Musician guitarist Gourov Dasgupta: You have to be open about Bollywood

Gourav Dasgupta jams with Shaan at a gig

What happens when you plant a Progressive Metal guitar player in a Bollywood tub? He implements his dynamism and makes a dingy track sound interesting. Gourov Dasgupta has been using the template for a few years in the film industry but at present, he is focusing on his debut guitar album titled Cosmic Roulette. The 36-year-old, who started his career in films as the music director of Dus Kahaniyaan, is heavily influenced by Rock, Electronic music and Jazz: his sound is immaculate.

Road to the album
"We have almost finished recording. There is one track left to be done and one more music video to be shot. I named the album Cosmic Roulette because it goes well with the reverberation. It is my own sound," says Dasgupta, who started his career with music director Himesh Reshammiya in the 2000s.

"Frankly, I had no clue about sound then. In my head, I was playing Megadeth and Dream Theater. But all of Himesh's songs have been successful. After working with him, I learnt how it works in Bollywood. You have to be open. I have to pay my bills and for that, I need music (any kind) on my plate," admits Dasgupta, who also plays with Shaan frequently.

The title track borrows a lot from Opera to bring out the royal essence of roulette. The John Petrucci-like tone in between heavy riffs may remind one of a Quentin Tarantino film. Dasgupta wisely uses the acoustic guitar in the bridge to add sheen to the melody.

There is another track titled Valentine, a ballad with a twist. "It is not the regular love song. It is a little scarred," explains Dasgupta. It is a dark song, indicating the thorns in a relationship and how one comes out stronger. The riff-based track could be easily used as a soundtrack for a strategic computer game.

Expression through notes
Dasgupta, a self-proclaimed maniac when he played the guitar for the group Cyanide Angels back in the late '90s, wanted to articulate his sound to the modern-day listeners. "The madness is still there but there is a method to it now. Back in the day, I was a shred machine. Today, I don't sit down and tell myself that I have to make a song where I will play 300 notes per second. To do a guitar album, you initially want to prove a point but it comes through only when you are over that. But it is also true that when you are busy with so many assignments (Bollywood and otherwise), you tend to find yourself," he says.

Dasgupta's close friend and music partner, Roshin Balu, is helping him with the production of the album. The duo, under the Gourov-Roshin title, has been creating waves in B-town with albums like Force 2 and Tum Bin 2.

However, he isn't expecting any returns from the album. "I will be releasing it all by myself unless I get a label aboard. The album is my expression: people are free to like or dislike it. Anyway, these days you don't earn anything when you release music online. So, this isn't about the money. I wanted to reach out to people because they have not heard anything like this before," says Dasgupta, who is also the official endorsee for Ibanez guitars in India. When asked how he maintains his core sound amid the film murmur, he says, "I am always playing the guitar in my head: that's the key."