Yasith Praharshana's Biography
Yasith Praharshana Samaranayaka
EDM Artist · Music Producer · Software Developer · Content Creator | Sri Lanka
Yasith Praharshana Samaranayaka is a Sri Lankan Electronic Dance Music (EDM) artist, music producer, lyricist, software developer, and content creator. Born on 20 November 1999 in Hambantota, Sri Lanka, he is best known for blending modern EDM sub-genres — Progressive House, Future Bass, and Soft House — with traditional Sri Lankan musical elements. He releases music under his independent label, YP Creation Studio, and develops software under the W-Studio brand. Currently he is pursuing two degrees simultaneously, at the University of Vocational Technology (UoVT) and the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL). His final year research at UoVT produced a published academic project on accessibility technology — a voice-assisted guiding system for visually impaired individuals.
Education
Education has been a constant thread running through Yasith's life, even as his family navigated significant challenges including displacement caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. His academic journey spans multiple schools across two provinces of Sri Lanka and ultimately led him to pursue two university degrees simultaneously — a testament to his discipline and passion for learning across multiple disciplines.
Schools
Yasith's earliest schooling began at Ha/Hambantota Vidyalaya in Hambantota, where he enrolled in first grade. However, after just three months, the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami struck the southern coast of Sri Lanka, severely damaging many schools in Hambantota and forcing his family to relocate. They moved to Monaragala for a safer and more stable environment, where Yasith continued his primary education at Mo/Mahanama Kanitu Viduhala (grades 1–5). He also briefly attended Mo/Mahanama Central College, a nationally recognised institution in Monaragala. After his father received a service transfer back to Hambantota, Yasith returned and continued grades 6–9 at Ha/Hambantota Vidyalaya. He then moved back to Monaragala for his secondary education, completing grades 10–13 at Mo/Royal College, Monaragala — a nationally graded school known for its academic standards — where he sat his General Certificate of Education (Advanced Level) examinations.
- Mo/Mahanama Kanitu Viduhala, Monaragala — Primary, Grades 1–5
- Ha/Hambantota Vidyalaya, Hambantota — Primary (early years) and Grades 6–9
- Mo/Mahanama Central College, Monaragala — National School (briefly attended)
- Mo/Royal College, Monaragala — Secondary, Grades 10–13 (G.C.E. Advanced Level)
Higher Education
After successfully passing his Advanced Level examinations, Yasith entered higher education in 2021. Uniquely, he is currently enrolled at two universities simultaneously, managing academic commitments across both institutions while actively producing music and developing software. This dual enrollment reflects his drive to build expertise in both engineering technology and information technology — disciplines that directly complement his creative and technical work.
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University of Vocational Technology (UoVT), Ratmalana
Degree: Bachelor of Technology in Building Services Technology
Faculty: Engineering Technology
Department: Building Services Technology
Started: February 2021 -
Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL)
Degree: Bachelor of Science in Information Technology
Faculty: Natural Sciences
Department: Computer Science
Started: October 2025
The University of Vocational Technology is Sri Lanka's premier institution dedicated to vocational and technology-oriented higher education, with its main campus in Ratmalana. Yasith's studies in Building Services Technology — covering electrical systems, HVAC, plumbing, fire protection, and building automation — provide a strong foundation in applied engineering. The Open University of Sri Lanka, one of the country's leading open and distance learning institutions, offers Yasith a flexible pathway to earn his BSc in Information Technology through the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Computer Science. The programme encompasses software engineering, data structures, algorithms, computer networks, and web technologies — areas Yasith has already been actively exploring through his self-directed coding and software development work.
Content Creating Life
Long before his music career took shape, Yasith established himself as a digital educator and content creator. He launched his YouTube channel SL YPVideos on 23 January 2015 — at just 15 years old — with a focus on web development and Python programming education for Sri Lankan audiences. With over 847 subscribers and more than 60 videos published, the channel has grown into a consistent resource for aspiring developers in Sri Lanka and beyond. His approachable teaching style, delivered in a mix of Sinhala and English, makes technical concepts accessible to learners who might otherwise find formal resources intimidating.
Yasith's content philosophy centres on practical, hands-on learning. Rather than abstract theory, his tutorials guide viewers step-by-step through building real-world projects — from functional websites to working Python scripts — emphasising the satisfaction of seeing immediate results. He regularly curates and recommends external developer resources, including W3Schools, PHP.net, Stack Overflow, and CSS-Tricks, to build a broader learning ecosystem around his channel.
Content Focus Areas
- Web Design & Development: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript tutorials that guide viewers through building functional, styled websites from scratch.
- Python Programming: Beginner-to-intermediate coding lessons covering syntax, data structures, file handling, and practical automation scripts.
- Software Installation & Setup: Clear, step-by-step guides for installing and configuring popular development tools including IDEs, web servers, and databases.
- Educational Resource Curation: Playlist organisation and links to trusted external platforms, helping viewers build structured self-study paths.
Video Production Tools
Yasith handles all aspects of his video production independently, from screen capture and editing to motion graphics and audio. He uses a professional-grade toolchain:
- Video Editing: Adobe Premiere Pro · Wondershare Filmora · Adobe After Effects
- Graphics & Design: CorelDRAW · Adobe Photoshop
- Music & Audio: FL Studio (also used for his music productions)
- Screen Capture: OBS Studio · Wondershare ScreenCapture
Music YouTube Channel
In addition to his educational channel, Yasith operates a dedicated Music YouTube channel under the YP Creation Studio brand, where he uploads official music videos, visualisers, and behind-the-scenes content related to his music production process. The channel gives fans a window into his creative workflow and complements his presence on mainstream streaming platforms. He engages actively with his audience through comments, community posts, and social media cross-promotion on Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, and TikTok.
Software Development
Parallel to his music and content work, Yasith is an active software developer who builds real-world applications across desktop and web platforms. His programming journey began with web technologies — HTML, CSS, JavaScript — and expanded into Python scripting and, most significantly, C++ systems development. He maintains an active GitHub profile with public repositories, covering a range of domains from desktop GUI applications to cloud-based systems and messaging automation. His academic work at UoVT has extended his practical engineering knowledge into embedded systems and IoT hardware development.
The W-Studio Engine
One of Yasith's most significant technical achievements is the development of the W-Studio Engine — a lightweight, proprietary desktop application engine he built from the ground up using C++ combined with HTML for the rendering layer. The engine provides a foundation for building native-feeling desktop applications with web-style interfaces, allowing Yasith to build cross-functional tools efficiently. Rather than relying on existing application frameworks, he chose to architect his own engine as both an engineering challenge and a practical platform for future products. The W-Studio Engine is the backbone of all desktop software released under the W-Studio brand.
Projects
Academic Research Project
Telegram Bot Projects
Yasith has developed Python-based Telegram bot projects available on his GitHub, demonstrating his applied knowledge of the Telegram Bot API, Python asynchronous programming, and real-time messaging automation. These projects reflect his practical approach to learning: rather than building toy examples, he focuses on tools with real functional utility.
Music Life
Discovering Music
In 2021 Yasith discovered Electronic Dance Music and became captivated by its energetic beats and diverse sub-genres. His initial gateway into the genre was the NoCopyrightSounds (NCS) YouTube channel, a platform well known for releasing royalty-free electronic music from independent producers worldwide. Exposure to the wide variety of EDM styles featured on NCS — from melodic dubstep to future bass — sparked Yasith's curiosity about the creative process behind the music. He was drawn particularly to the way producers could shape emotion and energy through sound design, melody, and arrangement alone.
The artist who had the most profound early influence on Yasith was Alan Walker, the Norwegian-British DJ and producer best known for the global hit Faded. What struck Yasith about Alan Walker was not just the music itself but the production philosophy: Walker famously produces his music using FL Studio, a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) widely regarded as one of the most accessible yet powerful tools in electronic music production. Learning that a world-renowned artist used the same software available to anyone was a pivotal moment. Yasith also drew inspiration from Marshmello, another masked EDM producer known for energetic, crowd-pleasing electronic productions.
He immersed himself in online communities and YouTube tutorials, spending countless hours experimenting with sounds, melodies, rhythms, and mixing techniques inside FL Studio. This self-directed learning period — lasting well over a year — formed the technical and creative foundation for everything that followed.
Musical Style
Yasith's musical identity is built around three core sub-genres of EDM: Progressive House, Future Bass, and Soft House. Each brings a distinct character to his sound palette:
- Progressive House — Characterised by evolving, layered arrangements and gradual tension-and-release structures. Yasith uses this style for his more melodically driven, atmospheric tracks.
- Future Bass — Known for its lush, chordal synths, pitched-up vocal chops, and emotional energy. This sub-genre gives Yasith's music an uplifting, contemporary feel.
- Soft House — A gentler, more relaxed variant of house music with smooth basslines and understated grooves. Yasith applies this style in tracks intended for a calmer, more introspective mood.
A defining and distinctive feature of Yasith's music is his deliberate integration of traditional Sri Lankan musical elements into electronic frameworks. This includes the use of Sri Lankan melodic scales, rhythmic patterns, and tonal textures that are woven throughout his productions, creating a cross-cultural sound that is both contemporary and rooted in his heritage.
Influences
Beyond Alan Walker and Marshmello, Yasith cites a broader set of internationally acclaimed EDM artists who have shaped his production philosophy and sound:
- Tiësto — Dutch DJ and producer, widely regarded as one of the pioneers of modern electronic dance music. Tiësto's ability to span multiple sub-genres and his emphasis on melodic hooks influenced Yasith's approach to songwriting structure.
- David Guetta — French DJ and producer known for blending mainstream pop with energetic EDM. Guetta's commercial polish and emphasis on vocal-driven hooks are reflected in Yasith's more pop-adjacent productions.
- Zedd — Russian-German producer known for complex, layered arrangements and technical precision. Zedd's detailed approach to sound design and mixing inspired Yasith's attention to production craft.
Production Process
Yasith produces all of his music independently, handling every stage of the production pipeline himself — from initial concept and melody writing through arrangement, sound design, mixing, and mastering. His primary production environment is FL Studio, within which he works across piano roll composition, step sequencer programming, and mixer-based processing. He distributes his music globally through YP Creation Studio, his independent record label and creative brand, which handles digital distribution across Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, SoundCloud, and Boomplay.
Yasith is also a registered artist on two major open music databases: MusicBrainz (the world's largest community-maintained music encyclopedia) and Wikidata (Q139597068), the structured data backbone of Wikipedia. These registrations ensure his work is catalogued within the global open knowledge infrastructure, improving discoverability across academic, journalistic, and AI-driven research tools.
Debut Single: Yaka Dance (2023)
After more than a year of self-directed study and production, Yasith released his debut single "Yaka Dance" on 30 March 2023 under YP Creation Studio. The single blends contemporary EDM with traditional Sri Lankan musical elements, establishing the cross-cultural fusion approach that would become Yasith's signature. It is available globally on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, SoundCloud, and Boomplay. The release of Yaka Dance marked Yasith's official entry into the global music ecosystem, with his music now catalogued in international databases and streamable in over 180 countries.
Engaging with Fans
Yasith maintains an active presence across multiple social platforms to connect with his audience. On YouTube and Facebook he shares behind-the-scenes content, music production insights, and updates on upcoming releases. His Facebook Music Page serves as the primary hub for music announcements, while Instagram and TikTok allow him to reach younger, visually-driven audiences with short-form content. On X/Twitter he engages in conversations with the broader EDM and music production community. This multi-platform approach allows him to cultivate a genuine connection with fans across different demographics and geographies.
Discography
Yasith has released a substantial catalogue of singles since 2023, all published independently through his label YP Creation Studio. His music is distributed globally and available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, SoundCloud, and Boomplay. Each release represents a distinct creative exploration — from high-energy dance floor tracks to introspective atmospheric pieces — unified by his cross-cultural approach of blending EDM with traditional Sri Lankan musical elements.
| Year | Title | Genre / Style | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Yaka Dance ★ Debut | EDM / Sri Lankan fusion | Single |
| 2023 | Party Village | Progressive House | Single |
| 2023 | Music World | Future Bass | Single |
| 2023 | After Friday | Soft House | Single |
| 2023 | Final Night | Progressive House | Single |
| 2023 | Sunrise Forest | Ambient EDM | Single |
| 2023 | Protest for Environment | EDM | Single |
| 2023 | The Whisper of The Wind | Atmospheric / Soft House | Single |
| 2023 | Calm Down | Soft House | Single |
| 2023 | Waterfall | Progressive House | Single |
| 2023 | Corrupt Country | EDM | Single |
| 2023 | Dark Angel | Progressive House | Single |
| 2023 | Activation | Future Bass | Single |
| 2024 | Frozen Tears | Future Bass | Single |
| 2024 | Tell More | Soft House | Single |
| 2024 | No Love | EDM | Single |
| 2024 | The BEE | Future Bass | Single |
| 2024 | Dance Room | Progressive House | Single |
| 2024 | Soft House | Soft House | Single |
| 2024 | Bullet | EDM | Single |
| 2024 | Vibe | Soft House | Single |
| 2025 | Late submission (Jan 13) | EDM | Single |
| 2025 | PLAN | Progressive House | Single |
| 2025 | Our Victory | Future Bass | Single |
| 2025 | Karma | EDM | Single |
| 2025 | Space | Atmospheric / Progressive | Single |
| 2025 | Nothing | Soft House | Single |
| 2025 | Night Sky (May 1) | Future Bass | Single |
★ Debut single. All releases distributed via YP Creation Studio on Spotify · Apple Music · Amazon Music · Deezer · SoundCloud · Boomplay.
Balancing Education, Music, and Software Development
Managing two university programmes, an active music production schedule, ongoing software development projects, and a YouTube channel simultaneously is no small undertaking. Yasith approaches this challenge through deliberate time management and by treating each discipline as complementary rather than competing. His engineering studies at UoVT — covering systems thinking, technical drawing, mechanical services, and applied physics — inform the structured, methodical approach he brings to software architecture and music arrangement. His final year research project further extended this engineering mindset into the domain of embedded systems, IoT hardware, and cloud-connected accessibility technology. His Computer Science studies at OUSL deepen his programming fundamentals in ways that directly improve the quality and efficiency of his code.
Music production, meanwhile, serves as a creative counterbalance to the rigour of academic and software work. Rather than treating it as a distraction, Yasith views music as a discipline in its own right — one that demands equal amounts of technical knowledge (signal processing, frequency management, compression, EQ) and artistic intuition (melody, emotion, dynamics, cultural expression). The overlap between these worlds — where mathematics meets melody, and engineering meets art — is precisely where Yasith feels most at home.
This multi-disciplinary identity is increasingly recognised as a valuable profile in the modern creative economy, where the boundaries between technologist, artist, and educator are becoming more porous. Yasith's trajectory — from a coastal town in Sri Lanka to the global digital music ecosystem — reflects both his personal ambition and the democratising power of internet-based creative tools.
Future Aspirations
Yasith's ambitions span multiple creative and technical domains. In music, he aims to continue expanding his discography with increasingly refined productions, and to explore collaborations with both local Sri Lankan artists and international EDM producers. He is interested in further developing his signature cross-cultural sound — integrating traditional Sri Lankan instrumentation and melodic structures more deeply into contemporary electronic frameworks — as a way of contributing a distinctly Sri Lankan voice to the global EDM conversation.
On the software side, Yasith plans to continue developing the W-Studio Engine and releasing further products under the W-Studio brand. His vision is to build a suite of lightweight, open-source desktop tools that prioritise simplicity, speed, and user autonomy. He is also interested in exploring the intersection of music technology and software — potentially developing tools specifically designed to support music producers, such as project organizers, sample managers, or audio utilities.
In research and accessibility technology, Yasith hopes to build on his final year project at UoVT — the Voice Assisting Guiding System — by addressing its identified limitations: improving localisation accuracy through hybrid BLE and ultrasonic sensor fusion, enhancing the user interface with 3D spatial audio and haptic feedback, and optimising power management with LoRaWAN modules. He intends to make the full project repository publicly available on GitHub once university permission is granted, and to expand the work's reach through open publication on ResearchGate.
Academically, completing both his Bachelor of Technology in Building Services Technology at UoVT and his Bachelor of Science in Information Technology at OUSL remains a priority. The combination of engineering knowledge and computer science fundamentals positions Yasith uniquely at the intersection of physical systems and digital technology — a convergence increasingly relevant in the age of smart buildings, IoT, and AI-driven infrastructure.
Ultimately, Yasith's aspiration is to be recognised not just as a musician, or just as a developer, or just as an educator, but as a creative polymath who contributes meaningfully across all three — demonstrating that deep passion, consistent work, and intellectual curiosity are the real engines of a multi-dimensional career.
Online Profiles
- uovt.ac.lk
- ou.ac.lk
- YouTube — Music Channel
- YouTube — SL YPVideos
- Facebook — Personal
- Facebook — Music Page
- GitHub
- GitHub — W-Studio Todo LM
- ResearchGate
- Wikidata — Q139597068
- MusicBrainz
- Spotify
- Amazon Music
- Deezer
- SoundCloud
- Boomplay
- S.W.K.Y.P. Samaranayaka. "Voice Assisting Guiding System for Blind Person." Final Year Project Report, Department of Building Services Technology, University of Vocational Technology, Sri Lanka, February 2025.
- Personal communications with Yasith Praharshana
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