Farfara (TR)

Kuva: Yalım Kartal

Let’s start with the elephant in the room, or in cyberspace rather. Derdiyoklar did cancel? He seemed to be a bit old-school-difficult to handle, right? Our friend looked at his picture and said that’s someone who wants his fee in cash.

Yes, he is a bit strict with the money thing and yes he loves the cash. But you know, who is not…as you can imagine he has a different background with the music business since he became famous through the wedding concerts etc. he plays nowadays in TV shows and public concerts and is not used to play in cool festivals. He doesn’t know…
But i have to say, he is a really an amazing, inspiring, lovely person with lots of wisdom rooted in his being. Hope we can convince him one day to play in festivals.

Let’s hope so but we’re sure you’ll be just fine on your own. Did you guys grow up in Istanbul? What was it like? It surely is a unique place in the world. Well, on the other hand, what’s not.

We grew up in Istanbul. We lived an alien life at a suburban place 30 km outside the city. It was good. We have beautiful friends and Istanbul is of course unique as you said.
It is a place where you feel the stressed chaos within beauty and deep history. As soon as you drive out and jump into the sea in a quiet beach then everything makes a kind of different sense. I recommend it.

How does the so called rock’n’roll culture work over there? The anti-establishment is better to lay down way underground? Or are the punks and freaks generally accepted?

When hope is gone things can unexpectedly continue and another process starts. Thats what Turkey is. We have a youth that is forced to learn to let go.
Nowadays you become also some kind of a ”punk” to do that so therefore it gets a bit more complicated to understand what’s accepted or not in terms of ”rock’n’roll”…

Is it correct to say that Farfara’s music is more influenced by the modern Western stuff than the traditional Turkish beat?

We like pop and we have a good chemistry in the band and we are influenced by lots of different music from all around the world. What you hear in our recordings are a portion of it and you can hear of course some western influence.
But, our believe system for recorded music is different. We don’t separate the music into east or west or traditional. The way we do music changes with us. We improvise a lot and let the songs create itself through that. So, turkish beat, african beat, four to the floor.. we play it, you name it..

What was your favorite band or artist as a teenager?

My favourite band as a teenager was Incubus.

What are your thoughts on selfie sticks?

Loneliness, virtual world, expectations, pedofilia..