Will ‘Shomantoral’ put Black back on the map?

Black's songs are a part of the youth of many Bangladeshi boys and girls, starting in the 2000s, which carried on till about 2010s. Tahsan was the first big name to leave the band, followed by Jon Kabir and then drummer Tony.  

Now, Mushfeque Jahan is the only surviving founding member; while bassist Charlz Amit Francis has been around since founding bassist Miraz left the band after a tragic accident. 

The love for the band however persists among loyal fans. Jahan recently talked about their newest upcoming single, 'Shomantoral', in an interview with The Business Standard. 

"A lot has changed in our band, especially the line-up. Since 2018, we have a new vocalist Ishan Hossain. Tony and Rubayet were the last to leave," said Jahan, also the CEO of record label G Series. 

'Unomanush' was the band's last album that came out in 2016. Ever since, they have been releasing singles with music videos – something they felt compelled to do.

"The world moved on to singles with music videos. That is, however, not how band music works. We used to release cassettes and CDs but once the digital platform arrived, we had to move to singles and the audio-visual platform. Shomantoral is just another example of that," said Jahan.

Shomantoral will be released through the concert 'Blacked Out' on 2 June at Krishibid Institute Bangladesh, Khamarbari. Its music videos will be screened on huge LED panels at the concert, organised by Get Set Rock. 

Besides Black, AvoidRafa, Aftermath, Drik, Owned and AK Rahul will each perform one of Black's popular songs as a tribute, and perform one of their own. Solo artists Elita and Mila will perform two songs each at the concert as well. 

They began releasing music videos with songs from Unomanush. Music videos for 'Akkhep', 'Gohine' and 'Chokh' were released in 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively. The Covid-19 came suddenly and disrupted things. 

In 2018, they also released the song 'Porajoyer Sheshe' in a mixed album titled 'Shongshodhon Kha'. 2020 was the last time they released a single with Rubayet – 'Dhushor'. 

"Then came Ishan as our new vocalist. It's not easy to re-establish an existing band with a new vocalist. It takes time. Also, execution of a single is vastly different from an album. We need to focus all our energy on a single song when it's a single," Jahan added.

All kinds of experiments can be done with an album, according to Jahan, as there are several songs in an album. An album also helps highlight the versatility of a band. A single clearly cannot capture how a band is on the whole. 

"We make singles in a way they can be performed on stage. So, we are extra cautious about how it is," he said.

Digital platforms are not good for music, Jahan feels. Sure they help spread a song faster through the internet, but what is in it for the musician? 

The Gaan music app is the Bangladeshi equivalent of Spotify and charges listeners for songs, but is still not at par with Spotify in its ability to reward musicians. The GP Music app and some other applications had opened up in the past to promote music digitally, but in one form or another, they fizzled out. 

"Some of our well-wishers and fans have asked us 'why release an audio-visual single through a concert when it is readily available on YouTube?' But I think releasing the song on big LED panels in a concert is not just about the song, but also about the essence of concerts in general," he said.

Shomantoral was supposed to be out in December 2022 but the band was very busy with live concerts back then. So, they chose now to release it. They also plan to release another single this September.