Full-Time Doctors Trap Happy! Release Funky Debut EP ‘Cuppa Chaos’

Ever wondered what a bunch of doctors making music would sound like? Look no further than Kolkata funk/rock outfit Trap Happy! who are all full-time medical professionals. The group met at medical college and have been jamming together since 2016. Bassist Unmesh Chakraborty says, “It clicked, and we knew we had to make music right away.” Apart from Chakraborty, the group includes vocalist Kasturi Biswas, guitarist Jit Bhunia and drummer Sunit Sikdar. Recently, Trap Happy! released their refreshing six-track debut EP Cuppa Chaos.

Over the years, the band wrote a range of songs with the intention of not sticking to one particular genre. The bassist says, “There’s a mix of funk, alternative rock, disco, pop, progressive rock in our album.” What Trap Happy! have created with their record are earworms that get you hungry for more. Cuppa Chaos opens with the edgy and groove riff-heavy offering “Alien Doppelganger” which is about one’s suppressed side while the six and a half minute blazing dynamic track “Laced and Trippin’” addresses toxic relationships.

The mid record dancey song “High” is all about having fun according to the band whereas the stomping “Mindfunk’d” touches upon society and how it cripples and controls people. The bluesy “Sway Through” is about keeping your head held high in difficult times and the saccharine record closer “Mushy” is the band’s light-hearted take on couples with “cringeworthy PDA skills.”

The band delivers excellently across the entire record and shines right through. Biswas’ effortless vocals layered over Bhunia’s riffs and solos as well as Chakraborty and Sikdar’s pumping grooves make for the perfect medicine to get you moving. “We tried to write songs where we could constantly challenge ourselves as well as making them relatable. We strongly believe in cathartic qualities of good, versatile music and thus we lay bare our efforts to compose music with distinct diversities,” says Chakraborty.

Trap Happy! recorded Cuppa Chaos at Kolkata’s John Paul Studio, Studio Outboard and engineer Shiladitya Sarkar’s home studio. The EP was then mixed and mastered by a number of people including Sarkar as well as Abhibroto Mitra, Somagni Biswas and Romil Sinha. “The entire album production was not ideal maybe, but it definitely was a great learning experience for us,” the bassist says.

While the band’s launch plans for the EP were put on the backburner due to the pandemic, they’ve instead decided to juggle between their lab coats and instruments to put down ideas for a new batch of songs. Chakraborty says, “So we guess there’s another album coming then soon enough.”

Stream ‘Cuppa Chaos’ below and on other platforms.