‘We are Arbovirus’: Original members open up, slam current lineup
Recently, Asif Asgar Ranjan of Arbovirus posted a status on Facebook, stating that the band were back together.
In the post he wrote, "No, the page wasn't hacked!! And yes, Sufi is indeed back. And the rest of the core members (Aldnane, Nafeez and Ranjan) never left the band. We are all determined to continue making the music that the fans of Arbovirus liked. We will clear our stance in future posts and inform the fans of all the details they deserve to know."
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Earlier today, all four members, Sufi Maverick, Asif Asgar Ranjan, Aldnane Alam and Nafeez Al Amin, sat down for a session with Prothom Alo to address everything that has happened with Arbovirus in recent times.
Asked whether it was true that they were all back together, Ranjan explained, "We had said that we would let the fans know what was happening with Arbovirus. So, we are here to explain. Me, Sufi, Aldnane and Nafeez, we are Arbovirus.The band never belonged to just one person. It belonged to five people, but now four people are working together. Ethically and legally, all of us here have a right over Arbovirus."
"All of us have worked together to compose and record our songs over the years. However, not it seems that people are trying to rewrite our history. This is not acceptable," continued Ranjan.
Sufi added, "My main reason for leaving the band was toxicity. All of us are living abroad and when we left, we put touring members in our place. However, obviously they would need time to get used to performing our music live. While we were pushing them to improve, Suharto counterbalanced this by praising them."
"As a result, not only was new music not being made, but the band's live performance situation was in a bad state. Because of this gaslighting, manipulation and narcissism, I could not take it anymore. It was no longer the band I had played in for the last 18 years. So, I left the band. But later on, I saw that the existing touring members were made main members, without informing Aldnane, Nafeez and Ranjan. New songs are being made and released under the name of Arbovirus. Access to all of Arbovirus' accounts were also taken away from all of us, without even speaking to any of us," continued Sufi.
"A lot of manipulation is taking place. Credit is being taken away from us and even our producer, Jewel bhai," chimed in Ranjan.
Aldnane added, "If you look at the wikipedia page, it shows that I was a member till 2017. However, even last year I recorded music for the band which was later released."
"After seeing all of this, I decided to come back. I spoke with Ranjan and shared my thoughts. As long as the four of us are together, we can make music and release music. So, I am back here in Arbovirus. When we decided to claim our Arbovirus page, we saw that Shuharto had made his own Facebook profile with the Arbovirus gmail id. Then I was accused of hacking and a GD was filed against me. My wife was also threatened, with them saying that if they filed a case, it would stop us returning abroad."
"Everything that happened was an internal issue till now. But the moment Sufi's wife was involved into this, then it became bigger than the band. It was unacceptable, what kind of a person does something like this?" asked Ranjan.
He continued, "This almost feels like a land grabbing situation. When the relatives left for abroad, someone decided to steal their land. How does one deal with people like this? The arbovirus@gmail.com is the band's email address. Attaching it to his (Shuharto) own profile was a scheme to keep us from reclaiming our page. A song was also released that is a recycled version of a song written by me. Ethically and legally, the name, band and logo belong to all four of us."
Aldnane added, "We will be taking the necessary legal steps. The outcome is not in our hands, but we have to take legal steps to protect the Arbovirus that we and our fans love so much."
Ranjan concluded by saying, "We have all of our music ready for an album. But we are unable to release it due to the ongoing situation. The voice of one member cannot outweigh the opinions of four members."
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