Wagon Park - Jingy Bingy Boys!

by Nilma Dole

Catching up with the guys of Wagon Park was a pretty interesting experience. Ridding mosquitos at their practise house somewhere in Dehiwela, I manage to muster some courage to talk to these rocking boys.

Wagon Park members include Buddhima De Mel who handles vocals and harmonica (when required), Milinda 'Milo' Batuwanthudave rips the lead guitar, Mohamad 'Fira' Firash thumps the bass guitar, Mahesh Aponsu the drum slammer and Maduwan 'Madda' Rangika is the guitarist. Quite a brilliant band who performed at the ONSTAGE finals, they were tipped to win but the judges decided otherwise. Sumedha Nuwan acts as their General Manager.

Reminiscing their collaboration, Buddhi and Fira initially hooked up at college but only after they left did they start a real band in February 2007. Fira hails from Maldives and Buddhi played before as a bassist for Carnage and Bikini Bottom. The rest of the guys connected at their hometown in Moratuwa and then hey presto - Wagon Park was born.

About coining Wagon Park, Buddhi remembers, "Near our college there was this car park and it was sponsored by a reputed car manufacturing company, so we took the word 'car' out of car park and 'wagon' out of the car brand and made Wagon Park!".

Their music genre reflects more of psychedelic rock from the 60s which the Dudes tell me are all about freedom. "It is music about peace and harmony," highlights Buddhi. Their influences encompass 'The Doors', 'Led Zeppelin', 'The Beatles' and more bands of that age.

They've been versatile in producing their own kind of mayhem where their original music revolves around "Life experiences, expanding the mind, a tad bit of hyper stuff and adult contemporary music. People like to dance to music and we cater to all generations," emphasizes Buddhi.

When producing music, everyone comes with their individual creations but at the end they all jam together effectively. 'Jingy Bingy Blues' is a more popular song that Milo wrote in his room in November 2006. "I was poising off over the past and I decided to message it all in the song. We had a blues thing going during those days", said Milo.

They are hopeful to release their debut album titled 'Get Stoned' by this year with cool songs like 'Sugar Cane Flavoured Blunt', 'Baby Blue in my Room', 'Ray of Love' and 'Flat'.

Even though Wagon Park are careered, music will be their main stay. Buddhi mentions, "I like 'liberal arts'. Milo wants to sail away and Fira has been involved in studies. Mahesh likes to be a mechanic and acoustic boy Maddha is an online news writer.

They are happy to say that their family have been very supportive. As for advice, Wagon Park says, "Have fun, don't hate any type of music and do what you want to do as a band". They say that no matter what happens, the fans will always like you for originality".