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Concert with Bursa Regional State Symphony Orchestra

May 28, 2017

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I have had the chance to meet Eray İnal from Çukurova State Symphony Orchestra in the winter moths of 2016. After a short phone talk we planned to write the orchestration for some of the Demir Demirkan songs for the symphony. Orchestrations finished after a few moths. Meanwhile I had composed an electric guitar concerto for the soundtrack of The Glass – Cam documentary. A repertoire including the first part of this concerto, another instrumental I’d written before  called The Other Within and 10 DD songs we’ve chosen came out. We prepared to organize a concert with The Cukurova State Symphony Orchestra and decided to have a season closing concert on the 18th of May 2016, for the celebration of Commemoration of Atatürk and Youth and Sports Holiday. Besides myself and the symphony orchestra performers were Levent Candaş on bass guitar, Arbak Dal on drums, Eray İnal on piano. Our conductor was Murat Göktaş. We landed in Adana on May 16th, 2016, had two rehearsals on May 17th and a final rehearsal on the 18th, and then we performed the concert on the night of May 18th, 2016. Our performances doubled by the appreciation of our listeners in Adana who had our show sold out days before. I would like to thank to Çukurova State Symphony Orchestra and our listeners in Adana for hosting this premiere and for the encouraging enthusiasm!

And now for the May 18th, 2017 Bursa Regional State Symphony Orchestra (BRSSO) concert. in Fall 2016, we got in contact and to have a concert in Bursa and decided on the date in a very short time. Keeping the core team, we decided to have a concert with BRSSO on May 18th, 2017. We met in Bursa on May 16, had two rehearsals on May 17th and a final rehearsal on the 18th, and then we performed the concert on the night of May 18th, 2017. We added  Gitti Gider, Nafile and Rüzgar to the concert which flowed with the energetic participation of the Bursa audience resonating the beautiful concert hall. We’d like to express our thanks to the BRSSO staff, our Bursa audience and everyone who supported our show in Bursa!!

Music & Tech

May 27, 2017

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I’ve been listening to Rick Wakeman all morning. Now “Are We To Believe” from the Starship Trooper album is playing. I started listening chronologically from the “Journey To The Center Of The Earth” Aside from diligently composed and performed genre defying music, I have witnessed the evolution of a composer through the evolution of technology. The most obviously audible leap is in his music in the 80’s when digital synths and drum machines were the common ground for music production. There is no argument that technology, as it evolves, has a great effect on creation of music and creativity in general. I will not go into this being bad or good. I got to thinking as I was listening the 1984 album. I remember most of those sounds because I had used those sounds when I was growing up to be a musician. The problem I encountered listening to Wakeman was, when this music was being written in the 80’s, because those sounds were new at the time, appealed to the listener mostly because of the new sound and the new “loopy” ways of composing got started to be utilized commonly. Towards the middle of the album it got to be a little boring, not because of the lack compositional variety but because of the sound repetition and tech based composition approach. Broadly I can say that the problem with tech based creativity gets old, mostly because technology gets outdated very quickly, and getting outdated quicker exponentially as it evolves. Well, for every problem that arises in my mind I tend to find an answer and a solution. I immediately jumped to Wakeman’s 2016 Starship Trooper album. Not to my surprise, there were live drums, bass guitar, electric guitar and live everything else. This was definitely relieving. To hear the human element in the performance definitely makes the music and the musical creativity open up. By “opening up” I mean turning into something into a living, breathing thing. And also, the compositional approach becomes more open to new possibilities.

So here are my few quick solutions to the problem of music and tech relationship. First of all technology, as it becomes an instrument, it also becomes the medium in music. For example, using soft synths, audio loops, guitar amp plugins, cutting and pasting on the DAW, becomes a method of delivery. The sound is the carrier of the music. I think this is where we hit a creative threshold. Obviously, we’d like to have all the available advanced tech ready to be utilized, but to our advancement in creativity rather than for the sake of sounding “new”, “modern”, “up to date”, “trendy” or whatever, because there are more things evolving besides the tech; the human collective perception, individual intellect, society and everything that comes with it, to name a few. Letting tech dictate the shaping of all these other things is a relevant but a different topic. I am only interested in the musical creation issue for today.

There is a very thin line between utilizing tech to support and advance creativity and performance, and having tech to dictate the shape of our creativity. It is a bit scary for me really to fall onto the wrong side of this tech/music relationship. During the process of composing, it is sometimes not very easy to tell if the composer is utilizing the tech or tech is dictating the composer. It is an issue of culture, really. It is technology shaping culture and human behavior versus evolving human culture advancing and utilizing technology for its own good. Giving in to the synthetic tech dictated human evolution is definitely the easier path to choose. Like every “easier path”, it leads us to destinations where we find ourselves to be lost, unfortunately in places where we can’t get out of following our own footsteps.

And to end this little morning thought trip , I would recommend sparing some free time to sit down and listen to “Starship Trooper” by Rick Wakeman as a whole album from start to end.

New Home NYC

November 19, 2016

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We are almost settled in our new lives in New York City. It was the middle of September 16′ when we arrived to the city and it’s been a little over 2 months now. A lot has happened in these 2 months aside from settling into our apartment and our neighborhood, Upper East Side Manhattan. It’s a new life for me and my family and we all feel very excited. New friends, new work associates, new studio, new furniture, new daily program, new gym, new food, new driver license, subway trains, central park, new TV channels and a new life as a whole! We are happy, excited and hopeful about our new life and the future so far. People we meet in NY and some friends from before made us feel warmly welcomed and make this big city feel like a new home. I’m very thankful for myself and my family. We will be going back and forth to Istanbul in the near future and be visiting family and friends and also play some shows. More to come..

Hope

October 13, 2015

Erase, demolish, destroy and vanish the conflict within so it will be destroyed without.

What is the conflict? A notion of guilt by being able? Guilt by being good at something? Guilt by deserving? Guilt by appreciation by many? Or simply guilt?? Why am i angry at people? what do I think people are? Why am I angry at ignorance? Am I afraid because I fear ignorance? What makes me want to destroy the ignorant? I think I am afraid for my existence. If the ignorant are in larger numbers they could ban me from realizing myself. Ignorance devaluates me, degrades my value by not understanding. I fear for my intellectual, social and emotional existence. That’s why I want to destroy ignorance or hold the ignorants out of my borders, therefore locking myself in, into a comfortable ghetto of existence. Let me go deeper into this. Why is my existence so important? Is this fear real? Even if my existence is of the most value, could it really be challenged by ignorance and the ignorant majority? What if there are enough to support this value? Who are they? Where are they? They probably are in the same state of mind with me and may be being challenged by the same fears right now. What if all the combined potential of all of us is at risk and our lives are degraded into a chain of irrelevant events.. should we, should I dwell in this misery, or should I rise up and somehow gather the power to walk on.. just stand and walk on and keep one eye on my dreams the other on my next step, be it on a bloody soils, or green grass of heavenly meadows. Who will walk with me.. what dreams we share, or do we just bond in the same misery? Too many questions.. not enough answers, but just enough hope. Yes, hope. Hope is soothing. My last standing castle. Fear-proof outpost of this kingdom of mine. Backed up by love, intellect, belief, fueled by perseverance. When all else fails, hope shall prevail. The dream lives on, so we are alive! To make the best out of this thing called life.

BUGÜN

September 10, 2015

Evet. Bugün. Bugün o gün. Aylardır bütün ekip, dostlarım ve sevenlerim ile beklediğimiz gün geldi. 11 Eylül 2015. 4 aylık bir planlamanın sonunda bugüne hedef alınmış yeni şarkımın yayın tarihi geldi çattı. Geldi ama bütün bu planlamanın, hevesin, heyecanın ortasına bir yürek taşı oturdu geçtiğimiz haftalarda. Onca tasarı, saatler boşa çıktı çünkü bu şarkının tanıtımı için ne sizlerin aklı, kalbi doğru yerde ne de benim ve ekibimin “yaşasın, single’ımız çıktı” diye bir hevesle bağıracak halimiz yok. Tamam, yaptığımız müzik eğlencelik, danslık, kopmalık değil, aksine zamanı geldiğinde ağıt ve birlik olmamızı temsil eden marş bile olabiliyor ama yine de.. ne bileyim, içimizden gelemedi, sevinip heyecanlanamadık.

Günlerdir aklıma, ağzıma gelen onlarca küfür arasından aklımı sıyırıp bulabildiğim sözleri yazmaya karar verdim.

Canımızdan can koptu, üst üste, gün be gün, ad ve ad.. Yüreğimizdeki yanık izleri bir daha ve bir daha yarıldı, kanımız içimize aktı. Ülkenin ve belki de dünyanın geleceğinin kanı yanlış yere aktı, beyin kıvrımlarını besleyip, kalp kapılarını açacağına kara toprağa, ölüm ticaretini beslemeye aktı. Azrailin uşakları, güç çarkının köleleri iş başında [kazanç=hedef – (X x can)] hesabını yaparken biz umutlarımızdan, hayatlarımızdan olduk. Yüreğimiz ezildi, bedenlerimiz öldü, sakatlandı, aklımız karardı. Son kalan, ruhumuzu da yitirmek üzereyiz. Ama bu son noktada bireyler ve toplum olarak öz insiyatifimiz buna izin vermeyecek. Her ne pahasına olursa olsun yaşamaya, yaşatmaya, kendimizi, ait olduğumuz yerleri ve bize ait olanları bütün var oluşumuzla devam ettirecegiz. Ümit etmiyorum, biliyorum!

Çatışma ekonomisinin yakıtı bizleriz. Biz ancak kanıp da birbirimizle çatıştığımızda bu çark döner. Ve biz kanıyoruz, kelimenin her iki anlamında da, hem oyuna geliyoruz hem de kanımız dökülüyor.

Bugün!! Şimdi bugün, özgür irademiz ve insiyatifimizle, tek kararla bunu sonlandırmak mümkün! Yaşamayı, hayaller kurup gerçekleştirmeyi, sevmeyi, dostluğu, barışı, aklı, aşkı seçmek tamamen ve sadece bizim insiyatifimizde. Tek gerçek bireyin kendisindedir, ona emir veren veya onun sözünü dinlediklerinde değil. Herkes kendi başına bir isyankardır, kendi aklı, sorumluluğu, rengi, bayrağı vardır. Bu temel üzerinden seçelim yaşamayı, barışı ve düşlerimizi gerçekleştirmeyi.

Doğuştan veya sonradan üzerimize yapışan etiketler bizi çatışma ile, savaş ile, ölüm ile beşik kertmesi yapmış olsa bile karar hala bizde!!!! Bugün, şimdi..

Ey bu dünyanın şeklini şemalini çizdiğini düşünen kuklacılar. Asıl oynatılan sizsiniz, yüreğiniz hayatınızın bir anında göğüs kafesinizden sökülüp yerine kapkara bir boşluk bırakılmış. Size acı bir haberim var, o boşluk ne parayla, ne de güçle dolar. Siz de elbet son nefesinizi vereceksiniz ama o ana kadar elde ettiklerinizin hiç biri bu dünyadan temiz bir vicdan ile göçüp gitmenize yetmeyecek…

Sevgili dostlarım, sizi seviyorum, ve size inanıyorum, hem de çok. Bana devam etme gücünü de bu veriyor. Siz de sevginizi ve inancınızı benden esirgemeyin.

Yarınlar, hakettiğimiz barış ve mutluluk adına.. evet içimiz buruk, gülümsememize göz yaşlarımız da karışsa, her şeye rağmen yaşamaya devam etmeyi becereceğiz…

Unutmayalım ki kaybettiklerimiz her an bizimledir ve bizimle kalacaklardır.

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