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Interview with Chity Somapala - Firewind
Firewind is a group of fiery young True Heavy Metal masters, led by Greek Guitar God Gus G. and now of course fronted by Chity Somapala. "Forged by Fire" is the bands Century Media Debut, as their last two albums (both of which received immense amounts of critical acclaim all over the world) were released by David t. Chastain's Leviathan Records label and featured vocalist Stephen Fredrick.
It is a true pleasure to do my first interview for RevelationZ with Chity Somapala, vocalist extraordinaire and Sri Lankan Heavy Metal God, who is making his explosive debut with Firewind on their latest, greatest, and third release "Forged by Fire." In my opinion, Chity is one of the best and most versatile vocalists to come out of the European Power Metal scene, and so I feel a great sense of accomplishment and am very pleased to be able to have the privilege of interrogating Mr. Somapala today.
Jonah: Hello Chity! I would like to start the interview by thanking you on behalf of myself, your fans, and Revelationz.net for taking the time to answer my questions today. I was first introduced and amazed by your work on the Moonlight Agony debut, which I had the pleasure of reviewing for this site last month. And now that I finally have the Firewind promo in my hands, I have to say that you truly do kick ass on many levels, one of which is the delivery and aggressive quality of your vocals. What kind of conscious approach do you take when laying down the vocal tracks in the studio?
Chity: I do approach in a very simple form! I try to fit into the song as much as possible and I sing the whole song in a about 5/6 takes and then I dig the best parts out of it.
Jonah: In addition to being a big enthusiast of your work, I am also a big Gus G. fan. Can you tell us what it was like to work with him in the studio?
Chity: Working with GUS was really great! We both met in Greece for about 2 weeks and finished all the songs quite fast. All ideas he and I had it just fitted perfect and the whole album was done in about 3 weeks.
Jonah: How much creative freedom were you given with your vocals? Did Gus G. have a big say in what you were doing with the arrangements, was it all you, or was it a mixture of the two?
Chity: I did mostly the vocal lines and lyrics and Gus did all the musicial arrangements, I was free to do what I wanted.
Jonah: Can you tell me about how you got into the Metal Scene, and a bit about your background as a singer?
Chity: I have been in the music scene for a long time as you know that I'm from Sri Lanka, my parents were very well known artists, they were more into Sri Lankan folklore music and made really big hits back in the 50's,60's and in 70's. My father was a Film Music Director, he did write music for about 65 movies and my mother was a singer, so it's quite common that I get the talent from them huh? I got into music end of 70's and Started playing Bass in Top 40 bands and traveled to Europe with one of them and decided in 1994 to move on to hard rock/metal vein as I loved it from my childhood to be a rock singer. So this is how everything happened ? The story is too long to tell hahahahaha
Jonah: Who are some of your biggest vocal heroes, and how have they influenced the shape of your career and style?
Chity: I love Tony Martin/Ian Gillen/Robin Mcaully,Joe Lynn Turner,Dio and etc. I love all Classic Rock singers Back in the 70's to 80's era. The list is too big hahahaha :)
Jonah: I understand that you toured Japan last January with Firewind, with support from Rob Rock of Impellitteri. Can you tell us about that experience? Did the Japanese fans live up to their reputation as being the most rabid?
Chity: Playing in Japan was a great experience, Of course Gus have been there before many many times and it was the first time for FIREWIND to approach Japanese fans! With FORGED BY FIRE we also enterd the 90 th position on the Japanese Top 100 in November 2004.I love the japanese fans!
Jonah: How did you get involved with Firewind? Who contacted who and what was the sequence of events that led to this mighty merge?
Chity: I was contacted by GUS through David T Chastain. He knew my previous band AVALON and he liked my vocal style and asked me to do an audition for Firewind.
Jonah: What are your favorite tracks on "Forged by Fire" and why?
Chity: I Love almost everything and its difficult for me to say a specific track :)
Jonah: Well thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions. Keep on melting faces and I hope to see you guys on tour sometime over here in the States (a Firewind/Nightrage tour would rule!).
Chity: THANK YOU JONAH and KEEP THE FAITH IN METAL!
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Written by Jonah - 1/16/2005 |
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RevelationZ Comments
| Comment by MOOKY (Anonymous) - Sunday, June 5, 2005 | MY FAVORITE SONG FROM FORGED BY FIRE IS TYRANNY, I DOWNLOAD IT CAN'T AFFORD THE REAL CD RIGHT NOW, BUT I WILL BUY IT ASAP... WHERE CAN I FIND THE LYRICS TO TYRANNY?
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