A young musician’s dreams
At 17, Delvin Hindle has already released a hit single and has a growing fan base on YouTube, social media and the local radio waves. The singer rose to quick fame in local circles with his long stay on the Yes FM Homegrown chart (fronted by Yazmin Yousuf) and has already released several of his own singles with producer Azlan Sheriffdeen.
At first, Delvin comes across as your average youngster from the city; he grew up in Colombo, schooled at St. Thomas’ College and has just completed a course in IT at NIBM. When not at university he’s a professional musician, making accessible music targeted at the younger generation. He even looks the part with an easy smile, a sprightly hairdo and a rather endearingly hesitant way with his words.
The latter disappears as soon as he begins to sing, though. Delvin already has one music video up for ‘Wish You Were Here’ on his official YouTube channel. A catchy, smooth pop track, it’s garnered over a thousand views and has had some very positive reviews. On the video’s page viewers have left comments that are largely positive; “keep making more” and “amazing voice” features predominantly, largely from a teenage fan base. He responds to each comment, leaving smiley faces and saying thank you.
Like everyone before and most likely after him, he has sung since he was a tot-only at home, though. Delvin never performed in public before signing on to make music professionally. “I did write a song or two though,” he remembers. “I showed them to my brother and he joked that they were like nursery rhymes!” Now, though, his brother is supportive. “Now he says, ‘write more, write more’,” laughs the singer.
Delvin would not have imagined all this for himself but has taken everything in his stride. Having Azlan and The Sherifs backing him up has proved to be a blessing, he says. Plus he enjoys their many sessions recording and shooting together. “I remember when we were recording ‘Wish You Were Here’ we only went to sleep early morning,” he grins. “It was great.”
Delvin counts among his musical influences the likes of Justin Timberlake and Motown greats like Stevie Wonder and Smoky Robinson. The plan is to do some long overdue Michael Jackson covers on his channel soon, he shares. He also plays piano, guitar and the drums, although he’s yet to work with these skills professionally.
He’s also looking forward to the reception for his new single, ‘Forget It All’, an EDM track he worked on with Azlan. “I don’t want to restrict myself to anything,” he shares. For this very reason he hopes to record a single in Sinhala sometime soon. He dreams of making it big someday. “I was first inspired to start making music when Michael Jackson passed away in 2009,” he shares. “He was so loved and revered by his fans and other musicians alike-I’d like to have that someday.”