Shaun
Perera

Shaun Perera-de Mel grew up surrounded by music — his father was the first lead singer of The Gypsies, one of Sri Lanka's most celebrated bands. That lineage wasn't a blueprint; it was a foundation. Shaun took his own winding path, studying forensic science in England and biotechnology in Malaysia, before music pulled him back irresistibly.

In 2005 he co-founded Magic Box Mixup, a seven-piece alternative-pop ensemble that would go on to win the People's Choice Award and Best Musician honours at TNL Onstage in 2006, and send their original "Here I Go" to the top of YES FM's Home Grown Charts for three weeks straight.

His solo career began in August 2021 with "Obamai" — a Sinhala-language meditation on love in its broadest sense, written in a language that holds a different kind of weight for him. It arrived as both a debut and a declaration: that music, for Shaun, is less about performance and more about connection. About making whoever is listening feel a little less alone.

He teaches sports at Elizabeth Moir School and engineers sound at Mixalot Studio. He writes in English and in Sinhala. He plays in a band and sings by himself. All of it, somehow, is the same conversation.