By Shailendree Wickrama Adittiya
Kasun Gunasekara – better known as Kalu on the internet – is a YouTuber with over 80,000 subscribers, known for series like SinduTaxi. One of his most popular videos, Misheard Sinhala Lyrics Part 2, posted five years ago, has close to one million views. Two weeks ago, he released his debut single, Mage Kiya, which has received a lot of positive comments, not just for the lyrics and melody, but also the creative video.
While Kasun is known for his work on YouTube, having gained over 4.6 million views since the start of his channel in 2015, he said this is his hobby, as he is a software engineer by profession and currently lives in Berlin. The Morning Brunch reached out to him to learn more about Mage Kiya, as well as what else he has in store for us.
Kasun’s debut single can be described as a beautiful melody combined with thought-provoking lyrics, and a music video that gives one an intimate look into the relationship between two persons, told over the course of three chapters. The singer revealed that a wonderfully talented team was behind this project, adding that it was a collective effort by a brilliant group of people.
‘Mage Kiya’
The melody is by Ushan Alahakoon, while lyrics are by Yashodha Adhikari, and music was produced by Denham Hakel. The video was directed and edited by Muvindu Binoy, also known as Bo Sedkid, cinematography by Pixel Morph, and direction assisted by Pamuditha Zen Anjana.
“This project started when Ushan randomly sent me a voice note on WhatsApp playing the piano and humming a beautiful melody. He told me my voice would fit nicely with this melody and asked me to try to make a song with it,” Kasun said, adding: “Ushan is one of my best friends from school days, and we used to jam together since 2005. I’ve always wanted to make an original song with Ushan, and finally, after almost 17 years, we made it come true.”
Kasun went on to say that he met Yashodha while gaming with friends online, and later became good friends.
“She is a well-known lyricist and has already written many famous songs. I used my gamer-bro advantage to get her to write lyrics for this melody. She definitely did a fantastic job with it!”
He added that the initial stage of music production for this track was by Omeshka Diaz and later taken over and completed by Denham Hakel. Kasun said they were both impressive in turning a simple melody into a very catchy and rich musical production.
Regarding Muvindu Binoy, a multidisciplinary artist, Kasun said he has been following Binoy’s work on films, visual arts/digital collages, and music for a long time, and has been a fan of his work.
“I sent him a sample of the song and asked if he would like to work on the video. I was not very confident he would say yes, because I felt this song might not be in his style. But to my surprise, he liked the vibe of the track, and we started working on the video.”
Kasun explained that Binoy wanted to experiment with bodies, shapes, and colours in this video.
“I gave him complete freedom to make the video entirely in his style. With the support of Pixel Morph and Pamuditha Zen Anjana, this brilliant video came to life. Hashini’s appearance in the video added extra glam to the video.”
Response
When asked how the response has been so far, Kasun said it has been immense, adding that he is grateful to everyone who took the time to listen to the song and watch the video. While sharing that people seem to love the song, with many saying they listen to it on repeat, Kasun said: “The response to the video is quite distinctive. The best compliment I received is that every frame of the video looks like art.”
Kasun went on to thank everyone who kept supporting and encouraging him in his content creation journey from the beginning to this day. It has been a long and varied journey, and when asked what went into cultivating over 80,000 subscribers, Kasun said he has never had a proper plan for his content, instead creating videos that made him feel good.
“I started my channel with a video series called ‘Misheard Sinhala Lyrics’ with the support of my Sri Lankan Twitter family. Their initial support helped kickstart my channel. I continued making videos experimenting with the latest social media trends. Eventually, from memes to comedy skits to vlogs to ‘Sindu Taxi’, my content started shifting more towards music.”
This naturally led him to want to produce his own music, and he finally took the initiative on this route during the Covid-19 break. “My single Mage Kiya is the very first outcome of it, but certainly won’t be the last.”
Kasun added that he has already started working on another song and hopes to finish it by the end of the year, saying: “Spoiler alert: This song is even catchier.”
