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Rosh Goonewardena and Dan Gravett are the two musically gifted young men who make up the duo ‘RND’. The lifelong friends embraced music and the stage from an early age, showing off their talent in primary school productions through to A-Level Music and beyond. Having formed as a professional act in 2004, they have already performed in numerous London University shows including GKT Diwali, Mega Maalai, Face Off and East meets West, collaborated with producer Alan Sampson (the man behind the recent Jay Sean hit ‘Ride it’), sang with the likes of talented artists Mumzy and Abi and worked with world famous producer Rishi Rich. Not bad when you consider this duo successfully completed degrees in Mathematics and Music Technology and maintain full time jobs whilst simultaneously nurturing their musical career. With a sizzling combination of enthusiasm, musical prowess, angelic harmonies, good looks and catchy beats, this duo have been electrifying audiences throughout
SL2UK caught up with RND before their live PA at the regular What’s the background of RND? How did you form? D – It all started at college really, but we’ve known each other since primary school R - We go way back. D – Then we went through secondary school and college together. At college we studied A-Level Music and we formed a boy band together. There were 4 of us all together, a cliché boy band! We were 16 and it took us off really because we weren’t actually singers before we started, we were musicians. R – That’s actually how I got into the boy band, I play grade 8 on the piano, I didn’t sing at first. I was doing the ‘Owws’ and the ‘Ahhs’! Dan is a grade 8 trumpet player, so we both have a classical background. Then, as A-levels went on we began singing some leads. D – We met our 2 other band members in college and formed the boy band which got us into singing. It developed from there really. R – Then we went off to university and that’s how the boy band split up. Luckily, I was in D – It was mainly occasional gigs, nothing too intense We were really just doing it as a hobby at first. Professionally speaking we have been together for a couple of years. Our first gig together was probably in the 2nd year of University. We graduated in 2006. Time’s flying by!
D - It’s tough, very hard work. We’re both full time but we both work the same hours so that’s quite handy. We get home, have dinner and then get on with the music in the evenings. Studio time is either in the evenings or weekends. R – Recently we built a little studio in my garage so that helps! So now when we write or when we meet people or when we want to do some recording we don’t have to trek down the motorway to get to the studio. D – Yeah, it’s about having a good environment and this is convenient, so that’s helped a lot. So if your music careers take off in a big way are you prepared to bid farewell to your current jobs? Both – Yes! The jobs are bye-bye! R – I’ve already told my manager! D – We would love to do it right now of course, but it funds the music, so at the moment it’s cool. Who are your musical influences both past and present? Both – Brian McKnight, he’s definitely number one. D – Boys II Men. When we started in the boy band it was all about Boys II Men. We were also inspired by some ‘N Sync music. R – Justin Timberlake is quite an inspiration D – Stevie Wonder. Basically, all the Soul and RnB legends. That’s where our passion lies. If you could pick your 2 favourite RND songs what would they be? D – Well we write our own songs, we could write slow jams all day really! R – My song would be ‘Tell me’, it’s on our Myspace page, but we aren’t performing it tonight as it’s not a club song. It’s quite commercial, poppy, nice to listen to. D – I’d probably agree….but I think one of our new tracks called ‘Fly Away’ is one of my favourites as well actually. R – I’ve written a song which nobody has heard. It won’t be played today but it’s from past experience. However, when we do RND material we try and cancel out the independent songs and just get more into our commercial sounds. D – Sometimes if you talk in detail about stuff in your life people can’t always relate to it. So with our more recent music we are trying to get that edge where people can really relate to it.
What’s the background behind your favourites songs ‘Fly Away’ and ‘Tell Me’? D – Well Fly away is quite a new track and it’s got a good concept behind it. It’s a feel good song, a summer tune, so it’s a good time to try and get it out there. We are working on it with Alan Sampson. It’s been really good collaborating with him. R – It’s a nice song because it’s about breaking free, quitting your job which is quite apt for us! I think it’s quite a refreshing tune. D – ‘Tell me’, well it’s just a good song! What we have done previously has been quite beat orientated with Synthesisers etc, but ‘Tell Me’ is with guitar. So when we perform it live we sit down with the acoustic guitar and we sing with harmonies in it too, which appeals to a different sort of audience. If you go down the pure RnB route sometimes you’ve got to be careful as it becomes quite specialist. We just want to have a track which is fairly commercial and appeals to a wider audience. How do you think you differ from what’s out there in the D – Well, for starters there’s no band with a Sri Lankan guy and a white guy, so that’s a good advantage with us! We have a different sound because there are not many duets out there and we are both classically trained. Also because of our influences we are all about harmony, close harmony and there’s not a lot of groups out there which are currently doing that. R – I’m not sure what other bands are like but we write everything, we do the music, we do the lyrics, and we do the melodies, so we literally work from start to finish. D – I think the good thing about us is unlike some artists who go on stage, do PA’s and aren’t singing half their songs, we actually come from a live background. The studio work is still fairly new to us, we are still learning, but with our live shows we have a good bulk of experience there. You have worked with producer Alan Sampson. How did that come about? R – That came from our 2nd gig. It was ‘Mega Malaai’, an D – So it was a lucky break really. He came and introduced himself afterwards and it went from there. He invited us down and a partnership was formed.
D – Hugely. The studio side was really new to us. Going to the studio was really refreshing. It was the first proper one that we had been down to, so all of our studio technique we learnt from Alan. R – Even with song writing and production he has really guided us. The immensely successful Rishi Rich produced a track for you. What was it like to work with him? D – Yeah we worked with him on a track called ‘Chinese Girl’. There was actually an original to that, an Alan Sampson production, which is a slow jam. At the time Alan was doing some work with Rishi so they were quite close. Rishi heard ‘Chinese Girl’ and wanted to do something with it. So we took it away and did the remix version with him. R – It was cool working with him, he was a really nice guy, very down to earth. D – A lot of the stuff we were recording was acoustic and mainly with Alan. Rishi did the production side of it. So although we communicated with him it was already a ‘done project’. Rishi worked on that and did his own thing with it. R – The bulk of the work was already done for that one. How was it winning the ‘Best Music Act’ at the R – Yeah that was cool, really nice. It’s the first award we’ve won so it’s good encouragement. D – It represented all the University gigs we have been doing. There have been a lot of R – I didn’t think we were going to win. We had finished University so we weren’t sure what the crowd was like, but it was really nice to win. We really appreciated that. How do you feel on stage and how have you been received by the audience? D – It feels like we’ve had quite a good reception at the most of the gigs. The crowds seem to like it, its encouraging when you get approached afterwards with people saying you’ve done a good job. You can’t really touch the feeling of being on stage, the whole build up it’s just immense. R - To be honest that feeling is what it’s all about. It’s more than just going into the studio and writing songs, being on stage is what it’s all about. There’s still a lot we are learning from this. For example with tonight, we aren’t used to this PA scene so it’s quite different for us. It’s the 2nd PA we have done but 1st by ourselves. The 1st was with Mumsi . We are still developing on the live stuff and our actual stage presence. D – So right now we are feeling excited, a bit nervous but it’s nice to have that mixture of emotions and adrenaline. R – It’s good to have this kind of environment, you’re not pushed too far into the deep end but at the same time it’s something new. So I think this is going to be a good night.
(Both laugh) D – What female attention? What are you talking about? R – You know there’s always perks to this (laughs) but we concentrate on the music because that’s what it’s all about. D – Obviously, there must be something about standing up and singing that girls warm to. R – With me usually the girls see me on stage and then they see me afterwards and they say “Oh, you look different”! D – To be honest it’s cool, but it’s just nice having anybody saying nice things about our act really. You do get a few religious fans, so we try in keep in touch with them and keep them updated. What are the biggest difficulties you’ve had to encounter on your journey so far? D – Probably reliability. I’m not sure what it’s like in other industries, but in music everything’s slow. People pass their deadlines, you just can’t set deadlines. You do a track with someone and they say you’ll get it next week but it can be six months before you hear anything. It’s really hard work just to get things finished. We are really enthusiastic so we just want to get our stuff done so we can put it out there, but when you have to rely on other people it’s really tough. R – We totally respect the fact that its work and people are busy, but it’s just really hard for us to get things finished. What we have learnt is that when you have more control of a project it’s a lot better. When you leave it in somebody else’s hands you don’t know when or even if you’re going to get it back. That is our biggest lesson learnt so far. We’ve had our fingers burnt a number of times. Putting in the hours and not getting anything back. I think that’s the music industry in general though. It’s hard work! What does the future hold for RND? R – Well hopefully by the summer we will have our album done. D- Again it’s still hopefully as it also depends on the reliability of other people and how quickly things get done. R - We don’t know if we are going to go down the label or independent route at the moment. We are just concentrating on getting our material done and then distributing it out. D - We will cross that bridge when we get to it. We need to get our material done and have the product there, whichever route we take. We will probably end up doing a lot of the process ourselves. R - We have a lot of songs, so the bulk of the album is already done. What message do you have for your fans? R - Big thanks to everyone supporting us. We really do appreciate it and please keep supporting us, we need it! I don’t think we would have carried on past university if it wasn’t for the people supporting us. D - Also big thanks to Alan Sampson because he has matured us a lot. R - He’s a busy man now but we really appreciate what he’s done for us. D - And lastly buy the album! R – We will keep everyone updated as much as we can and big thanks again.
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