Rupam Islam’s solo shows are by turns innovative, inspiring and intriguing. Songs, stories, critique and comments interlace and one gets to experience the raw power of his songs. With Covid-19 offstaging concerts, Rupam started his Ekok shows from home. Now, with Pujas round the corner, Rupam has taken the Ekok show to the next level. On September 18 from 8.30pm, Rupam will present Pujabarshiki Rupam — Rupam Islam Mega Ekok, which will feature 15 of his most-requested songs. The Telegraph chats with Rupam...

Why call it Pujabarshiki Rupam?

The part about Pujas that always attracted me the most were pujabarshikis. Through the pujabarshikis that were published in our childhood, we would get to meet our dream characters like Feluda, Professor Shanku, Kakababu, Wrijuda, Ghonada, Kikira and so many more. Apart from these characters we would wait for Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Sanjib Chattopadhyay, Moti Nandy, Sailen Ghosh’s new novels.

This show will also be like that in spirit. To my audience these 15 songs have appeared as characters in different time frames. Just like the characters have lived with Bengalis for a long, long time, these songs have also been with my audience for a long time, hence I avoided any of my recent songs.

So this is definitely not Best of Rupam but the Best of Audience Favourites. So I thought this would be the best Puja gift I can give to my audience and definitely I will not do such a show more than once a year. Hence the coinage Pujabarshiki.

What were the new things you learnt while doing the Ekok shows from home?

The entire show is being done from my bedroom. We sleep in that room at night and convert it into a studio during the day. It is a small room and the entire set-up has been done by Rupsha (wife) and me. Of course this has been a big learning experience. For our auditorium Ekok shows, we have a huge team working. I learnt to do a show unperturbed by the lights on my face staring at a camera. I was very uneasy in front of cameras earlier, but now the camera is my only audience.

I learnt how to do a show by sitting in only one position surrounded by my keyboards and guitars.

Learnt to connect and operate all my instruments in a very small space. I learnt to mix the sound even while performing live. Of course my sound engineer and band-mate Pom helped set up the sound virtually and prior to any show I make sure we go live only for Pom and get his assurance that it is sounding right.

What are the main challenges and high points of Live-from-Home concerts?

The main challenge is to ensure that good Internet connectivity and electricity is there all through the show. Even with a little bit of rain we fear that the Internet will stop working and we would have to postpone the show. Also all the equipment we are using are home equipment, so any technical mishap poses a big challenge.

Another huge challenge is that there is no scope for mistakes in a digital show. On on-ground shows if I even forget a line, my audience is there and they prompt me instantly. Here I need to rehearse much more so that I do not make any mistakes... and I don’t have my audience in front of me to give me their instant reactions.

What is the one thing you miss in home edition gigs?

The cheers of the audience and their applause. But I do ask Rupsha to read out the live comments once in a while during the show. Also the numerous social media lives and reviews from the audience prior to the show and post show kind of compensate for this loss.

The response has been huge for the September 18 show. The first 1,000 tickets got sold within 72 hours! How did you come up with the idea for this one?

Rupam Islam Ekok is not just a concert of songs. It is very heavy and deep in its content. Here the songs are used as links... these links take me and the audience to some events and occurrences which have a deep impact on our current socio-political situation. At the same time, I also go through a journey with these songs. My aim is usually a quest towards spiritual and philosophical truth. So the Ekok shows are very intense. We did three Rupam Islam online Ekok shows within 45 days. The first one created a record in terms of number of audience at any digital show in India as per insider.in; the next two just broke the records set by the previous ones. With so many audiences’ spontaneous engagement, the intensity of these shows just increased, so naturally we wanted a break.

When the break began, Rupsha casually said, “At the Ekok shows you sing songs as per your wish, and the basic policy is not to go by the requests of the audience. In spite of that the shows are hit. I was just wondering if we did an Ekok show with all the top 15 requested songs over the last 10 years, then what will the audience response be like?” I took it as a challenge. It was like a jigsaw puzzle to place the songs in their correct places. Not only sing them but to create a story with them. It is a matter of great pride that it took only 10 minutes for me to solve it. The concept was done. The show was ready.

What can we expect from the concert?

I am not sure if such a concert has ever taken place where the entire song list has been exposed way in advance! So in a way the surprise factor is gone. The expectation would be how as a performer I create new surprises and the way I deal with the songs that I am most comfortable performing with my band. A part of the show will be a documentation of the inroads that brought me into the songs... the other part will be how am I interpreting the songs in the new-normal situation. The show will be for three hours divided into two parts and I am confident that I shall be able to engage my audience for the entire three hours. Also Puja is just round the corner and the word ‘happiness’ is always attached with Puja. In these sad and lonely times, I want to spread a little bit of happiness through this show.

How will Mega Ekok be different from Rupam Islam Ekok?

Mega Ekok is way more challenging for me. A normal Ekok is much easier and comes naturally to me. My audience have heard these songs numerous times over the years — recorded as well as live versions with my band. But I will not perform the songs like that. For many of the songs I will go back to the basics — the way I had written and composed the songs. For others I shall try and show my musical reflections on them in these times. The challenge is bigger since I will probably have to speak about how and when the song was written and also about how I see the song now.

Again I cannot just go on talking for long, so balancing it will be difficult. There are too many things on my mind... to compile all of them into a three-hour package is a huge challenge indeed. My digital Ekok shows are an audio-visual experience. There are background projections for each song... that too is a massive challenge for Rupsha who prepares them. It is all about trying to exceed the previous show experience.

For my audience, I would just like to tell them that there might not be any breathing space throughout the show. It will be 15 hits one after the other — a bombardment of sorts!

Van Morrison recently said that it is not economically viable to do socially distanced gigs. Your thoughts on this... do you agree?

I don’t know if he was talking about on-ground gigs or digital gigs. Even I feel on-ground gigs are not possible. Till date Fossils has not even done a single digital gig (in the pandemic) as we feel all of us together in an AC room rehearsing and then performing from a studio is not ideal and social distance will not be maintained. It shall also give out a bad message that people can be together in AC rooms without masks.