It’s been 5 months since Lasith Fernando’s debut release ‘Mathaka Mal’ and he’s back at it again with his own brand of Sinhala rock/pop for the soul. His second single is simply titled ‘Oba’ and is scheduled for release on the 30th of June. 

Over the past six years Lasith has made a name for himself playing the Colombo pub and bar circuit performing English tunes. So he surprised a lot of people, including himself, when he recorded and released ‘Mathaka Mal’, a slow Sinhala rock ballad, in January this year. We spoke to Lasith and this is what he had to say.

“You know, for the longest time I had this idea in my head that musicians in Sri Lanka had to categorize themselves as either English musicians or Sinhala musicians,” says Lasith. “But when I wrote and released ‘Mathaka Mal’ there was this wonderful moment of realization I had that there was music both Sinhala and English coming out of me, and that I was actually free to release music in whichever language I chose. Since then I’ve been writing music both in English and in Sinhala and I only have to worry about which language does the most justice to the idea and feeling of a specific tune.” 

Lasith’s second release “Oba” is best described as a contemporary pop/rock tune painted with a classic rock palette and stylized with nuances of old school Sinhala pop. 

“In my experience as a songwriter I’ve realized that I do my best writing when I least expect it,” adds Lasith. “Which was exactly the case with ‘Oba’. I remember I came home one night at some god forsaken hour and I was just playing around on my guitar, half asleep, and not really thinking about what I was doing. The next thing I knew was that I had the whole song penned out in my mind and I was already in love with it. So I’m really excited to release this one.”

‘Oba’ will be available for free listening on Lasith’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/lasithfernando and he only asks that you show some support by sharing the song if you like it enough. For those of you who would like to go a step further, ‘Oba’ will also be available for purchase/streaming on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify and other music services. 

For more details on Lasith’s music you can check out his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/lasithfernandomusic