By Sanchita Paul
The Band Phantasm, an upcoming experimental band in the town, can make listeners dance to its tunes. “The music is such that it calls you to the dance floor and you cannot remain seated,” said Alvan Kharamnuid, the vocalist in the five-member band.
The other members of the group — Eleazer Umdor Budnah a.k.a Eli on keyboard, Mark Umdor the drummer, Russell Warjri the guitarist and Mewanki Rangad the bassist — say the five friends tried jamming together at a common friend’s wedding and decided to form a band in 2016.
The Phantasms’ first big event was NERM (North-Eastern Riders’ Meet) where they were invited to play on November 12, 2016. This platform catapulted them to the popularity chart. Now, the one-year-old band is raising the tempo at several local cafes, clubs and bars.
Asked how audience react to the young band’s music, 18-year-old Eli said, “We get pretty good response. The audience really enjoys it and they end up dancing. They are very interactive most of the times.”
Though the young musicians are yet to cross the boundary of Shillong, it has performed with local bands in the city.
‘The Phantasms’ say they face the same problem, that of uncertainty, like many other young bands.
“Our parents are not really saying anything but as a stable career choice you will have to do something else on the side,” said 27-year-old Mark.
“We have all done our degrees. Some have done post-graduation too and some are even working, but at this point we are still figuring out (Eli is pursuing his sound engineering and he is most likely to take up a career in this field),” he added.
Talking about the music scenario in Shillong, Alvan said making music is usually not an encouraging line of work but many new cafes here provide young artistes the necessary platform.
“It is not exactly an encouraged line of work. Parents too are not really cool about it. But then again it’s like any other field of work. Many people are still stuck in that mind-set that people have to go for either engineering or medical. A music career is not really encouraged. But with the emergence of places like Mellow Mood Café, Dylan’s Café, Living Roof and other places even outside of Shillong, help aspiring bands. Sure it’s not about the money we get, which is low, but a place to play is there,” he added.
The Band Phantasm — which plays experimental funk and jam band, among other styles — is planning an album but the members said it is still in the nascent stage and what they have now are “raw recordings”.
The members say what they play is “unique in Shillong”. Currently, the band is experimenting with folk and blues. “It is a learning experience. Whatever new thing we learn we try to incorporate it in our following gigs,” said the members who have different musical inclinations. The Band Phantasm, the members said, is a fusion of “all our likes” and the music “is impromptu and improvised”.
Taking advantage of technology, the young artistes have put up their music on Facebook and Instagram and already have many fans and viewers.
Talking about their unique band name Eli said, “Me and my benchmate at school were discussing band names (for a band that was yet to be formed) and ‘phantasm’ sort of came up during the conversation. I’d just thought it was a cool word and the ‘the band’
part my friend gave just to add that little spice.”
