‘Nadee Ganga’ is considered an anthem amongst any Sri Lankan and played at any event most of the time, but behind this song and many other notable performances and contributions to the music industry exists the talent of a true musician whose achievements are known by many, and there is nothing but respect for him.

It was a pleasure to interview Mr. Chitral ‘Chity’ Somapala who shared some of the experiences gained throughout his musical career which he started off semi- professionally at the age of 17, while playing at events, touristic resorts and hotel night clubs around 1983.

Later on he met other talented musicians such as Mr. Diliup Gabadamudalige with whom he performed for a band called ‘Shock’ and Chity says working with Mr. Gabadamudalige was such a great experience, and for the first time in his life he got to compose bass lines on his own.

He describes Mr. Gabadamudalige as being a genius who gave him a lot of freedom to expand his ideas, and he says it was a great challenge to be in that band; they remain great buddies even after so many years.

After playing in the local scene for quite a number of years Chity eventually got the opportunity to join a night club outfit from Switzerland called ‘Rendezvous’ later named ‘Friends’, and later on went to perform with different musicians from different, countries and got the opportunity to work with bands from Germany, Italy, France, Greece, Sweden, UK and USA.

Quite notably he has received very positive reviews as well as some negative ones while performing abroad, but he adds that as a musician he is ready for criticism, and states that some musicians cannot take this at all and would only want to hear the positive side of it.
Chity adds that his origin from an exotic country makes him more interesting to the international listeners.
Evidently there are quite a number of interesting reviews that have been published the international press about him.

What gained Chity international recognition was when he joined the band called ‘Firewind’, and he says that it was a great feeling to be a major part of that band, especially since all the songs on the album ‘Forged by Fire’ were composed of his lyrics and melodies.

He says that it was great working with the whole band and especially with Gus G (Ozzy), whom he visited in Greece for the songwriting session for about twelve days, where both of them worked very hard, and even composed songs from scratch with acoustic guitars, which gave him a lot of experience. This is exactly why Chity says that he looks into every fine detail when working on songs with others, according to him ‘you need the understanding of each other to make a great composition’.

However with time Chity left Firewind, due to personal differences between himself and Gus G, but he adds that they are still good friends and communicate occasionally.

When we asked about his childhood and the ambitions he had, he says he was not into music at all, and was more into sports but somehow music caught up with him. Even though he comes from a musical background his parents did not say anything to him when he diverted his attention towards the music industry; all his father said was, ‘remember that there will be always jealous people if you do something good’.

Mr. P. L. A. Somapala, Mr. Somapala’s father was a renowned film music director, and Mrs. Chitra Somapala, his mother was a legendary singer.

None of Chity's three brothers nor his sister are part of the industry. Chity a says that his parents never influenced him to venture into the music industry, but he says when some of his brothers’ friends used to play in Sri Lankan rock bands in the 70’s, the sounds influenced him to become a rock musician.

He found the distorted guitar and high pitched vocals to be somewhat unique and progressive compared to other genres; later on he discovered that this genre originated from classical composition and blues.

Hard rock and heavy metal have been on his mind since his childhood, and in 1994 he decided to get away from the complete commercial night club circuit to concentrate only on writing and composing his own tunes in the hard rock genre.

He never looked back since that is what makes him happy, but he admits playing in commercial nightclubs gave him the best experience and the education in music.

During the time Chity started off, musicians did not have the possibilities they have today, since they did not have the internet and they only had two television channels and one radio station.

Colombo had only around three recording studios.
 
"Today everybody owns a studio, everybody does music even if they can or cannot, and everybody sings whether they can or cannot, but later on everything is fixed in the mix," he says with a smile.

He goes on to add that the upcoming artistes in genre of hard rock/ heavy metal should not lose their heads and be open minded to all areas of music in this world.
 
With so many questions being directed at him, we had to ask him about his performance of ‘Nadee Ganga’ and he says that he was asked to choose the specific song for it, and Mr. Bertram Nihal wrote the lyrics which he sang and arranged the music for.

He adds that he honestly never thought that the song will become such an anthem in Sri Lanka.

Currently, Chity is working on his Sinhala solo rock album, and has just finished his latest Red Circuit (German Progressive Metal).

‘Miringuwa Parada’ was his latest release and Chity says that it was a great opportunity working with Mr. Chandresh Kudwa who is a guitarist of A. R. Rahman. The response has been both positive and negative.

Would we see him contributing more to the local music industry? He eagerly answered with a yes and said he is trying to contribute his music to the film industry in Sri Lanka and he wants to go in that direction especially because his father was a film music director.

When inquired about his achievements, he says that he never ever thought that he will get to where he is right now.

But he adds and we quote "as you may know.. to get there it is a long winding road, with hard work, requiring focus and being positive which is the key".

A lot of people want to do music today with a dream of becoming famous and rich, which is absolutely not the way he was thinking when he started off; all he wanted to do was deliver quality music with passion and class, and he adds that he has been successful in achieving his goals.

We thank Chity for his time and for the contribution he has made to the industry, and of course the pride he has brought to every one of us by being a true Sri Lankan who is renowned internationally for his talents.

By Radhi De Silva