'I don't have many rosy dreams'

EUPHORIC MOMENTS

Indian rock band ‘Euphoria’ was in town recently to play at the ‘International Wine Festival’.

Metrolife caught up with the doctor turned band’s frontman Palash Sen during his first public performance in town after a new line-up. The show wasn’t quite well attended but the man, who nearly sparked off the phenomenon of Hindi rock in the country, isn’t affected. He believes the purpose of the show was served, despite the lack of crowds thronging him the way they usually do.

“Bangalore needed to know we are on. It was very important for me to do this show. The last time we performed here was in 2005-06,” says Palash Sen. He was hardly disappointed with the turnout and was happy welcotmving his fans backstage as they clamoured for autographs and pictures. “I was expecting a bigger crowd. Maybe the organisers didn’t get it right. But it doesn’t worry me, I would start thinking if those present weren’t having a good time,” he says.

After a glorious run in the nineties, ‘Euphoria’ was more recently in the news about a split in the band when two of its members decided to move on to a create a band of their own. The stories from both sides subsided last year and ‘Euphoria’ released their latest album ‘Item’ along with Palash Sen’s biography. Some of the songs of this album were played by the band at the City show. “They knew everything we sang including the songs from ‘Item’. People respect us for being a non-film act in a world of film music,” says Palash.

Having spent more than a decade in the industry, Palash is satisfied performing live shows. The band plans to release two music videos from the latest album this year in addition to one that has already been released. “I find it gratifying that it has been 13 years and we are still playing.

I don’t have many rosy dreams for my life,” says Palash. “I was expecting nothing from ‘Item’ and the album has done quite well. It will be the first album that will be officially released in Pakistan,” he adds saying that the country is driven towards film music and promoting non-film albums is difficult.
Despite the odds, the band retained its energy on stage and managed to get fans in the audience up on their toes. Their older numbers still brought in most of the cheering and they continued to do both Bollywood and international covers towards the end of their stage acts. “If people like us, we must be doing something right,” says Palash.