BORN IN THE SMALL UNIVERSITY TOWN OF AMES, IOWA; Priyan Dimuthu Weerappuli began showing an interest in music at an early age - due, in large part, to his mother (who had played the piano for much of her own life).  By age 5 he had begun playing the piano, and by age 10 the trumpet - it wasn't, however, until 2002 (the year his father brought home his first guitar) that the thought occurred to him to write his own music.

Having watched many of his friends attend formal music lessons; Priyan began to realize that musicians appeared to come in two forms - those who could be trained to follow in the footsteps of others; and those in whose footprints they would follow.

It was then, in 2002, that Priyan resolved he would be among the latter.

This proved to be a difficult undertaking, however, considering that he had decided to do so by writing music in his parents' native language of Sinhalese.  Despite having had some lyrical experience writing English poetry; Priyan, who had been born in the United States, had little more than a rudimentary Sinhalese conversational vocabulary at his disposal.

Nevertheless ... with only a basic chord guide, and a copy of Malalasekera's "Sinhala-English Dictionary", Priyan sat down in his basement one night, determined to learn at least three chords by morning.  Sure enough, by the time his parents awoke the next day, he had learned to play the first three chords any guitarist learns - D,G,A.

Within a matter of weeks he had mastered these chords (though Venura and Lochana may argue that he has yet to master any of them), and had begun composing simple three-chord songs - one of these, with some lyrical amending, would become the song "Mihiraki Oba".

In early 2004, Priyan was introduced to the music of Congolese musician Shungu Jules Wembadio (better known as Papa Wemba - of the group "Viva La Musica").  He found himself deeply inspired by the free rhythms displayed in Wemba's Soukous style, and began experimenting with these rhythms in his own compositions.  Combining these with Lochana's classical guitar techniques, and the acoustic sound brought by Venura, Priyan composed several additional songs - and re-wrote the music from one of his first compositions - "Siripada".

Despite the large amount of time Priyan has invested in polishing his musical abilities; Priyan never hesitates to credit his mother (Deepthi Weerappuli) for having introduced him to the piano; and his father (Parakrama Weerappuli) for having introduced him to the guitar, as well as the diverse catalog of music that he, himself, had enjoyed as a child - this influence is apparent in the list of musicians Priyan often credits with having influenced Pahan Silu's unique sound (Ladysmith Black Mambazo, John Denver, Papa Wemba, Pandit Amaradeva, Clarence Wijewardane, Sting, James Taylor, and Aventura).