Making music from the heart
Making waves with her recent single, Devashrie De Silva haunts audiences with ‘Sithuwili Yahane’, her third solo original. Singing since she was quite young, Devashrie attributes her powerful vocals to her musically gifted family. The exposure she gained singing for school and church whilst competing in all-island competitions (and winning them) paved the way for her professional career as a singer.
Pic courtesy : Nirosh Perera
“I have a life-long love for the arts. I believe it’s a powerful medium in life and I enjoy immersing and learning more so I can create better art, whether it be music, acting, or writing.”
She graduated with an MA in Acting from the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts London in 2019 and she tells us that it has helped her “learn and unlearn so much along the way,” and in turn has led to look at her work critically and sharpen tools for the craft. “My intention was to add the technical skills to acting so that I could combine the worlds of music and drama, which are my key areas of interest.”
“From the heart,” says Devashrie is her singing style — at the moment she admits that her genre of music leans towards Broadway/West End music which in turn influences her Sri Lankan music as well.
When speaking about Sithuwili Yahane, she tells us that she wished to create a piece of absolute honesty. “The melody was born from purely surrendering to the truth and not meddling with it too much. The melody then led the way to the concept. It had been a while since my last composition of a tune,” she trails off.
She feels that Sithuwili Yahane is her most unique so far. Although she has heavy influences of R&B, soul and gospel in her roots, as of late she has been more drawn towards breaking it down “to a simpler format, heart on a plate sort of musical offering.” “I wanted to get the listener thinking and trigger a thirst to dissect the lyrics so that it is an experience in itself. Sometimes music can touch on topics that words are unable to in real life,” she says.
‘Sithuwili Yahane’ means bed of thoughts. Even though the song is open to interpretation, once listening to it, you understand that at its core, the song touches upon coming into terms with one’s processing of thoughts and emotions.
“Many of us are faced with certain realities/reflections staring at us; socially, personally, spiritually, economically, psychologically to name a few areas. It is important to recognise and rise up to these realities so that we find our way forward to live a life of truth and courage,” shares Devashrie.
She adds that the song wouldn’t have come together if not for the many contributions from the people around her. “Ruhunuketha Dhammadeva Thero did every justice to the concept I had in mind, with his powerful lyrics. Shevon Rajasekera then arranged the music so beautifully, directing the musicians- Jagath Mapalagama on sitar and Johan Ranmuthugala on guitar and himself on piano. Ranil E Panil did his magic with the audio production and Vinod Melpitiya with his superb mixing and mastering. Billy Fernando as production advisor stood by the team through this project. The video was creatively directed by Sahan Wickramaarachi.”
The music video which was published on Youtube has garnered more than 100,000 views since posting in December. Currently Devashrie is creatively active in the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka. She also hopes to merge music with acting and develop her platform, Boundless talent – to encourage aspiring artistes of colour specifically to support each other and find solutions to common challenges they all face.
(Scan the code to listen to Devashrie)
