Mirror Magazine

Mirror Magazine

Pieces of many a kind
By Ishani Ranasinghe
“Put Tori Amos on stage with a piano and heaps of candles, that’s what I am going for,” says Anil Balasuriya about his concert Pieces Of April. Imagine the venue, Zanziba, illuminated with candles, very intimate and relaxed with a very limited crowd. The concert is going to be unplugged, it’s going to be different. Together with Chamath Ariyadasa on piano and Azlan on bass and back up vocals, Anil promises new dimension to some of the tracks. “Some of these tracks have never been played on piano and once we tried them we were like ‘whoa’ this does sound good,” he says with a smile. Playing a mix of both originals and a couple of covers he adds that they wanted to experiment which is also the result of the show being held in such a manner.

Picking a place where they don’t normally play the entire show will be about giving something more to the audience. “We wanted to create a different kind of atmosphere with the whole unplugged genre of things,” says Anil adding that hence the show will be more of a laid-back chilled-out event.

Definitely not the kind of show we have got used to associating Anil with. Why the change, you might ask. “Rock and Roll is big here right now. So I thought we should take a step back and give a different side to it.”

Speaking of the two artistes who will be joining him Anil first talks about Azlan who is in Deadlyn 21 as bass cum vocalist. “He is a really easy guy to work with and he is committed to his work,” says Anil adding that he has an excellent voice that blends well together with his.

Contributing on the piano is Chamath who Anil considers as someone with an incredible talent. “He has the potential to move onto bigger things and could easily become one of the best jazz pianists here in Sri Lanka,” he says adding that Chamath has the ability to take any song and give it his own twist.

Anil says that this will be the beginning of a series of shows for his album ‘The Last Few Pieces Of April’, scheduled to be launched in July. With Independent Square taking a break last year Anil started writing a few songs just for the fun of it and subsequently recorded a few of them. “Afterwards I thought why not?” he says adding that it took him about seven to eight months to complete his album. The album will feature nine originals three of which are at the moment getting airplay on the local radio stations.

With him starting to record an album one question people have kept asking him is if he makes a conscious effort to move away from the sounds of Independent Square. “I don’t necessarily do it like that, but I suppose I write songs that are more me,” he says adding that before it was a collective effort with the whole band contributing.

Working with a few people from different bands he adds, “I had the luxury of working with some of the best people from the music scene.” Working with him for the album is Billy from Ezra, Ranil from Hollow Point Halo and Oshan from the Brass Monkey Band. Apart from these well-known individuals Anil has also worked with a few lesser known names in the music industry. “One reason I did this is because there is so much talent and no one knows how to take that and cultivate it.”

Pieces Of April will be on May 26 at Zanziba. Tickets will be available at the gate. The electronic media sponsor for the event will be 101.7 TNL.

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