Thilak, a life based on bass

Chamikara Weerasinghe

Thilak Dias is not just another bass player because you know when you listen to him sooner or later you will hear one or two bass runs which will mark the presence of the man, the beard, the cap and the smile he is wearing.

Thilak Dias has been playing bass guitar from the age of 20 from mid 70s. You may have seen him playing with many local bands including Sri Lanka's top bands like Gypsies. He even did his bit to back the late Sinhala pop icon Clarence Wijewardena.

Thilak has the ability to adjust his playing to suit any music genre be it pop, rock or baila. The vastly experienced recording artist has toured many countries including Switzerland, Denmark, US and Japan to make his four-stringed instrument ring with his standard.

Thilak Dias was met by In Tune last Tuesday at his residence at Papiliyana for an interview. We learnt that the artist was planning to virtually retire from the fast track to do a few instrumentals of his own with him soloing on the bass. Following is our interview with Thilak.

In tune: Must you retire?

Thilak: Let me put it this way. I want to compose a few tracks. I can do them at home without having to run up and down and all over the place with the use of my computer to record the tracks.

Seclusion is necessary to find what you can do.

In Tune: So what do you do besides composing these tracks?

Thilak: I teach bass guitar. It is very interesting.

In tune: why?

Thilak: People think bass playing is easy. This is exactly what I thought when I first held the instrument. There is always something new to learn. There is always something to learn from other bass guitarists.

In Tune: what is your point?

Thilak: It is sometimes surprising that some guys who are quite new to bass playing do not show any inclination to learn from senior players. I have seen some players struggling in the middle of the road of their musical career because of this problem.

In tune: Do you have any advice you like to offer to musicians in your trade?

Thilak: Listen to good bass players like Lewis Johnson and Stanley Clerk. Listen to bands like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk Railroad and Uriah Heap if you are a rock fan. Get inspired. That's how you get started. Learning has become too easy for the youth with the development of computer technology.

In Tune: Why do you say so?

Thilak: When we started playing in the 70s and 80s we could only imagine that this was how they had played a favourite riff. But today you can watch them. There are plenty of DVDs, Internet courses and like things which are readily available in the market for the purpose of learning music.

In tune: Is it good?

Thilak: Yes. But it has its negative effects building around it. For example , players have become lazy because of their being exposed to computer software. They do not practise the way we used to. Even today I play the guitar five to six hours. The young crowd are lazy compared to what we did for practising. If you get lazy you cannot maintain your position.

Now everything is at your fingertips. Those days we had to wait for months to listen to a new song which has been released in England or America. We have to lend our ears to the radio to listen to a new song. We scarcely get any chance to witness the players or singers.

The only thing available to us was the cover of a record or a tape. These days you don't have to wait. Everything is right in front of your computer screen to be seen or heard.

In tune: How did you start your musical career?

Thilak: I lived down the Beach Road of Mount Lavinia, where I had friends who liked music. I started with an electric rhythm guitar because I didn't have a bass guitar.

We formed Rattlesnakes in the mid 70s.

In tune: Any local influences in your musical career?

Thilak: I was inspired by bands like Savages with Raj Seneviratna and Jet Liners with Minon Rathnam in my early years.

In tune: How did Rattlesnakes start making sounds?

Thilak: We did not have any sounds. We did not have a drum for practising. So we made a drum.

There was a hardboard wall where we had our practice sessions. We had a foot pedal placed near that hardboard as an alternative for a bass drum. We had a thick comic book to hit to serve the purpose of a snare drum. The symbol was as tiny as one's palm.

The lead guitar was jacked to a small radio unit. There was another radio which we fixed the bass guitar. Rhythm guitar was played with a box guitar unplugged. No mikes whatsoever for the voice.

We start practising in the evening and it goes till very late.

The original members of the band were Rohan Karunaratna on drums, Bandula Dias was on bass and me on the lead guitar.

In Tune: And your musical experience with Gypsies.

Thilak: That is where I was really exposed. Gypsies were playing their originals and mostly pop. I could add some flavour to their music with my skills and back ground.

Gypsies was a professional outfit. They were very keen on what they were doing. Even a simplest of song , they would practise for days before they play that on stage. It was wonderful experience with them.

In Tune: You are never seen on stage without your beard. Any particular following behind that. I remember George Harrison of Beatles used to have a beard.

Thilak: Let's say I am an admirer of Che.

In Tune: Your experience with reggae music.

Thilak: I was playing at hotels in the Southern region for quite some time. We had to play reggae. Because it was the era of reggae and tourists love reggae. So did we with Bob Marley's influence which was enormous those days.

In Tune: Do you consider yourself as a rock musician?

Thilak: By playing rock music alone you cannot earn much money in Sri Lanka.

The marketing of an icon: Elvis as a brand

Elvis is pulling in more money 30 years after his death than he did at the height of his career as his iconic image graces everything from the tackiest of ceramic sculptures to slick ad campaigns.

His face, his hair, his jumpsuits and his stance are instantly recognizable and they adorn just about everything imaginable, and much that is unbelievable.

A hundred merchants set up shop an Elvis week expo in Memphis to ply their wares to the devoted fans who came to pay from across the globe to pay their respect to the King.

There are - of course - the decorative plates, the posters, the blankets, the lighters, the watches, the jumpsuits and the playing cards.

But Elvis boxer shorts? A singing, animatronic bust of Elvis? Organic, fair-trade Elvis coffee and California-grown Elvis merlot and shiraz?

Ari Heino of Finland dropped 87 dollars on a replica of a horseshoe ring that was designed by Elvis in the 1950's. There were others on sale for ten dollars, but this one looked like a closer copy.

"It's not gold, but maybe someday I'll make it solid gold," the 56-year-old banker told AFP.

Everything in the expo is licensed by Elvis Presley Enterprises, which carefully manages him image and rejects all but about two percent of the thousands of requests it receives every year to use the Elvis image and name.

"The tacky unlicensed merchandise, that's a continuous and ongoing battle that is fought by our legal department," said Jack Soden, chief executive officer of Elvis Presley Enterprises.

These losses are small change compared to the millions made through licenses to deep pocketed merchandisers like Hershey's, which has launched a limited edition peanut butter and banana Reese's cup in honour of the King's favourite sandwich. But the battle is waged to protect the value of the Elvis brand, although Soden prefers to use the word legacy.

Unflattering products are simply disappeared from the market place.

And footage of Elvis in his last days, when he was overweight and forgetting lyrics on stage, is kept locked in the vault, something Soden compared to sticking an unflattering photo at the bottom of the drawer. Elvis Presley Enterprises pulled in 48 million dollars last year, about 13.6 million of which came from licensing.

That figure is expected to grow rapidly under the management of billionaire Robert Sillerman, who bought an 85 percent stake in the company for over 100 million dollars in 2005.

"The Presley family - Lisa Marie and Priscilla - never had the money to really market Elvis the way he should have been," said Amos Maki, a reporter at the Memphis Commercial Appeal who covers the business side of Graceland.

(AFP)