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James

Music is his passion

CULTURAL CORRESPONDENT
The taste for rock music in our country has evolved in the last decade and James is certainly one of our leading rock musicians. Lead singer of the band NagarBaul, James brought about a transformation in contemporary music with his entrancing numbers, Taray taray rotiye debo and Je poth e pothik nei… ak glass jochhona ar ak glass ondhokar in the 90s.
Not only in our country, James has a strong fan base abroad, among the Bangladesh communities. He has given live performances in US, Canada, Australia and England. For almost 15 years he has been making the music headlines in the local media. He has mastered the art of assembling catchy tunes and released a huge array of hit albums within a short period.
Although his music was purely magnetic around the early and mid 90's, the icon now, seems to be drifting from original rock and experimental music towards more commercially viable music. As music is his sole source of earning, he tried to emphasise on what the masses wanted, although his roots belong to rock.
“I started my career in the early 80s; I started by doing covers of popular English numbers at clubs and hotels in Chittagong. Eventually I went on to making basic albums with original music. I launched my first album Station James
Road in 1987 and it was well received. Subsequently other music albums were released called Nagar Baul (1992) and Dukhini Dukkho Korona (1997). Lace Feeta is my solo album, released in 1998. The album was widely popular. I've also released several mixed albums: Screw Driver, Capsule, Mati, Dirghoshshash, Dost Dushman, to name a few,” says James.
According to James, 'music'
made him what he is today and he is just a medium. He says, “I never wanted to be a pilot, doctor, engineer or something like that, like most people do. I would be making songs just for the heck of it. I love music. I love listening to good music, singing and composing.”
Recently James sang two Hindi songs for Bollywood director Mahesh Bhatt's upcoming fea- ture film, Gangster. The film's music has been composed by music director Pritam. About his experience in doing playback for a Hindi movie, the singer says, “I've always been fascinated by movie soundtracks and playbacks. However, I do look for quality compositions. If I'm offered good songs, I would like to continue playback singing. For a non-Indian artiste, doing playback for Bollywood films is challenging. Once the songs are available in the market, the audience will be able to decide whether I've done a commendable job or not. Besides doing playback for Gangster, noted Indian audio company HMV is soon going to release my solo Hindi album. It's a big project for me, the album includes 10 songs -- from a jazzy number to soft romantic tunes”.
James continues, “I feel I have evolved. I've grown with each experience. But I've worked hard to achieve that. I often play my old songs and contemplate what I can improve and what I should avoid. I always strive to get better. Versatility is also important to me. I put my foot down if I feel I'd be uncomfortable singing a particular song, or if I feel that the lyrics aren't up to a certain standard. Then there are times when I feel my voice wouldn't go well with a song. From now on, I want to do less work and concentrate more on quality. I am open enough to explore every rewarding possibility out there.”