Crafting lyrics - not bound to borders

By Dilshan Boange

Creativity is a word that defines how humankind seeks to achieve expression that is meant to be more than mere direct communication. Creativity is what makes the world of art and letters flourish. And in our ever diversifying world of human activity creativity is a cornerstone in fields that are for the purpose of trade and commerce as well. It is in this light that I sought to explore what would be at the centre of the outlook of a person whose creative pulses serve both art and commerce.

I first met Lakmina Ranasinghe several years ago at a friend's video production studio. He was then a young school-leaver who wrote a Sinhala pop romance song named Nile nimnaye (In the Nile valley). His skill as a writer with a creative vein turned him into a contributor to Sinhala newspapers and periodicals and putting his abilities as a lyricist to serve art as well as marketing communications.

Today, Lakmina is a Sinhala copywriter at an advertising agency where his skills as a creative writer have contributed to many successful advertising campaigns. As a lyricist and copywriter working in advertising Lakmina is all too aware of how creativity is a fundamental essential for the advertising industry to thrive.

Between art and commerce

"Lyrics are after all for people. Advertising too is for people. It's about knowing what people respond to in terms of their emotions. Sometimes we try to bring in ideas alien to our cultural senses. This can happen in music just as much as advertising," said Lakmina opening the discussion on how his experience as a lyricist has worked in advertising. And Lakmina is one who got some notable credit when he wrote the lyrics for the official song of the ICC T-20 World Cup held in Sri Lanka last year. The song which gained islandwide fame for its catchy pulse pumping beat, titled Vissai visse was written by this young lyricist.

I asked him about the song Nile nimnaye and what went to work within him when he wrote it. It was a time much before he became a part of the world of advertising. "That was a song based on love and romance. That was the theme. But within it are desires for sexual and carnal pleasure. Like Aristotle said, man by nature is a political animal. So as I see it, romance and love are cultural constructs. Sex and the desire for bodily pleasure, is what is really man's natural motives that are bonded with love and romance. So, in that sense love and romance are results of man becoming civilised you could say."

It was obvious that much thought had been at work in his mind when he introspectively spoke of that first love song he wrote and was produced as a music video which enjoyed broadcast time on TV several years ago, and is still watchable on YouTube. "Our desires to achieve our goals of sexual gratification go through several filters. It can't be put out as a raw feeling into society according to society's conventions. So there is that conceptual premise that was in my mind when I think of what was at the heart of motivating the idea of that song."

The 'Nile image'

Generally, to a Sri Lankan, the image of the Nile River in Egypt wouldn't be what would trigger in the mind as a metaphor that arises very spontaneously to our senses. When asked about how the image of the world's longest river became part of his scheme, Lakmina responded thus -"That was my imagination at work. The Nile was a fantasy to me. It was a conceptually crafted facet. I wanted it to evoke the feeling of a beautiful, exotic and alluring picture to the listener. But of course what I know of that river is also through literature and media."

Lakmina revealed how he crafted his literary devices for this song. "At that time I thought the lyrics should brim with literary values as advocated by intellectuals. I think I wanted to be a servant to that traditionalism at that point and tried to be too profound. This was several years ago of course. That was the reason I wanted to craft the lyrics in such a way that there were 'theoretical foundations' to the ideas that came from the lyrics.

I think I wanted my song lyrics to be acceptable by the theoretical premises set by intellectuals." Perhaps he now feels his piece was more attuned to subscribe to pleasing the intelligentsia and art critics as opposed to what strikes the pulses of the youth of today for whom one may suppose the song was written in terms of anticipated listenership.

Innovation through deviations

"For innovation to happen I feel there has to be radical deviations. One cannot always be a servant to tradition." The vein of a creative rebellion gaining voice? The outlooks Lakmina bears now are ones that have changed to suit what he believes is a creativity that isn't for the purpose of maintaining the boundaries of literary expression and committed to that purpose alone. He expressed that language styles can create an impact on a listener and that by breaking out of the rigid conventionalities of language one can push the boundaries for creativity and get the audience to think afresh and imagine new images. And thus he arrived at how his creativity links with his profession as a copywriter.

"Advertising is about new ideas. Adopting contemporary vernacularism as part of expression and not being subservient to literary expression, to the rules of literary expression, we can create a bigger impact and make it more flavourful," Lakmina said and then went on to speak of how the highly popular song which caught on with cricket fans from coast to coast was created. Although he is accredited as the lyricist who wrote the song Vissai visse, Lakmina in all humility feels it should be considered as a team work achieved by the agency he works at.

Cricket frenzy

"The mood, the image, the pulse we wanted to project through this song had to be infectious and go viral! It had to be one that would be a hit with international audiences. A national identity was not what we wanted to highlight through this song. It had to flow with the idea of a 'cricket frenzy' ". Lakmina said it was a song which was scripted to the 'track' the 'tune' and not in the traditional way where the music is developed according to the lyrics.

Saying that the tune and music had to feel like a western upbeat song he admitted the music got pre-created and that his creativity had to work on how to capture the lyrics that could 'deliver the goods'. "The focus was then to work on words that would speak to the pulse of cricket fans. There was no age limit to think of but the mindset that responds to the imagery of cricket."

Crafting lines on the basis of limericks and rhymes would be a good approach in terms of 'language devices' Lakmina had thought. His idea had been to make it 'tonally' touch the pulses of cricket fans across 'lingual borders'. This couldn't be a song limited to Sinhala speakers. Yet, it also had to have a tonal identity as from Sri Lanka.

Lakmina said his vision for the 'lyrical mould' was to make it 'airtight' as a set of lyrics that isn't 'recyclable'. "The essence of this song is such that you can't reuse it for another event. It has a special base bound to the subject it deals with. And it's not just the lyrics alone. The melody, the singing style all come together to make it a work that builds the picture of cricket and the event in particular. I'm truly glad that it worked with international audiences and became a hit in countries where cricket is watched although Sinhala isn't spoken."

Scripting for vocalists

Lakmina's talents for scripting lyrics do not now only serve the world of marketing communications. He has also recently written two songs for Sri Lankan Sinhala hip-hop singer 'Chinthy', which he feels is proof that his talents are being appreciated by the local entertainment industry. When I asked him if he sees himself as being entirely enmeshed to the digital age generation his response was surprising to say the least. "If given the opportunity I would love to write a song for a great person such as Pundit W. Amaradeva. I would think of it as a great honour if I'm given such a privilege." He believes he hasn't streamlined his thinking to become a lyricist who can write lyrics that solely address his age group. He knows how different chords strike different notes. And the mettle of a talented lyricist would be to become diverse in writing words that speak across generations, complementing the melodies and language styles that speak of how each generation projects its cultural leanings, and identity.