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| Sunday, 29 September 2002 |
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by Umangi de Mel
Paying a crusade to the scout movement which "turned them into manhood through simplest ways of life and taught them to think out of the norm," the two who first met at the Colombo camporee in 1992, will meet at another Camporee on October 5, 2002. Called the "October Jamboree", the show which goes on the boards at the Royal College Sports Complex at 7 p.m. promises the thrill of an utterly adventurous show-biz camp with high-tec monkey ropes and high ropes strung up on stage. For Bathiya and Santush, October Jamboree, organized by 'The Group 76' of Royal College in aid of constructing a building for the cubs and scouts of the college, will be yet another mode of showing that their "grooming has paid off." A cool breeze sails through the cafeteria at the Royal College Sports Complex. "We met at the Colombo Camporee back in 1992, as scouts", Bathiya kicks off. "Scouting has had a lot to do with our present lifestyle and our career, which is why we want to pay tribute to the scouting crusade in Sri Lanka", Santush continues. The subject seems to have triggered off a lot of cherished memories. "We learnt the most vital lessons one has to learn as scouts; planning, organizing, innovating, and individual character building", says Santush. "The showbiz aspect of life was shown through Scouting", Bathiya agrees. The duo who seem to have introduced a whole new era to the local music arena is getting ready to hail what showed them the pathway to their triumph.
"It was Scouting that taught us stuff that couldn't be given to us through the academic side. To be flexible and how much you learn just by being flexible. The making of a man or the transformation of a boy into manhood through the simplest ways of life, is done through Scouting and exploring", says Santush adding the fact that it enlightened them to be creative. "We learnt to think out of the norms and that grooming has paid off". Talking about the show in October, they say that it will be a walk down memory lane. "It is called `October Jamboree', an adrenaline pumping, utterly adventurous showbiz camp, and you have got to come and see it for yourself", they insist. "The whole atmosphere will be very high-tech and adventurous with monkey ropes and high ropes on stage". The show will be held on October 5, 2002 at 7 pm, the Royal College Sports Complex which is actually organized by `The Group of 76' of Royal College to construct a building for the cubs and scouts of Royal College.
Do they write their own lyrics? "Well, we compose our own music but when it comes to lyrics, sometimes what we do is, we write the lyrics in English and get them re-written in Sinhalese. Vasantha Dukgannarala, Samanala Miyuru, Nilar Cassim and Kingsley Ratnayake are the other lyricists who help us with their talent", Bathiya reveals. Now that they are working with SONY Entertainments, are they bound? Or is the music being influenced? Bathiya grins, "Not at all; when they sign up an artiste, they give priority to the artiste's preference. They have given us 100% freedom to roll and they do the rest". Santush agrees, "Total internal support, exposure and financial back up and branding is done by them". They say that despite the fact that they are under contract to SONY records, all the publishing is done by the Universal Music Publisher. Any accusations regarding the re-mixing of authentic tunes? "Well people vary, and we are very much concerned about authenticity. But at the same time, we want to depict the true Sri Lankan spirit in our music 'cos we are proud to be Sri Lankan", Bathiya points out. "If you know what you are doing and if you know what you are doing is right, then I think you should go ahead with it. We have many great Sri Lankan musicians backing us up on the issue", Santhush says.
"You have got to compromise if you are to find that particular chemistry that blends the different cultures and creates the relationship between the tune and the audience", Santush states. "Well the bottom line is that we want to show gratitude to the movement that won us many victories and enlightened us as mature human beings", both say in unison. "And we are doing pretty good among the lot of artistes who project the same image". |
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| Produced by Lake House |
Their
catchy out-of-the-norm music created a monolithic milestone for the young
musicians of Sri Lanka. But, for Bathiya and Santush, that unique tang of
crispy freshness running through their music, is redolent of the healthy
rigours learnt of life while camping around bonfires and chorusing under
stars in scouting.
"Actually
Scouting is like the gateway to character building, it's great fun through
which, you learn an immense lot of principles that will carry you through
life", Santush says. Scouting seems to have played a significant role
in their lives, and the conversation still seems to be
nostalgic.."Camping out, crooning, performing, and having a blast in
the night around the camp fire..it's an awesome feeling of wonderment and
showbiz. You catch a glimpse of the imminent responsibilities at the core
of youth", Bathiya goes on.
Turning
back to their career as musicians, Bathiya and Santush talk about their
work. "Our first CD, `Vasnthaye,' was a creative piece and the second
one `Life' was more in the technical side as we were on a quest to master
the technical aspect which would bring us on par with the rest of the
world". A curt pause follows but Bathiya gets chatty again, "And
we did it, we got techno, but bounced back to being creative with our
third CD `Tharunyaye'," Santush takes over, "It took us one and
half years to compose the music for our third CD", he says adding
,"Sri Lanka is a music driven market. Sri Lankans are very much on
the creative side and so far we have been promoting our songs to the
masses and we are planning to promote our songs up-market".
"We
have released 45 songs among which four to five bear the ethnic beat and
the rest are our own creations", Santhush continues.."As Sri
Lankans, we have been doing music for hundreds of years but we were not
inspired by the international audience. The unique Sri Lankan style was
found very astonishing all over the world but that was that. They couldn't
really relate to it as they didn't know the crux of the raw thing",
he asks. "We have always taken the raw Sri Lankan essence and that
has been dished out as local or ethnic talent, all around the world, which
obviously has not been understood 100% by the international
audience", he says. Bathiya joins in, " What we should do is to
build that relationship and think creatively to find the chemistry that
melts the differences so that our music is understood by the entire
nation".
