Rock n Roll with Crunch
In December 2017, Crunch released their debut album ‘Mad Volume’ and in February of this year, they got enlisted in Bangladesh Musical Bands Association (BAMBA)
Crunch is one of those very few bands that progressed quickly from the underground scene to the mainstream.
In December 2017, they released their debut album 'Mad Volume' and in February of this year, they got enlisted in Bangladesh Musical Bands Association (BAMBA). It took just three years for them to get into the elite group of bands in the country.
Although Crunch had their first-ever show in January 2017, it was initially formed in 2010 by guitarist Avra Barua.
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"In the beginning, Crunch used to cover AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Mötley Crüe etc. In 2013, I along with guitarist Tahmid Ikram, joined Crunch and started to focus on originals," said Shovon Ahmed, the frontman of Crunch, in an interview with The Business Standard.
"Later that year, bassist Arka Basak and drummer Waseque Abdullah joined Crunch", he added.
The current line-up came into being after a lot of shuffling over the years.
"Shahed Mo Rahman joined the band as a guitarist after Tahmid left for further studies in 2017. I first met him at a show in Kolkata", said Arka.
Adnan Rashid, the drummer of Red Blend Wine, played with Crunch on and off before Dipalok Dip joined as the drummer.
"We are immensely grateful to Adnan for being available whenever we needed. He is an inseparable part of Crunch", Shovon said.
Surprisingly, each band member of Crunch is influenced by different genres of music.
"Avra is influenced by pop and funk, Arka comes from a death metal background, and Shahed is more into classic metal," Shovon explained.
Shovon himself is highly influenced by musicians like Phil Anselmo, Dio, Ozzy Osbourne, Jack Black, and Lemmy Kilmister.
"What brought us together was our common interest in rock n roll and hard rock", explained Arka.
When we listen to the songs of Mad Volume, we find lyrics mostly inspired by computer games, comics, and pop culture.
"Most of our lyrics are based on pop culture, except one. The song 'Wrong Side' is about the Israel-Palestine conflict", Shovon told us.
"Most of our lyrics are written on the fly. In the practice pad, we usually concentrate a bit more on the music. For example, what riff the song should have or how the drums will sound," Arka took us through the process that Crunch follows while making their songs.
"Almost all our songs are composed during practice, we hardly bring anything precomposed from home", he added.
Something very unique about Crunch is their live act. Anybody that has seen Crunch in live shows is bound to notice the difference they bring into playing.
Their continuous movement from one end to the other end of the stage easily distinguishes them from many others.
"In fact, none of those are planned. Everything we do on stage comes naturally. After all, we firmly believe in the fact that at the end of the day, we are entertainers. Entertaining people and enjoying it ourselves is our main motto", Shovon said.
Crunch had the privilege to be a part of Artcell's 20-year celebration concert along with Unmaad, Naive, and Trainwreck. They covered one of Artcell's tracks- 'Shahid Sharani'.
"To be honest, the invitation to play in such a prestigious show came as a big surprise to us. It was a huge honour", said Shovon.
Recently, they released a single named 'Off the Hook' in collaboration with the drummer of Miles, Turjo aka TJ. Crunch and TJ first met in 2018 when they appeared on a GTV show hosted by the latter.
"After that show, we had a jam with TJ right there in GTV studio, and planned to jam more. Unfortunately, that never happened", said Shovon.
"The next time we met was in the studio when recording the drums for Off the Hook. TJ was so generous that he immediately accepted our proposal to collaborate", said Arka.
Crunch is right now working on their second full-length album. According to Shovon, the drums of all the songs are already recorded, and recordings of other instruments are underway.
