You have been to their live shows; head banged with their music, rushed for collecting their autographs and have waited eagerly for the release of their albums. When it comes to the Bangladeshi rock music scene Miles need no introduction. One of the leading bands of the country, Miles has been around since early ‘80s.
Since their inception the band has been working tirelessly in popularising rock music in Bangladesh, representing Bangladesh in the international music scene as well.
In their thirty years Miles has given much to the band music lovers of Bangladesh. And with the next new album of Miles in the pipeline the list is expected to get even longer.
We bring our readers an exclusive with Hamin Ahmed, vocalist and guitarist of Miles as the singer shares his opinion regarding music piracy, speaks about Miles, their upcoming new album and more.
“Statistics show that the annual turn over from the music industry is more than 600 crores, this includes album sales, mp3 and caller tunes download, welcome tunes and more. The multinational tele-communication companies are using the music and songs of music artistes illegally. Anyone related with the music industry has never received their fare share from these companies. As the president of BAMBA, we are determined to take steps against this,” says Hamin Ahmed who is also the president of BAMBA.
“It is really unfortunate that the mobile phone companies are using 20 songs of Miles without our permission as caller tunes. This is a sheer crime. Miles had filed a criminal case against a mobile phone company for using our songs illegally since 2007,” informed Hamin.
“Miles have never compromised in any issue. We will see till the very end of this case and hope to set an example in Bangladesh.” he added.
Speaking about his early days when Hamin Ahmed began his career with Miles.
Hamin Ahmed thinks music flows in his veins. Being the son of the legendry music composer, Kamal Das Gupta and acclaimed Nazrul sangeet exponent Feroza Begum, Hamin Ahmed received
his preliminary music educations from his parents, notably from his mother.
When he was a boy of fourteen, his mother gave him an acoustic guitar as a gift and he started playing the guitar on his own. It is interesting to know that Hamin who is one of the leading guitar players of the country has never received guitar lessons from anyone in life.
He was highly motivated and inspired from western bands in his teen days. Rolling Stone, Santana, Pink Floyed, and Deep Purple were the bands to whom he used to listen often.
Mentioning Miles as an entirely Rock fused band, he says, “We compose music which can be addressed as fusion — mingling various genres of music — including jazz, latin, blue and more.”
Miles was formed in 1979 by Farid Rashid, Kamal, Ishtiaq and others. Hamin Ahmed joined Miles after two years of its formation.
At first, the band used to do covers of English songs only at Hotel Intercontinental (now Sheraton). Their first two albums were also in English.
About their first album in Bangla, he shares, “After bringing out two English albums, the fans of Miles requested us for to bring out albums in Bangla songs. During our shows, we promised our audience of releasing albums in Bangla. So came Miles’ first Bangla album, Protisruti. The album received a high response from the music-lovers.”
Miles enthralled all with their second album Prottasha, which till date is considered one of the best albums ever released in Bangladesh. And in the following years Miles brought out their other albums, Prottoy, Proyash, Probaho and Protidhoni.
While speaking about their upcoming album, Hamin informs, “Six songs have already been recorded. Among them, one song Priyotoma megh
is already being aired on Radio Foorti, the song has been highly appreciated by the listeners.”
The die-hard fans of Miles have waited for quite some time for a new album. The expectations are surely high and everyone looks forward to the album.
On this topic, he explains, “May be for our choosy approach, the fans of Miles don’t get an album every year. Actually, we let our fans listen to an album for quite some time and try to present a quality album.”
Speaking about their recent projects, he says, “Apart from working for the next album, Miles is also busy with their live shows and performances. We are performing at fifteen districts around the country including Dhaka.”
When it comes to his dream with Miles, Hamin said with contentment that most of the dreams have been fulfilled and he is looking forward to take Miles forward.
News Source: The Daily Sun