every week at Someplace Else, The Park Wednesday midnights. The band has quite a following at the emerging Princeton Club as well.
Contents |
[edit] Band Members (Insomniacs)
- Vocals - Sayantan Neogi (Ninnai)
- Vocals/Guitars - Rajarshi Barman (Dodo)
- Vocals/Keyboards - Souvik Gupta (Savvy)
- Guitars - Bodhisattwa Ghosh (Bodhi)
- Bass - Prasenjit Chakrabutty (Pom)
- Drums - Rohit Nandi (Rohit)
- Manager - Rahul Mehra (Paiya)
The current line up of the band seems to be the most stable one and the most popular. The best thing is that the current members individually come from very different musical backgrounds, nevertheless, they gel extremely well and come together to create the variant and unique Insomnia sound.
[edit] The Band's Journey
Insomnia plugged in for the first time in 1999 as the South Point High School band. After numerous line up changes the new recruits were all from different schools: Sayantan Neogi (Ninnai) - La Martiniere for boys, Kolkata; Prasenjit Chakrabutty (Pom) - Don Bosco Park Circus; and Souvik Gupta (Savvy) - Nava Nalanda High School. Therefore, unlike popular belief, Insomnia is not an SPHS band eventhough it started out as one.
Insomnia's first show as a professional outfit was on 7th July, 2002 in Music World, Park Street. However, the current line up has been active since the middle of 2005.
A list of Noteworthy performances by the band:
- Insomnia were Eastern Zonal Winners and All – India 2nd Runners up at Castrol Garage Rock, 2003 held in Mumbai
- Insomnia were Finalists at the All – India Rock band competition at Springfest 2003, IIT Kharagpur
- Insomnia have rocked crowds in schools and colleges on the following occasions:
- R G Kar Medical College, Freshers’ welcome, 2003
- South Point High School, Melting Point, 2004
- Pailan Institute of Management, Freshers’ welcome, 2004
- Calcutta Medical College, Annual Fest, 2004
- Jadavpur University, Electrical Engineering, Freshers’ welcome, , 2004
- Jadavpur University, Mechanical Engineering, Freshers’ welcome, , 2004
- District Interact Council, Annual Fest, 2004
- St. Xavier’s College Kolkata, Xavotsav 2004
- District Rotaract Council, Annual Fest, 2005
- Dr. B. C. Roy Engineering College, Durgapur, Annual Fest, 2005
- Meghnath Saha Institute Of Technology 2005
- Jadavpur University, Arts Faculty, Sanskriti 2006
- St. Xavier’s College Kolkata, Xavotsav 2007
- Institute of Technology & Marine Engineering, Impulse 2007
- Gupta College of Technology & Science, Asansol, Panacea 2007
- Jadavpur University, Arts Faculty, Sanskriti 2007
- Heritage Institute of Technology, Eclecia 2007
- Calcutta Medical College, Annual Fest 2007
- St. Stephen's School, Dum Dum, Reunion 2007
- Kalyani Govt. College of Engineering, Annual Fest 2007
- Bethune College, Annual Fest 2007
- Insomnia organised the concert, Reach Out and played in it along with the leading English bands of Calcutta. The concert also featured Usha Uthup, Amyt Datta and Nandan Bagchi and raised funds for the children of Reach.
- In 2003, Insomnia featured in ‘Peacewards’, a Red Curtain productions play based on monologues by Manjula Padmanabhan. The play was directed by Jayant Kripalani and saw the band live on stage doing a musical narration
- In 2003 again, Insomnia soundscaped a third theatre version of Rabindranath Tagore’s play, ‘Rakta Karabi’, which was directed by Parnab Mukherjee and featured actress Sudipta Chakraborty. In 2004, under the same director, Insomnia soundscaped third theatre versions of Shakespeare’s ‘Measure for Measure’ and ‘King Lear’
- In November 2004, Insomnia became the first band in the city to have an unplugged concert in the bag. It was held at Caffeine, Elgin Road
- In April 2005, Insomnia performed along with Fossils, Aasma and Neha Bhasin in aid of the Tsunami victims in the ‘One World’ concert held at La Martiniere for boys grounds
- In November 2005, Insomnia went to Thimpu, Bhutan and performed at the country’s premier night club, Space 34
- In January 2006, Insomnia launched themselves in the Bangla Rock circuit at ‘Republic Rock’ along with acts from Bangladesh such as Warfaze, Artcell, Metalmaze, ArboVirus and acts from West Bengal such as Lakkhichara, Cactus and Fossils
- In December 2007, Insomnia put up a concert as part of the centenary celebration of TATA steel in Jamshedpur in the coveted XLRI auditorium.
- In January 2008, Insomnia was part of the historic Mohiner Ghoraguli tribute concert (organized by Ranjan Ghoshal), 'Abar Bochhor Tirish Pore', which had a complete Philharmonic Orchestra (Conducted by Abraham Mazumder) playing. The Concert was held at the big lawn, Nicco Park and had a turnout of about 30,000 people.
[edit] Videos
- Aartonaad - Proloyer Shomoye (2006)
- Insomnia - Live at ITME (2007)
- Insomnia - Live at Sanskriti, Jadavpur University (2007)
- Insomnia - Covering 'Tomay Dilam' (2007)
- Insomnia - Covering 'Bangali' (2007)
- 'Opekkha', an impression by Iman Sen, Calcutta Blues (2007)
- Opekkha - Proloyer Shomoye (2007)
[edit] References
- ^ Chatterjee, Chandreyee. "Band of boys", The Good Life, The Telegraph (Calcutta), 2006-10-30. Retrieved on 2007-11-03.
- ^ Peacewards. Peaceworks. Retrieved on 2007-11-03.
- ^ Parnab Mukherjee. Laboratory for Enthusiastic Collaboration Company Bios. Laboratory for Enthusiastic Collaboration. Retrieved on 2007-11-03.
- ^ Mitra, Mandira. "Hip posturing", The Telegraph (Calcutta), 2006-10-29. Retrieved on 2007-11-03.
- ^ "Tollywood top draws 2006", The Telegraph (Calcutta), 2006-10-31. Retrieved on 2007-11-03.
