I do not want to become a superstar - Nalin

Ruwini JAYAWARDANA

NALIN Perera of Marians says, "I do not want to become a superstar. If you become one no level to go beyond. Moreover, it is going to be very difficult to maintain that level.

"I prefer to be in the middle for that way we have a way to go and we will remain in the music field," said Nalin the leader of the band.

"I have tried a lot of things in this field and I am satisfied with my work," he reflected.

He is the eldest of family of five, Nalin Perera had shown his innate talent for music at a very early age. However Nalin Perera formed Marians in 1988. He was the head prefect of St. Mary's College then.

Picture by saman sri wedage

"We were students of St. Mary's College, so we were generally known as Marians. Brother Aloysius, our College principal gave this name to us," he said smiling.

Their first album "Marians Sangeetha Naade", which was released in 1990 sold out 500,000 copies.

They have released albums, "Marians Party Time Non-stop", "Marians Millennium non-stop", "Ahata Cool".

Their musical shows have captured massive audiences.

At present the band's line-up is Rosa on lead guitar, Ruwan on rhythm guitar, Chaminda on bass guitar, Madhuranga on keyboards, Hector on Saxophone, Subash on drums, Jayantha on percussion and Shiwantha on vocals. Nelum Perera, Nalin's brother is the manager of the outfit.

How do you do your bit?

"When we construct a song, we always think about our audience. Our media is the stage. We toured from village to village and made up a name for ourselves. At the early stage, we sang a lot of Baila songs. There are those who like listening to meaningful music, Nalin said.

Last year Marians we had their unplugged concert which became a great success for Nalin and his team. Nalin confessed that the person who inspired him most in the field was Sunil Perera, the leader of the 'Gypsies'.

"He is my hero. I was influenced by his gigs and he had been advising and guiding me. I like Rukantha Goonathilake's songs. They have music to play," he said.

High quality music which does justice to band. Nalin said he has a special liking to sentimental music adding he loves songs like 'Anjaleeka'. The artist has already released a solo album 'Bammarindu', in 2004. He is working on his new album.

Nalin said, "the new album will be named 'See my style' because it has the song 'Me Mage Hati'. The song is a club mix and has a catchy beat," he elaborated. Among other songs in the album there is 'London Girl'. "I plan to make the video for the song in London. The album will be released in January."

Rap songs have become quite popular. Do you like them?

"Rap is a music style among the other music styles. I believe that foreign influence is good. We belong to the world. Therefore we should share things," said Nalin.

"Rap is a kind of fast music. we have features of rap in our own styles. For example there is a small rapping part in my new song 'Me Mage Hati'," he said as he burst into laughter.

Jayantha, Lelum to launch CD

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

JAYANTHA and Lelum will introduce their maiden CD shortly with a selection of 20 original songs.

Jayantha, a key figure behind keyboards with a flair to compose music with the touch of Indian classical genre and Lelum, the unassuming percussionist with an inexhaustible smile who loves treating his music with a western touch, will be featured as singers in the new CD for the first time.

Jayantha used to play keyboards for Shakthi for a few years until he left the band to go solo to discover his potential as a music composer.

His approach to music is serious, and he is open to accept anything that is good without haggling as well as he is prepared to discard or criticize anything be it music or any other, if it should pose a threat against the country's culture, tradition or religion.

He is quite opposed to the commercial side of things and sees the excessive exposure of women to sell music videos as a bane that stand on the way of development of good music.

"It is a shame to learn that some so-called rap artistes spend more money on their videos than on their music," Jayantha said.

Lelum is more a fighter within with his creations than its outward appearance. An extremely conscious character with great many styles of music in his head, he has the ability to jump from one musical taste to another completely different musical style without any inconvenience.

Lelum enjoys rock music to a great extent, and is a discerning collector of masterpieces in music.

I met Lelum and Jayantha last week at a friendly gathering organised by the two for media personnel to announce their plans to released their maiden CD on January 8.

The CD will be introduced at the BMICH, Colombo with a live music show, they said. There were many music personalities present on this occasion of the calibre of Bandara Ehaliyagoda and Geethanath Kudaligama except one key figure, rather a stalwart in oriental music field.

His presence was much expected by most of the participants because this personality was none other than the father of Jayantha and Lelum.

I asked Jayantha about the situation and he said that they were not quite bothered about that. He was categorical in stating: "I and Lelum do not want to be in the spotlight by means of our father's popularity or his big name."

The duo have been avoiding singing their father's songs on popular platforms since they start performing.

"We are very strict on this aspect that we decided to take away our surname on the cover of our new album, " Jayantha added.

"We took a considerable time to produce the songs in the album because we wanted to give out something good, something that can quench the thirst of those who have been deprived of quality of musical phrases in popular songs," said Jayantha adding that he was thankful to his father's influence .

"Please do not expect our CD to be hip hop, rap or remix type of the modern day. Music for most of the songs have been composed by us. They have been treated without making use of computer software and studio over dopes".

The CD seem to contain songs with oriental touch, some songs by Lelum depicting the genres of slow rock, pop and jazz.