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| RANGA Interview/Photo by Black Dog Bone Sri Lankan Hip Hop has a different sound. It’s not like the regular Hip Hop I’ve heard before. We have kind of adjusted our music into Asian, Sri Lankan hip hop. We’re more into like pop and hip hop in between. We also have an Asian flavor and into that we bring in Sri Lankan, ethnic instruments and sounds. So if you go and play one of our tracks in America, a producer there would say definitely this is not hip hop. But we have the feel. The same kind of feel, same kind of punch in that, same kind of style in that but maybe the flavor would different. That’s the whole unique thing about Sri Lankan rap. In America there are thousands of rappers doing the American style. If you’re going to market our music there, you need to bring something different. Definitely. Now see all the new songs coming in. They have this Indian flavor— Indian samples, Indian tunes, they have a different kind of flavor. Now if you take a 100% hip hop or rap track, it’s kind of monotonous for me. It will have a theme behind it and the words are very strong, but for us to understand it, it’s very difficult. In Sri Lanka we respond to more melody. Yeah. The African American culture is different and it cannot come 100% into our culture. That’s why we kind of change it and do our own sound, trying to mix it with it. That’s the positive thing, to sound original, not like everybody else. Yes, that’s the positive thing. Even if we can do a track in America, like if we can get somebody from America to come here and do a track, it would be massive. Get some producer from America to come to Sri Lanka? Yeah, some producer to come here and do it, because actually some people don’t even know where Sri Lanka is. If we say Sri Lanka, they think it’s India. But we’re not India, we have our own kind of tones and our culture, and we have a sound that we can say is Sri Lankan. So it hasn’t gone international. There are a few tracks played in different countries, but nothing 100% produced in different countries using our sounds. The international audience would really love Bathiya and Santhush because they blend the ethnic beats and Sri Lankan folk music with hip hop. People in America are not looking for another typical rapper. They have all the rappers they need. They’re looking for something different. A sound related to rap but still original like rappers rapping in different languages, different accents, traditional drumbeats. It’s the same kind of rap culture, but it’s like your own. I think that’s the way it should be. Don’t you say? Definitely. We should include more of our ethnic sounds, folk songs and our own drumbeats. When you make a track do you have people play the instruments? Yes, I don’t do 100% samples. There are a few samples I use. But other than that I use our ethnic instruments. Like say if I want somebody to play the flute, I definitely get someone to play it because I know that no matter how you play it on a keyboard, you won’t get that same quality, that same feel. What I do mainly when I do the bass track, the rhythm section, the drums, I’ll use samples. But on top of that if I want to get Sri Lankan drummers I’d get them here and play it. Because then only you get the real feel on the song. Otherwise if you get a sample it’s like the same thing repeated and I don’t like that. No matter how you get it, it doesn’t sound right. The spirit is not there. It’s all rigid and mechanical. Yeah. There are different ways of playing and different techniques they use and it’s all natural. When you get the drummers, do they play the whole song or do you get a sample from it and sample it? I get them to play the whole song, When you get a drummer sometimes it’s very difficult to get them to play to the BPM, the tempo. Because Sri Lankan drums are not played to a BPM. It’s not mechanical and it varies and it’s very difficult. There are 2 or 3 people who can play it exactly because they have trained. If not, if we get a real good player he might not play to the beat. What I do is that I get them to play the full song, but there are times when I kind of adjust the tempo, the right BPM. That we have to do later in post-production. Who are some of the artists you produce? I have produced for Iraj, I’ve done tracks for Bathiya & Santhush’s previous albums, and a couple of new artists like Bone Killa and a Krishan. He’s really famous in Canada and India, his record was released under Sony. There are a lot of new bands coming in. They want to go more into hip hop and they like that beat. So I produce for many people, many new talented artists. How do you work it out? People come and say they want to have a few beats or a whole album? If we do a hip hop track, I get them to sit with me and do the beat first. That’s the main thing in a hip hop track, because hip hop is mainly into the beat. We have to get the right groove. Once you get the groove it’s easy to do a hip hop track. Hip hop is more like a cut and paste job, because the same thing is repeated. But in between, I try and vary a bit, not keep the same thing. When it comes to verse, there’d be a different section with a different instrumentation coming in. I kind of change it in the middle. Normally if you get a hip hop track, it would be the same thing repeated, and there’ll be a lot of people rapping on top of that and singing. When I do a track, I always change the music here and there. That’s how I keep my unique identity. Are there a lot of producers that you feel are coming up with their own sound the way you are coming up with yours? Iraj has come up with his own style. He is a producer too. And Bathiya has a different style. He’s not into hip hop, he’s more into pop and Asian flavors. There are people who are more into gangsta like Bone Killa. He’s very into gangsta rap, like typical American West Coast. That’s the kind of hip hop he does. He doesn’t do pop. He’s straight into hip hop. It would be interesting to have a hip hop album that is totally done in Sinhalese or Tamil. It will give a unique flavor with the sounds of our words. Definitely, but the problem is that it’s very hard to market it. In Sri Lanka we tried. I think Krishan did his album in Tamil. It was hip hop, more into rap. It didn’t sell very well in Sri Lanka, but it did sell in India a lot. That’s the problem we’re having. If we do a hip hop Sinhalese album it may be targeted to a very small crowd. I have heard Sinhalese pop artists like Roshan Fernando, they have rapping in their songs. They sing in Sinhalese, but the rapping is in English. Why wouldn’t we want to put a rapper rapping in Sinhalese in a Sinhalese song? People like Roshan Fernando, they’re kind of like trying to come into this scene. This is not their style. Lots of people got their songs screwed because of putting rap into a Sinhalese song, because it’s not matching and the way they rap is wrong. Some of the wording is very Sinhalese type. It’s like “Singlish” it’s not English or Sinhala, so it’s not right. It’s better to get some good English rapper and do it. If not, they should do it in Sinhala because they should not always try to mix the styles. In African rap and Brazilian rap, they do it uniquely. They would rap around 8 bars or 16 bars and then they would have a beautiful melody sung in their own language. The rap is also done in their language, and then they would sing. We could do that kind of thing. Say you produce the song, and you have a rapper rapping in Sinhalese and the chorus is melodic and in Sinhalese and then go back into rap. But keep the rap parts smaller. Some of the rappers rap 32 bars, 16 bars. We could keep it to maybe 8 to 10 bars rap. The verse would be in rap, then you have the chorus. It’s not like I’m trying to encourage rap in Sri Lanka, but it is happening. It would be better if we do it our own way. If you go even to the village, the way they dress, it has a big hip hop influence. They don’t even know about rap, but the clothing is all hip hop style. You should see when you go upcountry, there are people who dress like gangstas. They’re wearing gold chains and all the hip hop gear. It’s a different culture. It’s a whole different world. Yeah, that will help actually if they produce it. Like if they want to do a rap in a song, that will actually help it. Like Bone Killa, he’s a very talented rapper. You should listen to some of his songs. He writes his own lyrics. He’s very talented. He knows how to write, he knows how to rap, the way he sings and his pronunciation is all right. I worked on his album. What is your background? Your father was a musician? My father was a very famous musician, Sarath Dassanayake. He was into music for films mainly, from the 1970’s. He was one of the pioneers who changed the music background in Sri Lanka. Up until the 1970’s we had Indian influence in Sri Lanka. Like all the Indian songs copied, even translated into Sinhala and straight away copied. We had that kind of a music background. But my father, he was one of the first people who changed that to Sri Lankan music. In the 1970’s many films in which he had done music are still popular, the music. Still they play it on TV and radio and it has something that’s ours. And he worked at the Government Education Department as a Deputy Education Director and I think he had produced more than 160 films. He has done music on those films. Was he writing the instrumental music or lyrics? He did both the songs and also composed the background music. He did the songs first and then the music for the films. He probably worked with people like Amaradeva, Nanda Malini, and Jothipala? Yes, definitely. He has done songs for all the artists in Sri Lanka, and he has done over 5000 songs. One day you might put out a double CD box set with all his songs? There are albums selling with his songs in them. I’m trying to collect all his songs, but it’s very hard to find and I’m trying to make a life review. Some people are doing that. I’ve got 3 CD’s of NAME and it’s amazing. I love those albums because you get the whole feeling of that one lyricist or composer. You probably grew up with a lot of music. Of course. Once I finished my A Levels I started joining his orchestra. I was playing keyboards in the orchestra and I got many experiences from that, like how to do a score for a film and how they arrange the music and the orchestra and the studio. That’s how I got into this field. I wanted to be a musician, but once I got to the studio I thought this is better than orchestra. Then I wanted to get into sound engineering and that’s how I came here. That’s why I’m here today. I went to the States and studied sound engineering and came back and then only I started this studio. I’m in the music field, but more into sound engineering and productions. When you work with rappers, do you come up with the melody? Yes, and the beat. We get together and create the beat first. After that I create the tune. And the rapping part, he does that. Then I take a rough cut of his rap because I need to get the track length right. After I get the rough take I start producing the track. Then I know exactly where the rap comes in, so the tunes and the instrumentation, I create it. Normally how long does it take you to finish one track?I take about 5 working days or a week definitely.I think that if a rap artist from American comes to Sri Lanka it would be interesting for you to work with him. I would really like that. Would you charge a lot of money? I mean if you compare with a different country, it’s nothing. In Sri Lanka I charge around Rs.75000 per track. If you get somebody else to come it would be nothing for them. Rs. 75000 is just $750. If you do a song in America, it’ll cost you a lot more. It’ll cost you around $5000. The reason for that is I want to keep a standard. There are many people who do songs and new people coming in and they do it for different prices, but I keep my standards so I’m keeping a flat figure. Right now what are you working on?Right now we’re working on two albums. It’s more R&B and pop. And also I’m working on this Bathiya & Santhush album. We’ve finished around 6 hours now, 4 more to go. Do you see that Sri Lankan rap is changing and getting more original—getting more of our identity? Yes, but all the new artists coming in, they start with what’s going on in America. That’s natural. That’s how they start. Ultimately they want to get their music done through somebody like me or some other producers, and when they come here I always tell them, you should have your own identity. If you copy the same thing you’ll become a carbon copy. It’ll be a copy. When artists come here they say they want to do a hit and they want to be on the air. When I say to them they should have their own identity, they like the idea. Sometimes there are bands that come up with new ideas and they know what they’re doing like when they compose. They have different arrangements. There are a few bands that I’ve produced for like that. I feel like we are at a time where, especially for the Colombo crowd, the music is changing. But it hasn’t gelled yet. They’re trying, but they hasn’t come into their own. Do you see that? I definitely see it. The reason I think is that in Sri Lanka, we don’t have a good structure for music. If you take the whole music industry in Sri Lanka, we don’t have a good record company or a record label that can support musicians. That’s why there are only a very few people who are in business today. If you take hip hop, there are about 7 or 8 bands majorly operating. There are lots of young talented people, but there is no company that can offer them the right services. And there is no record label that can promote their music and support them. It’s very sad. A lot of people, when they’re 17 or 18 they rap. Then by the time they are 21, they get a job and get married and the music is gone. Yeah. It’s OK to do music as a hobby in Sri Lanka. It’s very hard to be a musician 100%. You can’t have your profession as a musician unless you have money to spend on your own. For you, you already have a background. Yeah, but actually I didn’t get into music straight. Even now I’m into advertising music. I produce for advertisements and jingles. That’s because it’s very hard to have a studio. It’s very hard. What does your father say about your music? Is he excited about what you’re doing? My father has passed away. When I started advertising in 1992 he was there and he liked it. He didn’t tell me what to choose and what to do, because I studied Western music and he was more into Eastern and Indian. He studied Indian music, and he was very into Eastern, but he liked my music because it wasn’t 100% Western it was a kind of blend. So he actually liked it. And one of his dreams was to build a studio for me and now I have it. You probably have a unique sound different from other producers. How would you describe your sound? Are there certain instruments you like to use? There are thousands of songs coming out every day, but if you listen to them, they won’t stay in your memory. The tune doesn’t stick to you. If you do a song, the first time you listen to it, it should stick in your head. When I do a song my strong point that is the tune. When I compose a tune. I make sure it’s simple and memorable. Then only I go into the instrumentation. When I go into the instrumentation, I’m more into the strings and the violins, and I like the piano and the box guitar. You use more of an acoustic sound? More acoustic stuff. I mainly try to target the natural sounds. Then only can you reach somebody else’s mind. It will stick in your head. Mainly I like the strings and the violins. I really like to focus on the melody. Do you lean more towards Sri Lankan type melodies or is it just your own? It’s mixed. I like Indian music and I kind of research it but not 100%. There are a few things I take from that side like I listen to a few people like Rahman and other composers and I kind of get their ideas on how they use instrumentation on songs and how they bring those instrumentations and I follow that. Sometimes I take that into my arrangements and it works. I take them but in a different way. That’s how you should do it, not copy the same thing. Who is the Indian composer? A.R. Rahman. He’s very famous in India and even his melodies are very strong. You listen to it once, the next time you whistle it. I think the strong point should be the melody. What do you see as the main musical difference between Indian music and Sri Lankan music? I’m not talking about rap but classical Sri Lankan music like Amaradeva and your father’s compositions. What is the main difference? Now in India they base the music more on the Raga. Even in Sri Lanka we’ve studied Indian music. Artists like Amaradeva, they studied Indian music. In Sri Lanka, if you want to go into Eastern music, it’s Indian music we study. The difference I see is in the folk tunes that we have in Sri Lanka. Our melodic structures are different to theirs. And maybe the phrasings could be different, and of course the instruments are totally different. We use the same kinds of instruments as Indian, like if you take an instrument like the violin, it’s more Sri Lankan. We only have the drums as our own instruments. Sri Lankan drums, that’s our main and only traditional instrument. Tribal instrumentations…Tribal instrumentations too we’ve got in Sri Lanka. But even the flute: if you take an Indian flutist and a Sri Lankan flutist, they could study the same thing, but when Sri Lankan musicians play the flute, there’ll be a different phrasing. That’s where the difference is. It could be the same instrument, but how they play it is different. That’s what I see. We could take even a guitar and when they play it, it sounds different. There’s a certain way in Sri Lanka. I can see a huge difference between Sri Lankan and Indian music, but I can’t say what it is. What do you see in your future with music? Are you excited about what you’re doing right now? Not really. One of the reasons is that this industry is stuck at a certain point. There’re a lot of new people coming in, new bands, new composers, but they do the same thing. They want to do the same thing, follow the same thing. They’re not taking any risks or doing different music. Yes. The thing is they can’t take a risk. Now if you take a newcomer, they can’t take a risk. I really want to go international and do it, but it’s going to cost a lot and who is going to support me? That’s the thing. Nobody’s here to back you. Unless you take a risk and produce for yourself and you go to a different country and you try to sell it. And it’s very hard. You can’t do it. It’s like 5 or 6 years you’ll have to sacrifice it and I can’t do that. We had a Sony company in Sri Lanka, but now it’s not there. Some of the tracks, they couldn’t sell here properly. There was lots of piracy happening and the government didn’t support it and there are lots of things behind it. Because of that I’m actually not happy with the music I’m doing right now. I can do much more than this. And there’s no point in doing that because once you produce it and you put it into the market, there’ll be thousands of bootleg copies. In the whole of Sri Lanka there’s be piracy and you lose it. So that’s very sad. I really wanted to produce one of my own instrumental tracks, but it’s halfway stuck. I’ve been thinking about what to do, whether to do it here or sell it to a different company abroad. What do you mean by instrumental songs? You know the “Buddha Bar” CD’s? You’ve heard it? It’s like Indian techno and hip hop tracks, but with their instrumentations. That’s the kind of tracks. I’ve done 2 tracks using Sri Lankan sounds and it’s all instrumental with our folk tunes coming in, but different beats, like hip hop beats with folk tunes. Something like that. What a lot of people are doing in America is they do their own thing. They do it all independent and they get a name. Some of these people have become platinum sellers, but they started real small. When you get big on your own all the record labels want to work with you. They really want you because you’ve already proven yourself. Yeah, they respect you. In other countries music is one of the biggest money making industries. Here it’s the other way around. If you are a musician you can hardly earn and eat something. We have people who have the talent, but there is no support. Even from the government side, we don’t have a copyright law in Sri Lanka to protect a musician. If you don’t have that there’s no point in talking of a music industry. Anyone can take your song and play it. Yeah, there is no such law. Now they’re in the process of changing it, but it’ll take a long time. If we have a publishing company and a record label and a correct law to support a musician, we can take this music industry very high. There’ll be lots of people and it’ll be huge but if you don’t have the right structure and the backing how can we do it? Also I don’t see a lot of parents supporting their sons and daughters in pursuing their dreams in creative fields like music, art, poetry or writing. A lot of parents want you to do higher education, do some business. In America a lot of artists and musicians make more money than a person with a college degree. In America there is a lot of support for music and art. You just have one hit song and you’re almost set for life. It can happen also in Sri Lanka. As much as we export tea, rubber, coconut, we can export our music and art. I have seen so many amazing musicians in artists in Sri Lanka it’s unbelievable. Definitely. I see that all the time. I have many new artists coming up to me and asking me to produce. I ask them what they want to do with this. It’s my time also. I can produce for them and I can also help them. But what will be the end product? Sometimes they do it just for fun. That’s not going to work. And sometimes they just want to put it on air and that’s it. There are a very few people who want to take it as a risk and do it. At that time I might help them because they don’t always have money to spend for a studio, and they don’t have any connections to a TV station or radio station. Then I kind of help them. When I see these people are capable of doing a song and learning something out of it. If not, I can’t do it. Up to a limit I can do it.
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