Andrew Siriwardena (@assasinandie), a Sri Lankan civil engineer currently residing in Auckland, New Zealand has released his debut single titled “Naa Mala”, which premiered on 9 October.
The official demo reel has since been viewed by an increasing number of locals, who have expressed their intrigue over the unique melody, describing it as “haunting”, and the accompanying music video has garnered some attention as well.
Naa Mala was produced by Tream X and was written by Andrew, who shared that he wrote the lyrics to the track upon hearing the melody that was shared with him courtesy of Tream X. Speaking about his other collaborators and those who played a hand in the production, he said: “Jay Prince hopped on the track after he heard the song. After the song was mixed and mastered, we kind of knew that it had a good vibe.”
On the accompanying music video which has since been gaining considerable attention online, Andrew shared that it was not at first in the cards for them, adding: “The video came about after releasing the audio. I felt that there was a lot of traction and interest and it made me want to do a music video.”
He said that the video was shot by VeeMedia, which shot and produced a video that Andrew released prior to “Naa Mala” and he said that he was quite taken by his work and that he “liked his shots and angles”. The music video was finally edited by @nuwaaaan.
We asked Andrew about the conceptualisation of the project and how the song came to be, to which he replied: “Thinking back to how the song came about, the hook of the song ‘oya naa mala nela waren, paya burulen thaba waren’ came about one day when I heard a Sinhalese kaviya on TV; it was so catchy and I loved the meaning, and the rest almost wrote itself, where my instinct was to go with a love song. The song became complete with Jay Prince's verse,” he said.
He shared that the video concept was inspired by a video by Gunner. “I wanted to create a sexy love scene but I wanted it to be shot in a creative and artistic way. My vision came together perfectly with the mastery of @tream_x_, Jay Prince, @rayanafonte, VeeMedia, @nuwaaaan, and @dinuk_2,” said Andrew.
Considering that Andrew is a fresh face to the music scene, we asked him about his interest in music and how a civil engineer from Auckland, New Zealand ended up releasing a Sinhala language music video. Andrew shared that from the time that he was in school he has always had an affliction to music and that he was drawn to a lot of hip hop and RnB music, listening to international artistes like Drake and Eminem and local artistes like BnS and Iraj. He said that such artistes inspired him to write his own music, and with regards to pursuing music full time, he stated: “Yes, the dream is to become a full-time musician.”
Being of Sri Lankan origin, Andrew shared that despite his love for New Zealand and it being where he currently resides, Sri Lanka will always remain special. “Sri Lanka will always be my home and a lot of my inspiration for my music stems from there. Although New Zealand is a beautiful place to live, I would love to one day come back home to pursue a career in music,” he said.
He also referred briefly to the talent in Sri Lanka and the potential for growth, stating: “There are a lot of talented kids out there, with a lot of creative music talent; young producers and rappers/singers that have the potential that needs to be recognised.”
Finally, Andrew shared that in terms of the future, while at present he has no solid plans as of yet, he is in the process of doing a few collaborations with some artistes at the moment, and that he is in fact planning to continue to make more music. If you wish to follow his work, you only need to follow him on his social media for updates.
Naa Mala was produced by Tream X and was written by Andrew, who shared that he wrote the lyrics to the track upon hearing the melody that was shared with him courtesy of Tream X. Speaking about his other collaborators and those who played a hand in the production, he said: “Jay Prince hopped on the track after he heard the song. After the song was mixed and mastered, we kind of knew that it had a good vibe.”
On the accompanying music video which has since been gaining considerable attention online, Andrew shared that it was not at first in the cards for them, adding: “The video came about after releasing the audio. I felt that there was a lot of traction and interest and it made me want to do a music video.”
He said that the video was shot by VeeMedia, which shot and produced a video that Andrew released prior to “Naa Mala” and he said that he was quite taken by his work and that he “liked his shots and angles”. The music video was finally edited by @nuwaaaan.
We asked Andrew about the conceptualisation of the project and how the song came to be, to which he replied: “Thinking back to how the song came about, the hook of the song ‘oya naa mala nela waren, paya burulen thaba waren’ came about one day when I heard a Sinhalese kaviya on TV; it was so catchy and I loved the meaning, and the rest almost wrote itself, where my instinct was to go with a love song. The song became complete with Jay Prince's verse,” he said.
He shared that the video concept was inspired by a video by Gunner. “I wanted to create a sexy love scene but I wanted it to be shot in a creative and artistic way. My vision came together perfectly with the mastery of @tream_x_, Jay Prince, @rayanafonte, VeeMedia, @nuwaaaan, and @dinuk_2,” said Andrew.
Considering that Andrew is a fresh face to the music scene, we asked him about his interest in music and how a civil engineer from Auckland, New Zealand ended up releasing a Sinhala language music video. Andrew shared that from the time that he was in school he has always had an affliction to music and that he was drawn to a lot of hip hop and RnB music, listening to international artistes like Drake and Eminem and local artistes like BnS and Iraj. He said that such artistes inspired him to write his own music, and with regards to pursuing music full time, he stated: “Yes, the dream is to become a full-time musician.”
Being of Sri Lankan origin, Andrew shared that despite his love for New Zealand and it being where he currently resides, Sri Lanka will always remain special. “Sri Lanka will always be my home and a lot of my inspiration for my music stems from there. Although New Zealand is a beautiful place to live, I would love to one day come back home to pursue a career in music,” he said.
He also referred briefly to the talent in Sri Lanka and the potential for growth, stating: “There are a lot of talented kids out there, with a lot of creative music talent; young producers and rappers/singers that have the potential that needs to be recognised.”
Finally, Andrew shared that in terms of the future, while at present he has no solid plans as of yet, he is in the process of doing a few collaborations with some artistes at the moment, and that he is in fact planning to continue to make more music. If you wish to follow his work, you only need to follow him on his social media for updates.