‘Chill Out’, three piece Sri Lankan band has become the very first Sri Lankan set of musicians to perform in Kampala, Uganda.
Chill Out consists of Chami on guitar/vocals, Nila on keyboards/vocals and female vocalist Sajee.
Sajee Lamahewa , the leader of the band is a talented singer. She was with the outfit since early 2000 and was touring since 2004.
‘We have been touring overseas since 2004. Our three piece band was in Oman in 2004 and then we moved to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and now in this East African State, at the Sheraton Hotel’ she said.
‘It was quite exciting to get a contract in an African country as we have not very familier with East Africa. Initially we went for a 3 month contract and it was extended. Now we are there for almost one year and this is our vacation.
We are back at home for a month and will be starting work again at the Sheraton on the 17 September our contract will continue to the first quarter. We do have an offer from Dubai and if it is to our satisfaction we will take it. But we prefer Africa for Middle East’ Sajee explained.
According to her their performances at Kampal Sheraton is amazing and very interesting ‘It is the place for the society people. Majority of the house guests are people who come on business. We even entertained quite a few VIP guests including the President during the African Union Summit, that took place in July’ she added
Working in different countries and meeting different nationalities made ‘Chill Out’ to continue in Africa. The boys want to sing in many languages. Apart from English which is 90% of their repertoire, they sing in Turkish, Spanish, Arabic, Lugandan, Swahili, to name a few.
‘When it comes to type of music, we handle Rock, Reggae, Country, Pop, Jazz, Blues, Latino etc., geared to entertain any audience’ she said. ‘The guys are very talented and they could change their voice from Kenny Rogers, Louis Armstrong to James Blunt (Chami) and Bee Gees, Michael Jackson to Elvis Presely (Nila). This really amazes the crowd and they would actually come near us to check it out! As for me, I could vary from Norah Jones to Cher’ Sajee said
Chami has been into music since college days, playing a lot of rock initially. He was also a member of the band ‘Damage’. Nila has music in the family, having a father who is a music teacher. ‘We have been together for 6 good years and hope it continues. Being together for a long time makes us so much tighter as a band and the understanding we have amongst us brings the best out’ she explained
Log on to www.youtube.com/chilloutband2010 and www.myspace.com/chillout003 to get a better idea of what is Chill Out.
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