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Mintaka -makes its debut

The word went around that the new band in town, Mintaka was worth a second hearing and even more. The band now a regular feature at Qbaa on Wednesdays and Fridays is lead by the drummer Chris Dhason - a familiar figure with fans for whom the music of Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Blade, Sabbath, Zappa and groups in that scenario, was like fodder for strength.

Chris Dhason's musical journey as a drummer was, as described by him "a journey which started when I was old enough to make sense of the sounds that were emanating from our old Grundig radio and later as a drummer when I was involved in an Easter play with students from four Colombo schools by a Scottish missionery Gillian Todd.


Chris Dhason

I was 16 years old and to play songs from Jesus Christ Superstar Godspell and other rock based songs was far too inviting to refuse." This was the launching pad for Chris Dhason to form his first band The Beggars Opera, with fellow mates Bryan Knower on guitar, Ajitha Dissanayake on organ, whoever was available on bass and Chris on drums.

The scene gained more strength with Kumar Navaratnam and his band 'Graveyard' and Prince Jeyaratnam and 'The Unwanted Generation'. The music industry was facing a counter culture, emphasised more by the specialised programs on the National radio presented by Charmaine Jayawardene and her weekly Progressive 30 and selective music presented by Stephen Alagaratnam. And now with the passage of time Chris Dhason finds himself in a not so demanding scenario.

Question: You were in the early years here in Sri Lanka and even in the present associated with rock music and rock musicians. But down the road in your career a switch in music has come about. If you think there has been a switch when did it come about?

Answer: Playing in a rock band was good for the soul and great fun but my pockets were empty.

During this time although my reputation as a drummer grew, the money earning commercial bands were scared to touch me because of my "Rock" image.

But then the younger rockers themselves started commercial bands on their own and started gigging, mostly at parties and the famous "House Dances" at the time. These "Dances" were organised in somebody's house and youngsters who couldn't or were not allowed to go to Night Clubs and "Big" dances were able to attend and have a lot of fun.

These house dances nurtured an entire generation of musicians in the 70s.

Eventually my first break into the Big Time circuit was when I was invited to play with Miles Roche and 20th Century...

In the 80s there was a sudden "Brain Drain" of Sri Lankan musicians to Europe.

Almost all the top commercial bands left the country... In 1983 the band Uppekkha was formed with Manilal Perera on vocals, Stuart Mayo guitar, vocals, Dulip Gnanakan on bass, and Aruna Fernando on keyboards and me on drums.

In 1986 I travelled to Switzerland to join an African band called the "Leones" or (The Lions).

They were from Sierra Leone and my friend Maxi Fernando who was their keyboard player recommended me.

I lived in Europe for 13 years and played with many international bands as well as a couple of Sri Lankan bands, Purple Rain and Fame.

During this time I toured many countries including Germany (where I lived for 11 years), Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Holland, Norway, France and England.

In 1999 I returned to Sri Lanka and in 2000 was a founder member of the band Wildfire along with my long time buddy and bandleader Derek Wikramanayake with who I have had a long association until I formed my own band Mintaka in March 2014.

Q: This new group Mintaka you are now fronting, how different in repertoire is it from the one Derek Wickramanayake was heading?

A: Well, Mintaka is different in many aspects. Wildfire was a rock based pop band with some country thrown in and functioned in a similar fashion to how British "Pub" bands do. Mintaka on the other hand, is a band that performs what I call "Feel Good" music. The repertoire consists of Classic soul hits from legends such as Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross, Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, Gladys Knight and the Pips to hits from Modern artistes such as Pharrel Williams, Bruno Mars, Pink and Alicia Keys.

We are able to do this kind of music and perform it convincingly because of the incredibly talented musicians in the band.

Smooth, R&B vocals by young Sheam Dean who performs with such energy and finesse, Terry Bertus has so much soul and power she literally brings the roof down with her renditions of classic soul tunes. And in the duets, their voices blend so well people are simple overwhelmed.

The band itself is tight, punchy and funky and when we play the vibe is great! There's my old buddy from Wildfire, Nilantha Ariyaratne a leading bassist in town.

VirajPerera is a piano teacher and extremely versatile keyboard player with an interesting touch.

Our present guitarist is Ramesh Nonis who is making way for guitarist Duleep Chanmugam (who has been living in Los Angeles for nearly 20 years and is a Guitar institute alumni). The newest member of the band is an amazingly talented young saxophone player, Janith Gamalath.

He has played with the bands Glory and A-Team before joining Mintaka and completes the textural sound of the band and is capable of taking the band to another level entirely.

The one similarity in both bands that is Wildfire and Mintaka is that they both posses that x element that can propel an audience to a rapturous state...

Q: You are involved in composing material for corporate establishments, do you still do it and do you compose material for the band Mintaka?

A: Yes, in fact I do. The first of my songs to get recognition was when A rainbow out of sight was chosen to be the official theme song for the 2002 ICC Championship Trophy hosted in Srilanka. Then we are Sri Lankan was the official corporate theme song for Srilankan Airlines for many years and in early 2005 a video was made with a Tri-Lingual version and was sold on board by Sri Lankan and the proceeds went to children affected by the tsunami.

This was a wonderful contribution by a collaboration of many musicians towards a devastated community ravaged by the Tsunami.

At present I am into world music having taught myself to play all sorts of exotic percussion instruments. I have also toured Norway and Bangladesh as a percussionist with World music artist Kohinoor.

I'm in the process of recording a CD for a corporate entity right now.

The forthcoming CD has some international artistes such as Hussain Jiffrey on bass, Andrew Oh on sax and flute as well as some very talented local artists such as, Dulip Gnanakan, Kumar De Silva, Pabalu, Primal Liyanage and Chitral Somapala.

Q: Coming back to your forte - rock how do you place our young musicians expression of rock, is it creative and successful or do you think that there is more that you should reflect in their music?

A: Rock music is alive and kicking in Sri Lanka sure enough, although it lives under a different name today... Heavy Metal. This I suppose is a natural worldwide evolution that takes place phase by phase. Before that it was Progressive Rock and Alternate Rock.

Heavy Metal comes in different shades of grey with labels like, Black Metal, Trash Metal, Death Metal, Speed Metal etc...

The young musicians of the day have access to all these forms of music and cultures through You Tube and DVDs. Some of the bands I have heard are very good and maintain a pretty high standard.

Some bands such as Stigmata have a hard core following with the band putting out many CDs of their own music and touring internationally as well.

However, it is not easy for Asian rock bands to break thru in to a market which is predominantly white, although I did see an Indian metal Band perform at the annual Inferno Metal festival in Oslo in 2011.

Q: Do you feel restricted in playing with Mintaka or are you happy with what you are doing now in music?

A: I have over the years learned to live the moment to the best of my ability. I am not only on a musical journey but aware of my journey in life and the many things that are there to learn and savour from... I am leading an interesting band called Mintaka.

Mintaka is the western-most star on the belt of Orion and stands for positive vibration and good fortune... and I am also writing and recording my own music. Yes, I am happy with what I'm doing now.

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