Maime Indan by Rookantha Goonatillake

As I’m into classic rock music, I decided to write a blog post about a great rock song from my country

Sri Lanka to share it with the world. The song is “Maime Indan” by singer Rookantha Goonatillake

and it has a classic rock feel. I previously wrote a similar blog post about another Sri Lankan rock

song, that being Senaka Batagoda’s “Api Kawruda”. I’m embedding the YouTube audio of the song

below which was uploaded by Sri Lankan record label Torana Music. You can listen to it as you read

my thoughts on the song below.

It opens with intense catchy guitar riffs which is soon followed by Rookantha’s singing. The first

singing part is the chorus. The electric guitars aren’t there while Rookantha sings and the electric

guitar riffs come during the breaks. After Rookantha’s singing there is a good guitar solo. Towards

the end of the guitar solo, it’s nice to have it followed by some organ notes. Then there’s the first

verse which takes the melody to a good place. The organ while low in the mix continues to play a

good role in the song. It’s good to hear Rookantha accompanied with the backing vocalists sing

along with the melody something like “do lo lo lo lo … ” at the end of the verse. 

Then we get another guitar solo similar to the previous one which is combined with good organ

parts. The second verse is then sung. The verse concludes with Rookantha and the backing

vocalists again singing along with the melody. Then the chorus returns. The chorus seems more

intense this time with some increase in the electric guitar parts. In Rookantha’s last words he sings

along with the melody again. This time he sings with a different set of sounds, something like “tor low

low low … ”. The song concludes with intense guitar riffs accompanied by the organ which closes

the song with the hauntingly fading organ echoes. This song has an unusual and unique structure of

chorus, guitar solo, verse, guitar solo, verse and chorus. 

“Maime Indan” is a powerful song with a good melody, energy, rocking guitar parts and good

accompaniment by the organ. It is a great example of Sri Lankan creativity. I hope this song gets

discovered by people throughout the world.

Api Kawruda by Senaka Batagoda

In this post I am sharing a song I love called ‘Api Kawruda’. This song comes from Sri Lanka and was a Sri Lankan hit by the band Wayo in 2012. However, it was written by a songwriter named Senaka Batagoda whose version remained unreleased until December 2015. While this song is in Sinhalese, it has a classic rock feel where I see similarities with the music of my two favourite singers Elton John & Bob Seger. It sounds like Elton John’s song ‘England And America’ from the Deluxe edition of his 2016 album “Wonderful Crazy Night”, with the biggest similarities being the melody and the piano. I also find it to sound like a Bob Seger song (more on that later). I am embedding the song from Senaka Batagoda’s YouTube Channel here, and the YouTube video is a slideshow so the readers can listen to the song as they read this post where I describe it and point out what makes this song special.

It opens with acoustic guitars and is then followed by piano played by Janath Kulathilake. The first verse starts off softly using a mix of acoustic guitar and piano. In the second half of the first verse, the song becomes faster. In the chorus, the piano gets louder and throughout the song it is melodic and gives energy. In the first instance of the chorus, the song is able to be both gentle and rocking at the same time with the piano giving a rock feel. Janath plays a great piano riff throughout the chorus that’s a big part of this song.

The second verse starts off similar to the first verse. About two minutes into the song in the middle of the second verse, we noticeably hear the organ (also played by Janath Kulathilake) which gives the song a real Bob Seger feel being reminiscent of the usage of the piano/organ combination in some Bob Seger songs. After this verse is concluded, electric guitars come in the chorus making the song rock more. Once the electric guitars come, we can see that this song has the Bob Seger sound of piano, acoustic guitar, electric guitar and organ that he has used in some of his songs. The electric guitars give a new dimension to the song and it’s good to hear the chorus done differently. When the chorus ends there is a great rocking guitar solo which is accompanied well by the piano. The final section of the song is the chorus once again followed by some good electric guitar parts that concludes the song.

I’m writing this post to give exposure to what I see as a great Sri Lankan song to the world. The song has energy, a catchy melody and rocks in a good way. I think Senaka’s voice sounds a bit similar to the Sri Lankan songwriter and performer Clarence Wijewardena. He sings the song with passion that’s part of its strength. I’d be interested to hear people’s thoughts on the song. I hope this song will grow in its reach connecting with people in all corners of the world. Thank you Senaka for writing a very special song.