• Suresh de Silva on his debut solo single ‘Shrine’

Suresh de Silva is no stranger to Sri Lanka’s music industry and even listeners who aren’t a fan of metal are bound to have heard of Stigmata. However, Suresh is now bringing us a different tune, one that is described as raw, honest, and emotionally charged, with his debut solo single ‘Shrine’.

Available on all leading streaming platforms, ‘Shrine’ is the first of many songs that would be painting Suresh in a different light. He is hoping to release an album next year, and spoke to The Daily Morning Brunch about coming forth not as the out-of-the-box performer listeners are used to but as Suresh de Silva, the human being.

Stigmata to ‘Shrine’

Suresh’s debut solo single is different to his work with Stigmata, with the singer explaining that Stigmata writes fairly complex music, dealing with fairly complex themes. “This is pretty straight, raw, and unhinged. Thematically, lyrically it’s very introspective and personal. I’m literally letting myself bleed out emotionally and emotively for this.”

He added that ‘Shrine’ was in a way therapeutic because it was a release, reflecting an experiential journey of being able to talk about things he hadn’t talked about before. Things also changed since he got married and had a daughter, Suresh said.

“This is personal. It’s holding a microscope or lens to whatever it is that’s going on in me, Suresh de Silva, the human being, the personal guy – not the crazy, out-of-the-box idiosyncratic creature that people have got used to seeing on stage,” he went on to say.

However, the solo single in no way signals a moving away from Stigmata. Suresh said he was very happy with Stigmata, which pushes the envelope in terms of creativity and innovation, with no boundaries on what they can and can’t do. The band is celebrating its silver jubilee and Suresh said he was pleased to be working on their next album.

He thus wasn’t removing himself from the band or making a big show of launching a solo career. “Throughout my career, I’ve dabbled in theatre. I have a side project called Seraphic Lament with Sanjeev Niles where we pay homage to fallen singers, but I don’t do too many projects away from Stigmata because I’m very content with Stigmata,” he said.

When asked if his work with Stigmata made him have concerns about people’s response to ‘Shrine’, Suresh said some expected the single to be similar to Stigmata’s music, perhaps not giving it a chance because of this.

“You can’t create or not create art based on that. That’s one thing I’ve learnt in my nearly three decades of creating music, doing theatre, and writing books. If you create it for yourself without having any expectations, it tends to pick up and do well. It’s really shocking. It’s unexplainable,” Suresh said.

Thus, with encouragement from his wife, Jessica, as well as Malcolm F. Boteju, who produced, engineered, and did additional instrumentation for ‘Shrine’, and Blue Piano Music Studio, Suresh decided to open artist pages on social media platforms and take his debut solo single to a larger audience.

A week after being released, Suresh said he heard that it was playing in the United States. “I’m happy that people are taking to it,” he added, sharing that ‘Shrine’ resonated and connected with people.

While all music, lyrics, vocals, and guitar are by Suresh, the ‘Shrine’ artwork is by EvilCat Lab, artwork photography by Vintage Soul, and styling by Camy Angelina Stave.

A shrine to storytelling

It was in fact his wife’s reprimanding that led to ‘Shrine’. Suresh said he has always had a lot of creativity pent up. “Storytelling is an integral part of my life, whether I do it as an author or poet, a lecturer or a brand and business strategist, a key motivation speaker, or the vocalist of Stigmata or on stage,” Suresh said, adding that he was always cranking out tunes and creating things – something he finds therapeutic.

However, all these creations kept stacking up, with Suresh likening himself to a hoarder when it comes to creative work. He explained that if he composed a song and it seemed cool enough, he would save it on his phone and keep it for a rainy day. “Sometimes I will take it out of the ether if I think it will fit something that Stigmata is doing. More often than not, sadly, they just end up getting forgotten and lost in obscurity because you always keep creating new stuff and the old stuff you create takes a backseat. It’s on the back burner.”

However, a few months ago, Jessica chastised him, telling him to record these songs instead of only recording parts of them or scribbling ideas in notebooks.

Among these ideas was ‘Shrine’, and since it had been completed, Suresh got in touch with Malcolm and later recorded ‘Shrine’ at Blue Piano Music Studio. “After I recorded it, the tall and short of it is, it sounded a lot better than I envisaged initially and it took on a life of its own. Then I recorded a second song. And I recorded a third song,” he said.

While Suresh is currently working on these songs, he said a full-length album may be released by mid-2025 or sooner. He said: “I am taking it one song at a time, but the fact that I started this a few months ago and three songs are already complete means it’s definitely something that’s happening sooner than later.”

He added that he has composed all the songs he wants to record and that it was now a matter of going to the studio and recording them. The album could be a 10-12 track album, he said.

In terms of what people can expect, Suresh said: “It’s a departure from Stigmata’s music. This has turned into an ode to 70s, 80s, and 90s gothic country, folk, and acoustic rock music.” He explained that having been born in the 80s and growing up as a teenager in the 90s, he was hugely inspired by those like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and Collective Growth.

A massive fan of all eras of Bon Jovi, Suresh said he was a superfan of 90s Bon Jovi, especially the ‘These Days’ album. He also said the era of ‘MTV Unplugged’ informed a lot of his growth as a creative artist.

‘Shrine’ is said to musically and lyrically take listeners back to the days when music wasn’t overproduced and overly reliant on plug-ins and tech, with Suresh saying a lot of the music today is digitised, sounding the same. Listeners have drawn similarities between ‘Shrine’ and acoustic Led Zeppelin and Guns N’ Roses, he said, adding: “I’m a firm believer that we hear things differently and we interpret things differently, whether we read a book, watch a movie, or listen to music.”

“My go to for ‘Shrine’ was to create a raw, unhinged ambience of what it felt like when you heard a Richard Marx song in the 80s,” Suresh said. He went on to say that the song was receiving positive feedback regardless of what genre of music people like, and that it seemed to be crossing over age barriers.

“I think it goes to show that if you do something from the heart without overcomplicating things and relying too much on tech, there’s still a place for good old art and music where if a person just plays an instrument and sings his heart out, people still appreciate that,” Suresh said, thanking all those who have listened to ‘Shrine’ and supported him.