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| Sunday, 31 July 2005 |
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Charles Mark :
Dance vibes and more... by Mahes Perera
What's it like your second album? "We are having ten tracks on the album and including dance tracks to be used in night clubs since there is a demand for this kind of music. Some people have taken the liberty of re-mixing some of our tracks from our first album Surangana. I would have preferred if they had got our okay - but it didn't happen. However, we are playing around with the tracks and we are including Krishan Maheson with his slick rapping in our second album." Are the songs all composed by you?
"The songs were composed by me and Ranga Dassanayake of Hit Factory and the lyrics were by Thanuja and Kelum Srimal. We are collaborating with other artistes on this album. Our themes for the songs are quite a mix. There are love songs and also songs on the conflicts between races. We are focusing on ethnic harmony which is vital in our lives today. As for the rhythms we have based some of our songs on Sri Lankan folk rhythms mixed with r&b and some pop tracks for club dance." How does hip hop stand in today's music context? "Hip hop will continue for a long period of time since everyone breaking into the music scene wants to do hip hop. But looking at it critically there could be a tendency for hip hop to fade off. There are certain groups who are successful in this field. When you look back it was Iraj and Rukshan Dole who started hip hop on a serious note and till today Iraj is strong in the field. And the secret perhaps is that they are professional in performance. There are some groups I feel who need to be more professional on stage and they will sure be successful. Sri Lankan hip hop is better than the product of the Indian market. That is why Bathiya & Santush's Neththara and Iraj & Ranidu's - Ahankara Nagara are doing well. I like the way Bathiya & Santush look at music and the way they market it. To date they have succeeded in keeping their fans with them." Charles Mark have the unique distinction of not only winning the Universal Talent Europe last year, but also three other international awards that makes them special. Last year, they were also successful in carrying off the Best Performer Award in the Asthana Music Festival Kazakhstan. In 2003 they entered the Shanghai Music Festival and won the Excellent New Singer Award while at Kazakhstan in the Voice of Asia contest in 2003 Charles Mark, at the start of their music career, were placed in third place. In a space of two years the duo have forged ahead with a special creative identity that has won them popularity. With the release of your second album could your fans expect a concert? "Yes we are planning a concert and we have moved into rehearsals. We are hoping to feature a foreign artiste whom we are confident will make an impact on our scene. As a future move we are looking at collaboration, to take our music to international avenues." You mentioned that Charles Mark is prepared to help young new talent to record their music, has this happened? "We just completed an album for Sarah Beute. She is just fourteen years and full of creative ideas. She took some of the tracks to England and they were amazed at the rapper Krishan's singing. They couldn't believe he was a Sri Lankan. I'm including one of her tracks in our album. We are under management to Michelle Beute and our events are handled by Jozaya. Young talent could reach us at [email protected] Charles Mark have added two singers Travina and Roshni to their act and as Rukshan mentions they are making arrangements to meet new producers on the international market to open up more doors in their career. "Sad to say in our country there is a low response from people who could support such a cause for development in creative music," say Charles Mark who are committed to their creativity in music and determined to hit the global stages. |
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Meeting up with Charles Mark was quite a task.
The Grand Prize winners at the Universal Talent Europe 2004 held in
Czechoslovakia were either busy singing for a tsunami concert or in the
studio working out on chord progressions and harmonies for their new album
which will be on the record racks soon. The grapevine reveals that this
their second album is going to be quite a winner, so we tracked down
Rukshan Mark to spill the beans. 