Cynical Recess

Who: What’s Cynical Recess taking a recess from? “From the tediousness of daily life,” says Avinandan Mukherjee, drummer for the prog-minded young band. Abhishek Gurung (vocals), Abhishek “Pokai” Chatterjee (rhythm guitar), Gaurav Das Gupta (lead guitar), Rahul Maity (bass) and Suraj Sinha (keyboard) complete this brat pack inspired by such breaks.

Why: With a line-up a little over two months old, Cynical Recess has been in the buzz already. The band fared well in the regional round of Campus Rock Idols in Calcutta but lost out to Weapon Shop and Safire by a whisker. It went on to win Kings of Rock, an event organised at the Children’s Book Fair at Salt Lake. More wins in Milieu ’09, Presidency College’s annual fest and in Jadavpur University’s arts faculty Sanskriti has meant that the Recess guys are beginning to make ears perk up. “A frontman like Gurung, who manages to always win the best vocalist prize helps matters,” grins Avinandan.

How: Getting together wasn’t that difficult — until it came to the vocalist. Pokai and Avinandan are cousins, while Gaurav went to school with the latter. Avinandan heard of first-year wonder boy Abhishek, who’d been “sweeping the solo contests” everywhere. “We struck gold when I found Abhishek auditioning for our college band,” says Avinandan.

Style: Cynical Recess sticks to 80s rock, but with a modern, progressive rock touch. Which is why perhaps vocals are so essential. “You cannot cover Skid Row without powerful vocals. And while I did my best, my accent wasn’t good enough. Gurung changed all that,” smiles Pokai. With originals like A Better Tomorrow about global warming and about the need to live responsibly for a better world, the band offers both style and substance.

Influences: The young bunch admits listening to “everything”, from Dream Theatre to Kishore Kumar. While Gurung outgrew his Backstreet Boys phase by the time he was in Class IV, being in the school choir in Darjeeling helped train his chords. “I like Amazing Grace,” he smiles. Skid Row, Porcupine Tree and Deep Purple are among the band’s collective influences, despite accusations of Pokai being a “Kishorekonthi”!

Sign-off: “There is a lot to learn still. We have more covers to pick up and more originals to work on,” says Avinandan.

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