Nathan Eardly speaks to the Mirror Magazine about his TNL Onstage experience
View(s):Q: When did your musical journey begin, and when did it take a competitive turn?
I’ve been singing since I was 8 or 9, and it evolved around church till 5 years back, where I realised that I could do more. That’s when I was introduced to Derek Wickramanayake. He took me with open arms and gave me a chance to start my desire of making music. I started off playing in some of the leading hotels in Colombo where I met two talented brothers – Shavindra Tissera (lead vocalist of Magician’s Toolbox) and his brother, Viroshan (who took part in Onstage this year as a soloist) and that’s when it took a competitive turn.
WINNER BEST SOLOIST Nathan Eardly
Q: Biggest challenge that you had to face?
The biggest challenge for me was Onstage itself. That journey made me push myself vocally to the edge and it gave me the much needed experience for the future.
Q: Did you think that you would win?
To be honest, no! I kind of knew I had a shot of getting into the finals but winning was not in my expectation simply because of the talent this year. And I would say by the time it was the finals none of us were where we started off. Everyone held an unpredictable edge.
Q: What do you think is the scope of TNL Onstage, and its benefits to the English music industry in Sri Lanka? What needs to be improved?
I’m grateful to TNL for what they are doing through this competition for youngsters who really need a platform, because there is so much exposure. The best thing about this competition is that it totally rewards originality, which I would say we lack as Sri Lankans. But in my opinion there needs to be record deals given for the winner, so that hype you get from winning would not fade away. It’ll be a totally different experience to record an album, it will give these winners a much promising future in music.
All I am saying is why not take it to a better level? And finally, future aspirations? For now the only plan I have is to release an album hopefully by next year, where most of the songs will be acoustics. Hopefully it will go big and I will take it on from there. I’d like to thank my family not forgetting my aunt Christine, Milinda – for introducing me to Derek Wickramanayake, and everyone else who believed in me!
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