How did our favourite bands come up with their names?

Even though Spotify is the go to place for streaming music, I sometimes do end up reverting back to YouTube for a taste of old school Bangla Music that are not on the said app. As I was scrolling through my YouTube feed the other night, an Oni Hasan content popped up on my  screen, which was a tribute cover of the late great Ayub Bacchu on what would have been the guitar virtuoso's 61st birthday.

As I banged my head to the iconic melody of Ghumonto Shohore, my reminiscing mind took me back to the time when I was first introduced to Bangladeshi Rock N' Roll – through this very Ayub Bacchu classic, way back in the late nineties.

The stereo and cassettes from that time demand a story of their own, but that has to wait, as this is a different story. Apart from the enthralling music all those bands created, what always struck me was the cool names they came up with.

How did the bands come up with their names? Growing up with LRB, Nagar Baul, Ark, Renaissance, etc, I didn't know how they got their names. And it finally got the best of me very recently.

In quest of answers, I interviewed vocalists, founders, and current/ former members of renowned bands to discuss the origins of the names. While online sources offer insights, firsthand accounts from early contributors reveal authentic, untold stories of band name origins. Below lies a testament to my curiosity.

Miles: A journey that never ends

Miles was formed in August 1979 by Farid Rashid. He returned to Bangladesh from the UK and contemplated forming a band, and ended up naming it 'Miles.'

"The logic behind it is that music - articularly the learning process of it - is a never ending journey. We do not arrive at a certain place and say, now our musical journey is complete. With that in mind, the band was named Miles," enlightened bassist Shafin Ahmed.

Farid Rashid approached Shafin and his brother Hamin to join later  and their journey with Miles began.

Artcell: A unit of art

To be honest, I had no clue as to what 'Artcell' meant, but I was very much a part of the fever the band spread with their progressive rock and metal music. I still can reproduce the lyrics of most of their songs just from memory. But I always did want to know what 'Artcell' meant. Talking to the band's manager I discovered it's the translation of the term 'Shilpa Kosh', a cell or a unit of art.

Abstract? It sure is. So are their lyrics: enigmatic but beautiful. Sometimes you don't have to know what something means; just go with it and enjoy the music. Artcell means Artcell.

Shironamhin: Untitled

You can tell just by hearing the word 'Shironamhin' that there must be an interesting story behind it.
"In 1996, sometime around the formation of our band, we were regularly performing in and around TSC, Dhaka University," remembers Ziaur Rahman Zia, the band's bassist.

"We weren't performing any cover songs; they were all our own compositions. However, neither our band nor our songs had any official title. So, we were asked who we are, what our songs are called, etc."

 A nostalgic Zia continued: "When we saw that our band and songs really were 'untitled',  we went ahead and named our band 'Shironamhin."

Black: A positive spin on negativity

Grunge and alt-rock inspired bands Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and Soundgarden were inspirations for 'Black.' However, their own title doesn't reflect the typical 90s grunge and alternative rock bands.

"We were looking into Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, etc for inspiration to name our band. It was our (later) guitarist Asif Haque who suggested we name our band 'Black'. When we felt the colour black signifies negativity, we wanted to give it a positive spin through our music," said Mushfeque Jahan, founding member and guitarist.

Arbovirus: The first thing that came to mind

We can't question why bands sometimes choose to be titled after viruses; American band Anthrax, for example. One such Bangladeshi example is the rock band 'Arbovirus.'

"We had to come up with a name for our band for a competition that we had signed up for but we didn't have any at hand. The first thing that came to our minds was 'Arbovirus', and we went with it," said vocalist Suharto Sherif during a BTV show.

Indalo: Emerging from musical hiatus

"Indalo is basically a sign – a symbol, if you will – in Spanish. It's a symbol of a figure holding a rainbow in its hands. Legend has it that this guy (figure) went into hiding in a cave when it began raining and after the rain stopped, he emerged from the cave holding a rainbow", said guitarist Zubair Hasan, while explaining the origin of the band name.

"Right before Indalo, vocalist Jon Kabir had stopped doing music and was invested in other avenues of life. So was I. I used to do music but stopped. Then we both came together to form Indalo, somewhat resembling the symbol's story. But the band name has no literal meaning," he added.

Shonar Bangla Circus: Coming together from around the world

Probar Ripon, the band's vocalist – a poet and definitely a conversationalist - explained in great detail how they named their band.

"Back in my childhood, I knew about this circus troupe from Keraniganj named 'The New Shonar Bangla Circus.' I was intrigued by the idea of a circus and its multicultural aspect. I literally wanted to escape with a circus one day but, you get it, kids think of weird things all the time. Many years later, when I got into music and eventually formed our band Shonar Bangla Circus, we named it that because all our members come from different parts of the world, from Dubai, UK, India and of course myself from here. This way I connected a real circus to our band's name."