Sri Lankan musician makes it to the top of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest
Saturday, 14 March 2015 00:00
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Sri Lankan born Musician/Composer Dimitri Zaik snagged the top spot amongst the final prize winners under the ‘World Music’ category for Session II at the annual John Lennon Songwriting Contest 2014.
The John Lennon songwriting contest is an international songwriting contest, which began in 1997, having been set up in memory of John Lennon by his wife Yoko Ono. Amateur and professional songwriters from all over the world can submit entries in one of the 12 categories. It’s open all year round and features two seasons.
This year’s judges included George Clinton, Prince Royce, Flea of The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Jim Steinman, Sean Paul, Jessica Jarrell, Bob Weir, Matthew Koma, Art Alexakis of Everclear, Mike Sapone, Nick Hexum of 311, Jimmy Cliff, Switchfoot, The Lone Bellow, Gaby Moreno, Angela Hunte, Ray Dalton, Taylor Momsen, Sheila E., Bryan-Michael Cox, Jesse Harris, Natasha Bedingfield, Trevor Gale, Fergie of The Black Eyed Peas, The Bacon Brothers, Reeve Carney, Bootsy Collins and The Veronicas.
The contest is sponsored by some of the biggest names in the music industry including Apple, Yamaha, Epiphone, Native Instruments, NAMM, Audio Technica and Musician’s Friend.
Great achievement
This has been a great achievement for a Sri Lankan born artist in an international scene as the contest is open to anyone, from anywhere in the world. So each year there are thousands upon thousands of entries in 12 musical categories.
Dimitri’s feat is even more impressive as he came just second to the Grand Prize winner in the World Category which is by far the most diverse genre of the competition, with the most number of contestants.
The track titled ‘Antigen Society’ off his debut album ‘Magellanic Clouds’ which was composed, recorded and produced solely by him, was the only instrumental track to have made it through to the finals of one of the world’s most prestigious songwriting and music competitions.
The ‘Magellanic Clouds’ is part one of Dimitri’s series ‘A Dandelion Clock’ which is a multi-sensory story that is told across a spectrum of music, writing, graphic novels and video clips. The full ‘Magellanic Clouds’ soundtrack is available for download via iTunes, Google Play or Amazon and the rest of the story is currently being produced in Melbourne, Australia as an on going series. Learn more about the books and stories at www.adandelionclock.com.
Real underdog story
Dimitri has been involved in music composition and production for over a decade now, relentlessly chasing down his dreams. His is the real underdog story. There were no shortcuts. No abundance of money to fund his endeavours and not a soul on the crew of his productions to date.
Pursuing the dream of breathing new life into independent art has been fuelled by determination, affordable meals and sleepless nights. This is in part what makes Dimitri’s art so wonderfully real and full of truth. His efforts were first recognised by major USA-based Cymbal Manufacturer Soultone Cymbals in 2010, and he has since been on their roster as an official artist.
Dimitri’s writing has already gone viral with his quote from his ‘Ink Bleeder’ excerpts, “I want to be alone... with someone else who wants to be alone” having more than half a million shares, reblogs, memes and retweets. The quote has also been featured on Thought Catalogues Top Ten Introvert Quotes. It also clocked in at number 25, with Sylvia Plath and Paulo Coelho immediately on either side, on Introvert Springs official top 100 introvert quotes of all time.
Photographic talent
Dimitri is also a photographer who, in 2012, made a breakthrough to illustrate world renowned author Neil Gaiman’s (American Gods, Stardust, Sandman) tie-up project with Blackberry’s Keep Moving Campaign for ‘A Calendar Of Tales’.
Dimitri again went up against tens of thousands of the world’s best illustrators and beat all odds to be the only submitting artist to be shortlisted for three months. He went on to make it to the official calendar as runner up for May and November Tales. His work was the only photographic medium to make it into the shortlist. The images can be viewed at www.acalendaroftales.com.
Creative digital artist
Along with all this, Dimitri is a creative digital artist and founder of the independent design & production agency Insomnia Inc, which has designed several high end websites for companies around the world.
Insomnia Inc is also the innovator and designer of the unique and popular limited edition collectible calendar series, which made its debut in 2015 with ‘Gentle Giants’. The calendar featured twelve emotionally charged photographs of Sri Lankan Elephants for the LTL Group this year.
Wildlife enthusiast
Dimitri’s love for wildlife and mother earth with a penchant for elephants has lead him down a road alongside his father to run one of the oldest and largest communities for Sri Lankan elephants.
One of the most memorable projects that they undertook was an independently funded project at Uda Walawe to search for the iconic tusker of the park, ‘Walawe Raja’, that went missing after last being sighted with a concerning injury.
While Raja remains missing in action to this day, the project created considerable awareness and interest about the plight of wild elephant in Sri Lanka. You can support and join the cause at www.srilankaelephant.com or www.facebook.com/srilankaelphant.
Pix by Natasa Leoni
