Ranura’s calling
It’s not often that one listens to their gut instinct. For Ranura Perera, this calling came, back when he was studying engineering in Cuba.
Pic courtesy Ranura Perera
Today he’s a popular local YouTube sensation, particularly for his unique mashups of Spanish, English and Sinhala music.
Since his school days, despite singing in the choir Ranura never wanted to pursue a career in music. But all of that was soon to change.
Cuba was his destiny. After his Advanced Level exams, he decided to apply for a scholarship in Cuba. But as he applied, Ranura was pretty certain that he didn’t have enough results to get in. “But for some reason, another person who had also applied for it gave it away at the last moment and I ended up getting it,” he reflects.
This was a new experience for Ranura. At the time he had to study Spanish and know it well enough to do his degree in that language. That was when he told himself, in order to learn he would start listening to Spanish music and reading Spanish books. This opened him to a whole new world.
“I ended up loving salsa, bachata and Latin beats, more than the music I had been listening to previously.” In Cuba he also got the chance to do vocal training and take part in a few concerts. This gave him a vision about music.
After he completed his studies and came back to Sri Lanka, Ranura worked as a Geologist Engineer. But at the time he decided he had a bigger passion, which was to pursue a career in music. Having quit his job he and found work in an area that is music related and has been at it for the past two years. During this time he also started his own YouTube channel to promote his music.
The biggest hurdle that he had to face at the time was convincing people about his career change. “You can’t wake up one day and tell your mother,’ I don’t want to be an engineer anymore. I want to become a musician.” Rather, Ranura had to gradually convince them with everything he did. He recalls that the positive feedback he received from some of the industry’s greats helped him in this process.
When he started out, Ranura realized that that if he was going to be successful in the industry, he needed to have a social media presence. His first step was to do covers, and Ranura felt that since he spoke Spanish, he could do Spanish covers.
One of his earliest videos was ‘Bailando’, by Enrique Iglesias, he tells me. Enrique was scheduled to perform in Sri Lanka at the time, and Ranura grabbed this opportunity to post this cover on YouTube, which eventually went on to receive 100,000 views within two to three days.
Through this, Ranura received good feedback, whilst some others discouraged him. In fact “It was more discouragement, than encouragement.” But Ranura took to account all the encouragement and pushed on.
He kept on doing covers, even though he wasn’t earning anything by it. In fact Ranura kept spending money to record the videos. But he kept on doing it, until gradually people started inviting him to perform at gigs. “During the last five to six months, I’ve been getting a lot of invitations for gigs. People would also inbox me for collaborations,” he tells us.
To this day, Ranura strives to keep challenging himself, as opposed to just doing the things he is comfortable with. This is what he tries to achieve with his YouTube channel as well. For example, He’d try to cover a Spanish song, or a song from a different language.
“But everything really blew up when I decided to do mashups, with English songs, Sinhala songs and Spanish songs. That concept really worked for me,” he recalls.
Trying to be unique and improving himself, is what made the difference but also brought with it several challenges. Having a unique idea is one thing, but being able to promote it on social media is another. Ranura claims that while he has had many ideas, and while people have liked some of them, sometimes they didn’t. “When you try to do new things, you fail as much as you succeed.”
Aside from this Ranura also tells me that he’s always been a little shy. And the object of doing covers was to improve himself, to build his confidence and to know the right people to collaborate with. “I consider that I’ve come to that level now and I’m working on my originals. My goal is to be known for my original music five years from now.”
To young enthusiasts irrespective of the genre Ranura believes, “If you’re passionate about something keep on trying.”
Ranura can be followed on
facebook.com/ranurapereraonline/
Or subscribe to his YouTube channel Ranura Perera