According to local musician Lasith Fernando, “once you get the ball rolling, producing your own music, it just keeps pushing from inside you, and it’s hard to not put it out.”‘Localize it’ is a gig that aims to bring together local songwriters and audiences with a love for original, homegrown music. It’s local musicians coming to promote the idea that they, do have original music and that people could actually visit a pub or a cafe and enjoy that sort of music too, aside from the covers that are usually performed. Lasith feels that the local music industry is “poised for a big take off,” “I see so much new music coming out from local artistes every day. And I think more and more people are starting to actively consume local music, along with music from other countries.So I think it’s actually a very exciting time to be an upcoming artiste putting out music in Sri Lanka,” he tells us. According to him the industry is rift with challenges.And one of the biggest challenges he’s faced is the mentality of most venues that hire local musicians.

Source: Sunday Times March 31, 2017 08:48 UTC