Mirror Magazine

Mirror Magazine

Monkey business
Unusual name but can this band deliver? Ishani Ranasinghe attempts a guess
The Brass Monkey Band, the newest addition to the local band scene, are a crazy bunch! Meeting up with them last week I got an insight into this unique group. One thing that keeps popping into your head when speaking to them is that this is one enthusiastic and crazy bunch of people… and the five have no problem admitting to that.

So these are the members of ‘The Brass Monkey Band’? Interesting name. Let’s hear the story behind it. “It’s really simple,” said 19-year-old Anik Jayasekera. It goes something like this… long ago the ships had cannons. And the cannons had these things to hold the cannon balls and during winter snow falls and covers these, “and they look like brass monkeys.” Okay. Well, when they were thinking of a name the term just came out.

A past student of S. Thomas’ Preparatory School, Anik is currently studying CIM. Having being part of Stigmata and Ground Zero before this, he said he likes all kinds of music. And what is it that he plays? “I play the drums,” he said laughing, while adding that he wanted to sing. At this everyone starts laughing while Anik continued, “Well I can’t sing but maybe someday.”

As for the significance of the name of the band… “The only brass thing about the band is a brass fan which we have,” says Swinly Perera who at 16 years is one of the youngest members of the band. Contributing with vocals, piano and violin she is also a member of The Symphony Orchestra. “I appreciate all forms of music, classical and jazz being my favourites,” she said. Currently a student of Bishop’s College Swinly said that the support she gets from her family is immense.

The other youngest member of the band is Oshan Gunawardena. Sixteen-year-old Oshan contributing with the guitar and the cello said that he has been playing the cello since he was eight-years–old. A student at St. Joseph’s College his talent has also made him a member of ‘The Symphony Orchestra’. As for the kind of music that he enjoys, “I pretty much like jazz and ethnic music.” That seems to be all he wanted to say about himself… or so I thought. “Oh and I started wearing glasses this year,” he said rather enthusiastically. Somehow this seems to mean something but I never found out what!

So how did these individuals come together? Recently Anik, Swinly and Oshan jammed together with a jazz band that came down to Sri Lanka and really liked what they sounded like. At the same time Aadhil (more on him later) was interested in doing his own ‘thing’, basically jazz cum rock band. “My friend Dilshan Kodithuwakku (who is now their manager) then hooked me up with the three,” said Aadhil adding that they jammed together one evening and “We sounded pretty amazing,” he said laughing.

Moving on to Aadhil Aziz. This 28-year-old is the oldest in the band and as the others said he tries to act calm and collected to live upto it. Having started writing songs at a very young age he always played the guitar and continued doing so for the band as well.

“Of course I like playing the guitar more than the cello so I am always trying to get it from Aadhil,” quipped Oshan to which everyone roars with laughter. After things settled down we got back to Aadhil, who apart from the band is not really involved with anything. “You could say I’m jobless,” he said with a laugh. Having played for bands like Wreck (which is now Independent Square), Slowburn and Blackout he added that he had always wanted to do his own thing but never had the chance.

How did the fifth guy come in? “I saw Aadhil playing at Glow and spoke to him and he asked me to join his band,” says Dilshan Rathnapala (26). Working as a computer network infrastructure engineer, Dilshan just got back to Sri Lanka from Canada last December. The music he is interested in is vast; rock, jazz, orchestra and the list goes on. “I am also influenced by many local artistes,” says Dilshan.

Jothipala, Rukantha, Somathilaka Jayamaha and A.R. Rahaman are to name a few. His forte being scratch pads and occasionally the guitar, Dilshan had worked with Jason Knight and done one track with the popular rock band Kreb’s Cycle.

He also has a passion for sports cars. And a few minutes to the interview I can’t disagree because he kept getting up to see if anyone had driven away with his beloved black sports car. What about their music? “We target a large audience,” said Aadhil. Little kids, hard rockers, the sophisticated, etc. they want everyone in their circle. As for what they play they all agree that this is hard to describe. “We play everything from jazz to rock to fusion,” he said adding that the remarkable thing about the band is that they can be a really loud band and also strip down to one instrument and one voice and still sound equally good.

They play originals ninety five percent of the time and want to keep it that way. Anik said that everyone is very much attached to each song. Why? “Because when we start writing everyone puts their ‘two cents’ in,” he said with glee. “It may be a bit complex, but it’s something anyone can listen to,” said Dilshan.

For a band that has been in existence for just two months they have come far. “The Year of the Monkey” their EP which they will be launching this week will feature five original tracks, Lay All Your Hands On Me, Meant For Me, Sin, Underground and Tumbleweed. The first two have already got airplay on local radio and the response has been good.

With so many bands in Colombo, how will this band fare against the others? “We are not just another band. We really feel we are something different,” said Oshan adding that he felt this way because of the fact that they play mostly originals and hardly any covers. “We want to show that Sri Lankans can also put out good originals,” said Aadhil.

For them, everything depends on the response of the audience. And they got a glimpse of what the response was going to be like last week as they performed at a private gathering. Having heard them there I must say this is one great band.

“We want to know what the audience feels about the songs,” says Anik encouraging everyone to keep in touch with them through e-mail on thebrassmonkeyband@ hotmail.com. “We have got so much support from everyone,” says Aadhil explaining that there are many people to thank, naming Deshan Tennekoon and Amila Dilhan.

What’s in the future for this band? “At the moment we are looking into having regular gigs on a monthly basis,” says Swinly. They are also hoping to complete an album during the next three months but one thing that seems to stand in their way is the lack of sponsors.

Will ‘The Brass Monkey Band’ be yet another transitional band or are they here to stay? They seem dedicated enough to make it. You want to decide for yourself? Head out to Frangipani on May 7, to get a glimpse of them at the launch of their EP.

Top