Lasith Fernando’s new single ‘Oba’ out on 30 June

It’s been five 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 30 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. 

“You know, for the longest time I had this idea in my head that musicians in Sri Lanka had to categorise themselves as either English musicians or Sinhala musicians,” says Lasith. “But when I wrote and released ‘Mathaka Mal’ there was this wonderful moment of realisation 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 stylised with nuances of old school Sinhala pop. 

“In my experience as a songwriter I’ve realised that I do my best writing when I least expect it,” adds Lasith. “This was exactly the case with ‘Oba’. I remember I came home one night at some odd hour and I was just noodling around on my guitar, half asleep, and not really thinking about what I was doing. But the next thing I knew 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.