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In Tune |
with Chamikara Weerasinghe |
In Control in music and business
Chamikara WEERASINGHE
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In Control in action: Thimal on bass,Sri Lal on drums,Lalendra
on vocals,Hans on percussion,Shehan and Ashan on guitar |
Playing stressed and unstressed beats with a pair of sticks in a
metre to a musical line can be a pleasing experience to a drumming
artiste.
But for a businessman or a businesswoman in music, the concept of
metre or time could mean releasing his or her own stress or tension that
may be associated with his or her business work.
“Yes, in a much more accentuated way,” said Thimal Jayamanna, the
bassist vocalist of In Control. He is a business development manager. In
Control is a band that must have time for business because they are all
men in business.
They were caught in action by In Tune at the UBG of Jaic Hilton
Colombo, recently.
The band played some of the signature songs of Eagles and Creedence
Clearwater Revival (CCR) and also some songs by Don Williams and several
other Country and Western singers.
In Control line up consisted Sri Lal Ahangama on drums (the founder
of the band), Sampath Fernando on Keyboards, Shehan Perera on lead
guitar and vocals, Lalendra Fernando on vocals, Ashan de Silva on lead
guitar, Thimal Jayamanne on bass and vocals and Dr. Hans on percussion.
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Ashan de Silva |
The finance executive director Ahangama came up with the idea of
forming an “in -house” band at a function held at the BMICH, Colombo to
select the Business Executive of the Year about five years ago.
He called Sampath, the keyboardist cum producer of radio commercials
to join the outfit.
Sampath said, “I had been playing in various bands as a keyboardist
while doing my job.”
Shashi Raja Mahendran, Suresh, Ruwan, Ajith Gamlath and Chamara were
there at the inception of the band, remembered Sampath. “When Mr.
Ahangama proposed the idea of In Control, I was pleased for it gave me
the opportunity to keep my touch with music,” he said.
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Sri Lal Ahangama |
Ahangama said, they perform only once a month when the players have
an opportunity to meet to play.
Do the members practise together?
“No, we don’t get the opportunity to practise together. We practise
on our own. Since I am the drummer I listen to the CDs shared by us all,
and play.”
Ahangama practises with digital drums or drum pads without disturbing
the neighbourhood or the police.
Since you work separately how do you get the act together in a
performance?
As put it by In Control members they are an “unrehearsed” outfit as a
unit though they take their music seriously as individuals and they have
the ability to back each other with their expertise.
Dr. Hans Marter, the foreign member of the band on bongos has written
a book on percussion.
The book is said to be used as a handbook of percussion by a good
number of international percussionists.
There is one certainty about In Control.
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Sampath Fernando |
They will never play rap. Thimal said, “looks like rap is something
we will never do.”
Why?
We cater to Western music enthusiasts.
Since we play once a month we get some new faces to watch us play and
we know they enjoy what we play on a given day.
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Shehan Perera |
Rap audiences are moving into oriental music.
So are t hose rap artistes.
What do you play?
We play rock and retro in particular.
What do you get from music being businessmen yourselves?
I think we release a lot of stress out of ourselves by playing our
music.
It revitalises us against our hard day’s work. |
