Sri Lanka’s Ultimate Teen Magazine Chokolaate had a chat with local composer Gihan “Daffy Maestro” Senevirathne.
The below article appeared on the April issue of Chokolaate.
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Just 24 hours ago Daffy Maestro (Gihan Senevirathne) released yet another another piece of fine music. Enjoy!
Self made and taught composer Daffy Maestro aka Gihan Senevirathne, has released four new tracks within the last three months which I have failed to post due to laziness and an ever troubled internet connection. Sorry about that Daffy.
Now I present to you the amazing Daffy Maestro!
Birds (♥♥♥) - Must Listen [Purchase]
Tropic
Drunken Dudes
Slaves to the gates of hell (Seruos ad portas inferi)
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I urge you all to pay close attention to the track titled Birds which is an absolute magical composition. The vibe it resonates is eerily relaxing and is as beautiful as music can get.
Daffy’s music was also aired on Yes FM’s Home Grown radio show and as a result is now in the public eye. My congratulations & wishes for the man behind the midi keyboard, Daffy Maestro.
Introducing the end product of months and months of slaving in front of the computer. This is Daffy Maestro, this blog’s first Promo artist, releasing his latest product in electronic music, “Heart Has It’s Reason”.
According to the description the genre has been labeled as Ambient Electronic and after a couple of listens ambiance is exactly what this track emanated.
Give it a listen and spread the word on this budding local talent.
I was able to get hold of a local composer who had learned the art of composing music all by himself after many years of experimenting with music composing software. According Gihan Senevirathne alias Daffy Maestro he isn’t a professional producer who makes music for a living neither did he start this off as a serious hobby but as seconds turned to minutes and subsequently to hours this mere hobby turned into a more fruitful venture.
Daffy has never had the opportunity of learning a musical instrument through a teacher and therefore has come to accumulate this knowledge solely by his determination and love for music…and not forgetting free pieces of cracked software. After realizing the positive feedback of this mere hobby things started to get serious, so serious that he eventually dished out thousands of rupees to upgrade his computer and buy new pieces of hardware required for audio production.
According to Daffy he has spent around Rupees 85k on his Core2Duo PC which he purchased about 2 years back and another whooping 30k on other pieces of music related computer hardware. If that ain’t Passion I don’t know what is!
After having the opportunity of communicating with Daffy Maestro via GLK’s online messaging system, I was able to gain some insight as to how his journey progressed.
1.) Do you play any instruments? If so what are they?
My basic instruments are my computer and the midi keyboard. Unfortunately I don’t have the skill to play live, and it’s a weakness of mine. I want to improve that. The reason would be because I never had a music teacher. Every thing I know about music is from my own exploration. I think that is why I can’t play covers and live instruments.
2.) When did you start experimenting with FL Studio? And how long did it take to master it?
Well, I have a cousin at the time I was following my O/L’s, he and his crew were doing an experimental rap band. They started performing in talent shows etc. so all the production was done at his home. One of his friends was a DJ, and he has been using some software like Wave Lab, Ejay, FL Studio 2.0 and some drum machines. And that was the first time I saw it. and every time I went there I started making drum beats and hip hop loops, and it felt kind of cool to do something of your own. My cousins were laughing at me, saying “KELE SANGEETHAYA” (jungle music). After O/Ls I bought my first PC, then I started using FL Studio 3 & 5. All my early tracks were produced using FL Studio 5. Sadly I have only the mp3 versions of them, because few years back the main hard drive stopped working and I lost my entire project file.
Many years of work went *puff*. I almost cried that day. So I started building a PC again. And I’ve been using it ever since with FL Studio 7 & 9. I finished “Leech in my Pocket”, “The Bright Light Which Went Up” and “Smile” with FL Studio 9. For the track “Smile” I used Reason 5 also. I’ve never done a track completely with Reason because it is not as user friendly as FL.
So I tried Rewiring (a software bridge between two DAWs) FL and Reason. Plus i have to mention my other gear which I’m using right now. A midi keyboard (Behringer UMX 490), USB Audio interface (Behringer UCA 222) and near field monitors (Behringer MS-20). The midi keyboard was my latest addition to my stuff. It really made things such making new melodies and experimenting new instruments much easier. Earlier I was using the software keyboard, it was really difficult to try out new rhythms and play at the same time.
3.) Have you done any music production related courses before? Or is it all trial & error?
As I mentioned earlier I learned everything about music by my self because it was like a hobby. I never took it seriously until I thought of publishing some in YouTube. Then I saw the TNL Life website and thought I should put more effort into this and started learning more and more. How the chords are theoretically developed, reading and understanding sheet music etc, but still there are lot more to be explored.
Lots of technical knowledge came from my experience in electronics and home studio web forums. They gave good background knowledge on mastering and finalizing a session. But at the end of the day it’s about how YOU want your track to sound like.
4.) Did this mere hobby ventured into something more serious?
Well I had a chance to take part in a Game development program. I saw them in this site and they were looking for programmers who could volunteer to help them. I’m not a programmer, so I asked them if they want some kind of theme or in game sound track, & I would love to do it for them. Next day he PMed me for a Skype call unfortunately I couldn’t make that call as I was celebrating my birthday at Colombo. At first I wasn’t even sure to pitch such proposal since making your own music is quite simple as opposed to making for somebody because you have to satisfy not only yourself but your client as well, and within a given time slot. But its kind ok though, something’s are not meant to be.
5.) Roughly how long did you spend on a single piece of music?
When I was studying I spent the whole Saturday evening in front of my PC messing around with the software trying out beats and melodies. And at some point you think “well this looks nice” and start developing and adding more instruments and effects to it. Then you begin listening to it, over and over again. Some sounds are simply accidental.
When I began working in Colombo a few years back, I had very little time to spend on making music, so it took months to start and finish a track.
“Leech in my pocket” took more than 6 months to finish. It was my first Trance+Glitch+Progressive track. Same happened with “Smile”.
Since I’ve started working at home, things have changed a bit. My mind is at peace therefore allowing me to be more productive with time.
6.) Are the composed pieces of music a reflection of your favorite genres?
Yes, Electronica, symphonic- techno, little bit of house music, trip-hop. downtempo/lounge, Glitch etc.
7.) Name some of your favorite artistes?
My favorite artist is Bonobo, he’s from the UK and his music sounds quite similar to mine. He’s a legend!
Amon Tobin, a genius in sound morphing. He did the splinter cell game score few years back.
Eskmo , pretty lights (hiphop-ish electronica artist from US) ,
Massive Attack , Emancipator (truly amazing artist), Nujabes (from Japan. RIP), Hasn Zimmer ( I’ve always wanted to pick his brain), Glitch Mob, Emika etc.
I can forever go on about favorite artistes. These artistes gave me the inspiration to continue on with my passion.
8.) Did you import your equipment or did you buy them locally?
All of them were purchased locally. I have to mention Dynamic Audio Visual, they supplied me with all the Behringer products I wanted. I really enjoyed doing business with them.
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