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| Sunday, 15 February 2004 |
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Hitting a high, cutting a disc... by Umangi de Mel
"Well the first one 'Bring back the sun' was released in '99 and was really good in lots of ways. When it came out lots of bands weren't doing alternate rock music let alone releasing albums and everyone at that time questioned the release as it wasn't the genre of music in Sri Lanka at that time", says Anil Balasooriya who leads Independent Square. He continues nonchalantly, "but strangely enough it was the most natural thing to do for us to reach the next step in becoming professional musicians". Anil says the response for their debut album was quite a positive one. "The launch concert was at the Rock Cafe and we weren't sure how the album sales would go which is why we took about 500 CDs in a little box", he continues, "we weren't even sure about the crowd turn out. I can remember that night when we were walking towards rock cafe there was a lot of vehicles and we thought those folks were there probably for some other event but surprise, surprise, they had come to hear us! Apparently the world of our band had got around and the fact that we did originals too had got around", he adds that it just overwhelmed them knowing that a huge group of people wanted to hear what we had to say, "they weren't there to judge us either, but they had come to see us performing", Anil says. That being the birth of their debut album way back in '99 which was sold out, Independent Square predicts the possibilities of it being re-released for the second time, "we sold over 2500 copies. Having won 'On Stage' in '99 we were egged on to put out an album. We were judged by our peers during the show which was a real challenge. And we didn't know what it took to win nevertheless we won and the feeling was great", glorifies Anil. Speaking about their second album Five and a half, Anil says that it was the most natural thing to do, "We've all been serious song writers. Everybody puts some kinda piece into the puzzle and put it together ye know," he explains. Independent Square has recorded most of the songs in 2000 yet the completion of the album has been delayed since most of the members had to leave the country and the album apparently sat in the studio for about two years.' "We were busy auditioning for new members and started gigging again. Since Sri Lanka doesn't have recording infrastructure, we weren't really pushed to go ahead with the album release. But in 2002, I walked in to Shobi's studio and had him listen to some of our tracks. He liked what he heard and he told us that we should put it out to the crowds and I, too believed that it was high time we released the album." Anil goes on to add that he firmly believes in the fact that everything happens for a reason. "There's a plan meant for everything and everyone cause as much as we hated waiting for two years to release the album, looking back on it now, I think it was the best that could've happened for, our minds were fresh when we walked into the studio in 2002, and we were more accomplished as musicians. We saw things we never did when we were in the studio two years ago". He talks about the "5 1/2" launch at Clancy's in December 2002, "we played for a full house that night and sold about 400 copies. So far the album's sold over 2,000 copies and is still available at most outlets around Colombo. Coming back to the present, Anil says, with the dawn of the New Year, the band has produced almost 200 new songs. Having written the songs last year, the guys are currently in the studio recording pieces for their third studio album which, according to them, is still unnamed. "However it's pretty special to us which includes songs that I've written together with Malinda who incidently wasn't in the original line up, when we kicked things off in '90's", he says adding that they're pretty curious to see how things will turn out, "I guess we'll all find out in August this year". Getting back to "5 1/2" Anil says that it's been a special album for him since it's the last album he recorded with the original line up of the band. The album's a blend of weird tracks happy ones as well as dark and morbid tracks, "the fifth one called 'Sensodyne' has to be the most weird song. Every time we performed it live, there'll at least be a handful of people who questions us why we sing about a brand of toothpaste. The truth is that it has no relevance to toothpaste, what so ever.
'A song in E minor' has been another special song for them. Anil says that it deals with the importance of being who you are and not letting someone make your decisions for you. "It also has some cracking guitar work done by OP. The other song that I often listen to is 'Five and a half', the title track. It basically revolves around looking at life through the eyes of a 5 1/2 year old kid", Anil says. The album offers some tongue 'n cheek singles as well. "Namely 'Cummonova' which revolves around a man being propositioned by a prostitute. Although many people have told me that they've got lots of different meanings from the song, hey, I'm not about to complain". The entire album is a journey, says Anil, "I believe that it's a journey that was to be absorbed from track one which is mourning after that deals with a repressed society and escaping from chains that bind you down to the end track which is a jazz ballad that is simple but a dark and melancholy love song", he explains in a nut-shell. According to Anil, everything that Independent Square has done from day one has been about expression and creativity. 'Every single one of us in the band could be doing a certain number of things with our lives right now but we choose to continue writing and performing music for two reasons. One is the people we come to know through our music have been a great source of inspiration and the other one is like I said before, everything and everyone has a plan and I believe we've been put on this earth to do what we do and I can't imagine doing anything else". |
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| Produced by Lake House |
Anil, Malinda, Sunil, Gune, and OP, the five Independent figures make
their journey a more interesting one having had the break to release their
second album, "Five and a half" which stole the "rock-lovin"
hearts for the second time where Independent Square's concerned.
The story with the title is that one day Ajith (our guitarist at that
time) was jamming a few chords with me. And he said that he's got the
chord progression for a great song. He wanted me to come up with the
lyrics and a vocal melody line but there was a catch; he wanted it to be
called 'Sensodyne' and his reason was that each time he played the song,
all he could think of was the word 'Sensodyne'. Listening to the track
now, I think it's all turned out pretty damn well".
