Background
His father was an educationist and his mother belonged to the family with a strong musical tradition.
His father was an educationist and his mother belonged to the family with a strong musical tradition.
He is also a session musician, teacher and mentor. Datta, who commands a sort of demigod status with guitar fans across the country, is widely acknowledged to be one of the most innovative guitarists around today. He now plays and composes for experimental band Pinknoise, popular/rock band Skinny Alley, and his own solo work, often in collaboration with Jivraj Singh.
Amyt"s maternal grandfather Raichand Boral is regarded as the father of Bollywood music
They started taking guitar lessons which was mostly in Indian classical and semi-classical music.He started taking western music theory lessons from the legendary Carlton Kitto. His first guitar was what he calls "the Trunk".
lieutenant was made by his friend who took just Rs. 300 from him. lieutenant looked like a log and had a very high action.
In the late 1970s Amyt met Jayashree and Gyan Singh at the Beatstock, Louisiana Martiniere band competition.
They soon became friends and longtime collaborators. The music was experimental, cross-cultural, unlike much of the music heard by Indian audiences at the time. An audio cassette was released in 1992 but remained unnoticed.
The duo composed over a hundred songs and performed concerts filled with intricate stage and lighting design, real time sound design and subtle theatrics.
In the early 1990s Amyt joined People’s Secret, along with Jayashree and Gyan. In 1996 Amyt, Jayashree and Gyan formed Skinny Alley, a pioneering indie band which released Escape The Roar (2001), the first English language album by an Indian band on a major label (Electric and Music Industries).
In 2011, Amyt Datta appeared as a guitarist in a Bengali rock musical movie Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbona directed by Anjan Dutt.