September 8, 2000 - INDIA-WEST Arts & Entertainmet
Guitarist Joy Basu: At Home With Rock, Pop, Rap and Metal
By LISA TSERING India-West Staff Reporter

Perhaps the most unique thing about rock guitarist Joy Basu is not how successful he's come - playing backup for pop stars like Jennifer Lopez, CoCo Lee and Jessica Simpson - but that as he was growing up in the '70s, he held the uniquely rare distinction of being a fan of both rock and disco. Yeah, my rock friends weren't into it," he says, laughing. "I used to listen to Van Halen, Kiss and Journey, and the BeeGees and Saturday Night Fever at the same time." That well-rounded approach has served him well. Today, Basu is a sought-after session musician who switches easily from Pop, Latin and heavy metal tohip-hop and even industrial styles. He'll appear at the Opium Den in Hollywood Sept. 13, playing with the rock/rap band Extra Ordinary Magnitude; and in concert Sept. 23 with Jessica Simpson in Englewood, New Jersey. Basu's instrumental rock piece "Thrill Seeker" is played on the background score of the MTV series "MTV Undressed," and he has composed a grinding, industrial soundtrack to "C-3D The Edge," an extreme sports video. Although he spends a lot of time in the studio, Basu's first love is playing onstage. "I love the adrenaline rush when I'm playing live," he told India-West from his home in North Hollywood, Calif. "The interaction with other musicians and the audience is a great feeling." Basu finds that he can get more creative in the studio, though: "That's when the artist part of a musician comes out." He's currently working on his second album, a collection of original solo guitar pieces. Born in Calcutta, Basu was brought to the United States at the age of two, and has since moved back and forth to Calcutta and lived in Boston - where he attended the Berklee College of Music - before settling in Southern California in 1990. "I love L.A.," he said. He grew up in a musical household and joined his first band at 16 (his mother is an exponent of Rabindrageet, the songs of RabindraTagore), and is an only child. He listens to a fair amount of Indian music, especially the slide guitar work of Vishwa Mo-han Bhatt. Basu's "shredding," or flamboyant, hard rock style, is what's earned him the most attention. He's been featured in more than 15 magazines, including Guitar Player, Guitar and Young Guitar, and he also does endorsements for Dean Markley strings, ESP guitars, Godin acoustic and electric guitars, Seymour Duncan pickups, Sabine tuners and Line 6 products. His favorite guitar right now is a Godin (pictured) with nylon strings, which he says is "really comfortable to play" and is well-suited to the in-de-mand Latin styles. Basu played with Jennifer Lopez at last year's Blockbuster Music Awards, and has appeared with Simpson on the Rosie O'Donnell Show, in concert atDodger Stadium and on the Disney Channel. He finds he has the most artistic freedom, though, working with CoCo Lee, the young Taiwanese pop phenomenon who released her first album in the U.S. on the Sony label in November of 1999. Basu played behind Lee at the U.S. launch of the album and at live shows with the 23-year-old singer. The artistic freedom I get working with her is pretty decent," he said. "We change the arrangements a little from her CDs, and I get a chance to feel it's my own thing."