Stone Free (band)
Stone Free is a classic rock cover band from Dhaka, Bangladesh. The band consists of Chotu Khan on vocals and guitar, Mishu Safa on bass guitar, Fahim Huq on lead guitar and vocals, Nadeer Ahmed on percussions, and Emrul Emon on drums. While each of the band members have played with various other local bands (such as Maqsood o' Dhaka, Winning, James, Renaissance, etc.) since the late 1980s, the band made their debut appearance as Stone Free on December 27, 2007 at Le Saigon in Dhaka.
Biography
The name of the band is taken from Jimi Hendrix's song by the same name. Different from the way Hendrix refers to the title, according to Chotu, Stone Free to them refers to "getting 'stoned' for free without the use of any drugs, alcohol or narcotics - just pure music". Their concerts are credited to be extremely interactive, high energy and seamless performances where the band gets the entire audience to sing along with them. Stone Free is not known for playing the most commercially successful numbers, but songs that they listen to and want to perform, which incidentally may or may not have been commercially very successful song.
The band’s repertoire consists of songs by The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Simon & Garfunkel, America, Bob Marley, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Neil Young, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Dire Straits, U2, Led Zeppelin, Van Morrison, J. J. Cale, Sting, Santana, The Police, and several others from the classic rock era.
Pink Floyd Covers
In January, 2009 Stone Free was commissioned by Excalibur Entertainments to perform a tribute to Pink Floyd. As Stone Free didn't have a keyboardist in their lineup, they called on Arshad Amin (bassist of the band Rock Strata) and Saad Chowdhury (pianist of Jazzy Chopsticks) to put the keys and synths together. As a 7-member band, their rendition of Pink Floyd numbers on April 10 and 16, 2009 has been highly appreciated by the audience. They performed a total of 2 hours of Pink Floyd songs from 7 different albums, including Wish You Were Here, Meddle, More, Dark Side of The Moon, Animals, The Wall and The Final Cut.
Subsequently, Stone Free were commissioned to perform at the Winter Garden of The Dhaka Sheraton Hotel on July 3, 2009. The concert was titled “Stone Free presents Pink Floyd”, which also included songs from 2 other albums by Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell. Laser lights, a massive stage designed as per The Wall concerts of Pink Floyd, a bit of theatrics and choreography - all the essential characteristics of a Pink Floyd concert were accommodated into this performance which was performed seamlessly with each song played back-to-back over a period of 3 hours. They performed a 20 minutes rendition of "Echoes" which was done to perfection. The performance also included dramatic details such as dog barks and pig oinks as well as sounds of dropping bombs and ticking clocks which are integral to Pink Floyd songs. In an interview with Chotu, he said, "we wanted the music to be ours and as 'human' as possible - that is, we didn't just want to sample the clock ticks from the song "Time" by Pink Floyd - that would be too easy; rather, we made Arshad create the sound from scratch. That's where the fun is."
The Pussycat Putuls featuring Tisa, Ulfath, and Nazia appeared as back-up vocals to Another Brick In the Wall II. Mushfiq of Rock Strata and Jawad of ’71 were also featured for lead and back-up vocals in various songs.
Stone Free intends to take the Pink Floyd cover show on the road to different parts of the world, starting India, Thailand and Malaysia.
Albums
Stone Free has not released any of their self-composed music till date. According to Fahim, “we are having too much fun covering the music that we grew up listening to. Our own music will be a natural progression over time.” According to Chotu, “the band is composing and putting songs together, but we are in no hurry to publish them.”
Appearances
Stone Free's first appearance in the Dhaka music scene took place at Le Saigon in Dhaka on December 27, 2007. Since then Stone Free have been a regular feature at Le Saigon where they perform once every month. They can also be found playing at various other locations within Bangladesh. The band prefers to play small venues where they can easily interact and communicate with the audience.
Stone Free were interviewed on Radio Foorti (Dhaka FM 88.0) on May 2, 2009 by RJ Asna. During the interview Stone Free played 3 songs live for the radio audience.
Each of the band members maintain high profile day jobs. As such, they are limited to few appearances each month depending on each band member’s availability.