Intoxicated with Fraggy of E-Rose
On the evening of 24 April 2015, we at Zogam.com had an opportunity to talked with Fraggy who is the band leader and the lead guitarist of an all female Lamka rock band E-ROSE. Their debut single Intoxicated went viral ever since it was released online and had huge download due to its catchy funky ACDC kind of riff and powerful vocal. Fraggy spoke at length with Zogam.com founder Ginza, narrating the story about the band, their early days, their passions and dreams.
Fraggy whose real name is Ain Kyi Phyu is a Burmese who is currently residing in New Lamka. She is staying with her family and currently waiting for her 12th Board result. Fraggy said they started somewhere in 2012 during winter break in St. Paul Institute that she came up with an idea of forming a band just for the school competition. Fraggy began inviting members for the band from the same school - her cousin Teddy on the drums and Dolly, a friend on the bass. Initially they formed the band just for the competition, however it seems they did very well and everyone that saw them played encouraged them to form a band. On the day of the competition they sang a gospel song called "Myself" by Fireflight and won many applauses, which led them to performed for the first time in a public concert at Cool Riff Fest which was held at Hiangtam Lamka.
Fraggy quipped being an all female band had its own challenges at times as the jam room used to be packed with boys and sometime made them feel out of place. But the spirit carries on.
E-Rose is short for Enchanted Rose and consist of Fraggy on Guitar, Dolly on bass guitar, Teddy on Drum, MC and Alice on vocals. Initially the band were of 4 members and now they are 5 with the recent addition of Alice. They have performed in 5 musical events - the Cool Riif Fest, Hiangtam Lamka was the first, South Assemble at Churachandpur College, Eimi Oldies Concert at Pearson, Rabbi/Zonamkhandal Anniversart Concert at Hyde Park and at Churches which invite them to performed.
"I started playing at 15" explained Fraggy when asked how she began her musical journey. "I always dreamt about me on stage with a guitar with lights and stuffs. At first I love writing songs and was irritated when there's no other music except the tune of it. So I wanted to add music to it and that's how I started playing." She was later inspired by Orianthi and Sungha Jung (Korean classical guitar player). She loved all genre except for Jazz and hard core metal. Some of her favourite bands are Simple Plan, Barlow Girls, MLTR and Backstreet Boys.
On what she think about Lamka music scene, Fraggy lamented "I don't really know, the society still doesn't have a bigger view on music which also made musicians struggled a lot."
When asked to give a one liner on her band mates, Fraggy described them as follows - "MC she is our bigger sister very dignified and friendly, Dolly is rush hour but that’s the reason why we’re here, she is caring and determined, Teddy is calm, friendly and understanding, Alice is very cute." On herself she laughed "I'm funny and positive minded."
Intoxicated was written by Fraggy during their school sports. "I wrote the song Intoxicated during our school sports and I have no other song in mind to sing in the final, so I wrote one. And well, we ended up recording it because the song got me the third place." On the song Intoxicated she retorted "Intoxicated is really enjoyable, something to sing along, fun to play and yes, it's a happy song." Intoxicated was recorded in January 2015 at Siam T. Paite's studio and the vocal part at Mwanlal's Studio she added. Intoxicated was released on 25 March 2015 and can be downloaded at the following link: https://soundcloud.com/dolly-neihoihte/enchanted-rose-e-rose-at
E-Rose are the first all female rock band in Lamka. They have many songs lined up to record, they are anticipating for a new album in the near future. They got what it take to make a great band, they got the skills and the right attitude. There is no stopping for E-rose and have the capacity to go a long way. Lets support our talents and let music rules!
