Encouraging home grown sounds
View(s):By Joshua Surendraraj
In an age where music is freely accessible at the fingertips, it is easy to get caught up in all the international mainstream music. Sometimes, one does tend to forget, to appreciate music that is purely home grown. Decibel.lk, a website dedicated to contemporary home music, has been around the local scene; constantly promoting Sri Lanka’s finest. Today it is one of the biggest social media platforms for local artists.
We met up with YazminYousuf, one of its founding members. She gave us an insight into the website and its humble beginnings.
We started off with a little peek into Yazmin’s personal life.
“I used to always look for music, because I used to love listening to it. I was kind of like a loner kid, so to me, music was my everything,” she begins. Growing up in Dubai, Yazmin would always try to look for a place, where she could listen to music in peace. When she came to Sri Lanka, seventeen years ago, her search continued.
Sooner,Yazmin started meeting people, who were into music and eventually ran into local bands like Stigmata, who awed her. “I remember the first time I saw Stigmata play ‘Andura’, I was amazed,” she tells us, this was back in 2001. She adds that she would never forget that night, because it was the same night she saw Dylan Jayakody,who performed an acoustic set.
She got into radio back in 2001, first joining ‘E fm’. “For some reason, time, I kept bumping into Iraj and all these other musicians,” she recalls. Yazmin started checking out their music and realised, it was amazing.
In 2010, she started working at Yes Fm and in 2011,had the opportunity to take over the channel’s‘Home Grown’ show.
We sip on some coffee, before moving on to Decibel.lk. At one point in her life, Yazmin felt internally insulted that there was only so much that she could do. She felt, she wasn’t doing much for the music scene, by just being the host of one show.
“My friends, they made good music and they needed to be known by the rest of the world.” During this time, she met Housni Yakoob and they started talking. Over a cup of plain tea and some paratas, at Plaza, Colombo, and the idea for a website was born. A month later they set up a demo site and on May 11, 2012, yazminyousuf.lk, took off.
Years went by and changes were made to the site, because the team felt, they could always do better. “We were always excited and enthusiastic about what was going on in the scene. We loved the progression that came along with the times.It was not only the genres but the artists, the gigs etc,” she recalls. However, on May 11, 2015, Decibel.lk was born.
Today any local concert goer would see Yazmin, at the very back of the show, a huge backpack on her and a tripod in her hand. Her passion pushes her on and she always strives to make the best use of the little, she has. This is the reason, one would notice an iPhone set firmly locked on to a stand, instead of a fancy camera.
Back home the same could be said about the team behind Decibel. The designers and writers, work tediously behind the scenes, just to promote their passion and appreciate local music.The site is run by Yazmin, Housni and Anuradha Jayathilaka.Other writers and contributors for Decibel include, Dan Othnapitiya, Eshantha Perera, Aseka Wickramarachi, Dan Van Dort and Lakshan Tenuwara.
“It takes equipment, family and most importantly, my friends. If they hear someone new, they point it out,” she says.
Decibel.lk has always just been about the music. Over theyears, they’ve had a few people asking about web banners etc. But the team realizedthey’d rather have their fans and people who are genuine about the music, to keep coming.
“We don’t want it to be about the money, so we encourage donations if people are cool and we would also love to barter up and work in tandem with any brand,” Yazmin explains.
Aside from local music, they also look at South Asian artists, who visit Sri Lanka,“specifically because it’s kind of nice to thank them for their music.”
Decibel.lk has no division in its music. It covers a range of genres, from black metal to even Sinhala rap.
“There so much talent in Sri Lanka and I really hope that someday we can go out there and do more for the scene.”
Yazmin, finishes her coffee, yet her thirst for new local music, is still very much alive.