BIO
Born: 25 October, 1961, Kolkata, India
Son of legendary composer, Sudhin Das Gupta
and Manjushree Das Gupta. Sister: Saberi.
Married to Jayita since 1992. Sons: Aritra and Ahon.
Graduated at the top of his class with a degree in Architecture from the erstwhile Bengal Engineering College (now, IIEST, Sibpur) in 1984. Moved over to Muscat, Sultanate of Oman in 1990 and works as a senior Architect with the government.
Started learning the guitar with his uncle, Parimal Das Gupta in 1976 and later, with the legendary jazz guitar player of India, Mr. Carlton Kitto, in 1980.
Formed a predominantly originals only band during college years, Further Away with guitar player/ singer Anandashankar Chakraborty, drummer Pratip Biswas (later, Xerxes Gazder), bassist Parthoranjan Das and (later) singer Sarbajit Chatterjee.
Has been associated with various bands at different times in India with some terrific musicians like Rajesh Roy, Rajesh Iyer, Srijit Chowdhury, Tarun Majumdar, Rana Sengupta, Moloy Dey, Auroop Mojumdar, Papa Chakraborty, Nondon Bagchi, Biswajit Mukherjee, while in Kolkata.
Performed as a session musician between 1979 and 1990 in various studios in Kolkata, recording for movies and albums.
Formed a band in college with "Babu" Rajarshi Ghosh, who later on formed a band in New York called "Babuband" and produced a couple of albums.
Performed with legendary singer, Arati Mukherjee for stage shows between 1985 and 1987, along with top musicians, like Buddhadeb Ganguly.
Formed a pop rock covers band called OVERLOAD in Muscat in 1991 with John Samuel on the drums and vocals, Ashley Fernandes on rhythm guitar and vocals, Dennis Wijesurya on bass. Later on, the band was reinforced with Mel on keyboards, Val on vocals and rhythm guitar. Srijit joined the band when he arrived in Muscat. This band performed until 1995.
Joined Tony Cyril and the Musicmakers band in Muscat and did live shows throughout the year between 1995 and 2002. This was a versatile band which played everything from 50's jazz to hip hop and everything in between. This was the most popular band in Muscat featuring Tony Cyril on vocals and trumpet, Eric Cabral on drums and vocals, McRae Williams on jazz keyboards, Alex Heynes on bass and vocals, Rina Cyril on classical piano.
Started composing for local plays and re discovered doing original numbers since 2002. Set up a small home studio, first with a 4 track cassette recorder. Re started composing songs in English, Bengali and Hindi languages, as well as instrumentals.
Rupa Bose recorded an album, Nana Range in 2013. One of the songs, Tana Dere Na, was composed by Soumya. This was his first published work as a composer.
Met and developed a musical partnership with renowned tabla player, Subrata Bhattacharya. This partnership gave birth to the band, CrossOver, whose first album, Ripples received a fair amount of critical acclaim after its release in 2013. The two musicians formed a music company of their own, called 55DB, based out of Kolkata. http://55db.in/
Formed an instrumental fusion band in Muscat, Mishran, with musicians from Muscat. With Jayan on keyboards, Susanta Chakraborty on tabla, Rajat Roy on violins and flute, Koushik Roy on bass and Sushil Sirsath on saxophones.
Composed, arranged, recorded guitars and produced an album, Roots by Es Dee with Kisaloy Roy on keyboards and programming and Tatai De on bass. This was a blues/ jazz/ rock influenced instrumental album and was released in 2015.
Formed an originals band, Alter3rd with Sayan Ganguly and his sons, Aritra and Ahon. Rajat Sarkar often joins in;
An environmentalist by nature, Soumya wrote, co composed and produced a single, Be My Guide, sung by Greek-Omani singer Thanae Pachiyanakkis in 2017. Sayan Ganguly co composed the song, did the sound design and mixed and mastered the track. Ranjoy Roy Choudhury produced a video which was edited by Pritha Chakraborty. This video has been very well received.
Composed, arranged and produced a Bengali language album, entitled Khushi Noi Awlpey in 2016. The songs were sung by renowned singers, Raghab Chatterjee, Nirmalya Roy and Swagato De. Lyrics for 7 numbers were penned by Rajib Chakraborty and the last song in the album, Chawlo Na, was penned by Soumya. the sound design of the album was done by Sayan Ganguly who also mixed and mastered the album. Swagata Banerjee and Aditi Chakraborty lent their voices on the album and ace classical flautist, Debopriya Chatterjee Ranadive played flute on a couple of the numbers.
Composed 6 numbers for a private Bengali language album by debutante artist, Kamalika Ganguly in 2017. The album is to be released tentatively by the end of 2018.
Composed a Hindi language single for debutante artist, Mousumi Bhattacharya. Other numbers are on the way.
Presently working on sequel to Roots. Along with Kisaloy Roy on the keyboards and programming, Soumya's elder son, Aritra is playing guitars, mixing, mastering the tracks. Aritra has graduated from SAE Dubai with Audio Engineering at the top of his class. Soumya's younger son, Ahon, will also play piano on a few numbers.
Also collaborating with Paroma Banerjee, who is an eminent Bengali playback singer and a renowned television host, for upcoming singles and albums.
Other collaborations are on the way.
Watch this space for updates.