Stigmata magic rocks B’desh
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Giving it their best 
L-r) Suresh De Silva, Andrew Obeysekere, Lakmal Wijayagunarathna. Pic by Fatin Hasnath
It’s been almost five years since Suresh De Silva last cut out paper clippings and interviews of his band’s exploits both at home and abroad. Stigmata, more or less the Godfather of Sri Lankan heavy metal music, who have fans from Europe to South Asia are now nearing their 15th year. Three albums, appearances on the Discovery Channel and countless shows later, they are back from their latest overseas trip-performing at last month’s Rock Fest in Bangladesh.
“This is the first time they had the South Asian Rock Fest in Bangladesh,” explains Suresh, who along with Stigmata has performed at several instalments of Rock Fest across South Asia. Said to be the biggest concert in Bangladesh, the show welcomed a crowd of 30,000 plus rock music fans to the Army Stadium, held in celebration of local telecommunication operator Grameenphone acquiring 50 million users. With ten bands performing from five countries the atmosphere was beyond electric for the boys of Stigmata who last played to an equally large crowd of 25,000 back in 2007 at the SAARC Band Festival in New Delhi.
The band’s first trip to Bangladesh was a whirlwind of interviews, 4 am sound checks, jet lag, the show itself followed by more interviews and reviews. “Magical” however, is how Suresh describes the experience. “I think it’s safe to say that about 80% of them hadn’t heard about us. But to get an overwhelming response like that was magical.” The band owes their international fame to their strong social networking media, which they handle themselves and overseas reviews which helped introduce them to the international music arena. Selling out to full houses in Melbourne and other venues home and abroad Suresh feels it’s safe to say “We have managed to make a name for ourselves as one of the most sought after live bands in Sri Lanka.”
With a unique musicality to them, along with their originals such as Andura which have become Sri Lankan rock anthems, not to mention their electric stage presence, Stigmata is the whole package. “It’s the experience combined with the fact that we are an Eastern band with a Western sound and somehow that translates well to whatever audience we play to.”
Choosing to start their performance with their iconic “Andura” the band knew they were taking a bit of a risk. “You can imagine people going crazy for it here, maybe even in India,” Suresh says. Being the heaviest metal band performing while most of the others acts leaned more towards grunge, folk rock, hard rock and cover songs, these doubts were even expressed by the organizers who warned the boys not to expect people to like their originals. But “our guys always perform best under pressure,” Suresh smiles, recalling the opening bars of Andura which led to the crowds going wild. Timing was on their side, with the first chords of Andura breaking into the sunset, fireworks and laser lights. “Everything fell into place.”
“You never know how a crowd of that magnitude will react,” he admits, but lost whatever inhibitions recalling the people trying to pull him into the crowds and incalculable fist bumps and high fives that had to be given to the fans.
“For Stigmata, performance and stage presence are as important as the music they play. “It’s about the fact that music is universal, and it’s about witnessing a heavy metal concert live. We go there as Stigmata,” says Suresh, quite simply preferring to stick to their “strange, exotic sound”, as many have described it. Having performed alongside a few of the other Indian, Pakistani and Nepali bands at Rock Fest he mentions the confidence factor. “I think we were the only band that went with so much confidence in ourselves,” he says, attributing their strong ability to enjoy and execute their stage shows to their chemistry and togetherness as a band.
With over two months of practices going on till around 12 to 1 every morning and then heading off to their respective jobs and classes, Suresh attributes their togetherness to the discipline between the five of them and of course their love for music. “It’s the music,” he confesses that keeps the sparks still flying for the band reaching its 15th year. “We perform covers but it’s the original music that gets us excited. Because when people love your own pieces it’s like etching a small piece of history for the world to see.”