It is said that a band is not just a group of individual musicians playing together. It has got its own personality, its own goals, and its own sound. When a new band is formed the main challenge for it would be to create its own unique style so that the audience will remember it for the quality of the music it plays. Nagaaraa is one such band which is new to the industry has made quite an impact with its latest release ‘Unmaade’ which is its debut original track. Young Voice contacted this upcoming band to get to know more about how it was formed, the type of music it plays, its future plans and more.
Nagaaraa formed in August 2017, has five members. Dilip Kanakarathna(Percussionist and Vocalist), Vihanga Kauminda(Violinist) , Devin Nelaka (Main guitarist), Subuthi Anuradha (Base guitar, EDM composer) and Chamath Hasaranga (Keyboard and Vocalist). They also have Ranuka Dilhara who is the rapper and Chamara Ruwan for drums joining the band depending on the music they play at concerts and events.
Revealing how the band was formed, Vihanga says, “Before we formed our band all of us did music as freelancers. We met at different events and then thought of forming a band since we all thought that we could do something different and unique given the variety of music we listen to. We have an odd combination and I think that is one of the reasons which has been an advantage when creating music.”
The latest track of theirs is ‘Unmaade’ which was released on February 27, 2018 an original song. According to them, the making of the song was a coincidence and it has been re-written, changed quite a lot of times before they actually decided that it will be their debut original song as a band.
“Initially our idea was to make it more of a romantic song. However, we changed the melody of the song continuously but did not think of recording it as a song. Later one of my friends, Malshan wanted to do a video production for his final year project and asked for my help. So I suggested he does the video with our band. And then we finally created the song. The song was edited and redone so many times by us. The music of the song was done by all of the team members of Nagaaraa. It was in fact a collective effort,” says Dilip.
The video of Unmaade has been shot in six different locations in the country which are Gampola, Nawalapitiya, Awissawella, Kotmale, Piliyandala and Atabage. They also mentioned the fact that they had to put their 100 percent to the song since they wanted to put out a good video with good content.
The first ever track of Nagaaraa was Siri SangaBodhi Desi Bhangra cover which had around one million views. They believe that the track was a turning point for them. “People got to know our band through the song and a lot of known people shared it on social media too. Especially artistes, they were very encouraging, given that we were just starting off as a new music band. The comments for the song were very positive and we were so overwhelmed by the response received for the track,” says Ranuka.
Their second track was Gambhira Thedathi Mashup cover. For that also they have received good feedback from the audience. Expressing the nature of the song Dilip says, “the cover, Gambhira Thedathi is a fusion of a lot of different music styles. You can’t put that song to one specific genre and it was a new experience for our audience to listen to such different music. With that song we realised that our audience actually understands our music.”
Talking about how the name of the band, Nagaaraa was chosen, they say that within a month they came up with a dozen names, for the band. Finally they decided to go with ‘Nagaaraa’ as the name is distinct. Dilip, who is also a member of the band, Naadaro for over five years says that there is an Indian instrument they play at Naadro named Nagaaraa which is a drum. So he suggested that they put the name of the instrument as the name of the band since it is not a familiar name for most of the people.
Nagaaraa plays at outdoor concerts, corporate events, unplugged shows and occasions of similar nature. However they say they only play at events if they think their music suits the nature of the event.
The long term plan of Nagaaraa is to allocate their full time for music and to do music which is of quality.
“We are still new to the field so we need to be stable first so that we can continue with our work. We have bought all the instruments needed and we have our own studio as well. Our intention is to first make the name Nagaaraa a brand, and not just a band. That is our ultimate goal. That is a huge task and it will take quite some time. But we are determined to do that one day.”
Vihanga said “We should mention Lahiru Perera. He helped us a lot with our original song and no other person in the industry could have done half of the things he did for our band. We are so grateful and lucky to have his support . We would like to thank Daddy, Naadro and especially Rakitha Wickramaratne. All of them helped Nagaaraa to be where it is today. Also we would like to mention Malshan and Upekha too. Our parents have been very supportive, letting us do what we are actually passionate about.”