‘Chill Out’ to rock Colombo
Musician may come and go but many old veteran musicians and bands still keep the ball rolling even though the new faces have stormed the scene. ‘Chill Out’ is the latest addition to the Sri Lanka’s Western music scene with old faces. Started way back in 2004 as a three member band consisting Sajee, Dantila and Nilantha, ‘Chill Out’ was doing their stint overseas for the past eight years. They were mainly in action in the Middle East countries. The band was in action at the Le Royal Meridien in Jumairah Dubai, Sheraton Hotel in East Africa, Hilton in Maldives and also in many locations and resorts in Oman and Abu Dhabi.
‘Chill Out’ is now back in Colombo to rock their Sri Lankan fans for the very first time in their musical career. Now expanded to six members and mainly entertaining at the private and corporate functions with their soothing sounds of newly added jazz, funk and soul apart from the pop/rock to their repertoire
The new line up of the ‘Chil Out’ comprises of Sajee (vocals), Dantila (guitar / vocals), Nilantha (percussion / vocals), Yasith (bass / vocals), Lahiru (keyboards) and Ashane (drums).
Sajee Lamahewa, the leader of the band is a talented singer. She was with the outfit since early 2000 and was touring since 2004. ‘We have been touring overseas since 2004. Our three piece band was in Oman in 2004 and then we moved to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and now in this East African State, at the Sheraton Hotel’ she said.
‘It was quite exciting to get a contract in an African country as we are not very familier with East Africa. Initially we went for a 3 month contract and it was extended. We performed there for almost two year.
According to her their performances at Kampal Sheraton is amazing and very interesting as ‘it is the place for the society people. Majority of the house guests are people who come on business. We even entertained quite a few VIP guests including the President during the African Union Summit, which took place in July last year. It was quite different to working in the Middle East’ she added.
The boys want to sing in many languages. Apart from English which is 90% of their repertoire, they sing in Turkish, Spanish, Arabic, Lugandan, Swahili, to name a few. ‘When it comes to type of music, we handle Rock, Reggae, Country, Pop, Jazz, Blues, and Latino etc., geared to entertain any audience’ she said. ‘The guys are very talented and they could change their voice from Kenny Rogers, Louis Armstrong to James Blunt (Chami) and Bee Gees, Michael Jackson to Elvis Presely (Nila). This really amazes the crowd and they would actually come near us to check it out! As for me, I could vary from Norah Jones to Cher’ Sajee said
The boys started their stint at the leading five strt hotels in Colombo.
They played last 31st Night dance at the Hotel Taj Samudra, Colombo and very recently at the Ananda-Nalanda Maroons Night in Dubai, which was their last performance in Dubai with singing sensation Ronnie Leitch. ‘Chill Out’, played at Mix Bar until they closed for renovations, and currently in action at Thorana Lounge, Colombo Hilton.