f38 “S
ince Rewend was released I’ve been giving con- certs, mostly abroad. I’m rehearsing and choos- ing the songs for my new album, which will be mostly folk songs plus some of mine. Besides this, I am working on some projects with
friends. Actually, we have so many plans it’s hard to carry them out. Especially, I’d like to learn English.”
Inspirations: “I mostly listen to folk music, I mostly like the oldies. I like songs which are raw, which come from an old person. There are a lot of artists who are making good Kurdish music. For example Cemil is making very good music. I like to listen to deng- bêj. Mahmut Baran from my district is also very important for me.”
“I’m very impressed by the way that a dengbêj sings. It makes it easy to comprehend the Kurdish tradition. The soul that they are giving to the music is very powerful. They know how a lament or clan song should be sung. I grew up with this music, but I’m not tak- ing anything from dengbêj technically. Sure, I’m trying to learn, but I’m not trying to sing as a dengbêj sings. I’m only taking their emo- tional side. Dengbêj has soul which comes from experience. I’m singing the song here, but a dengbêj sings in their village. When you live what you are singing, the intonation comes out differently, the song has more soul in it. We can’t do that in a life which is mod- ern and standardised. You can’t hide in the corners, it’s about the life that we’re actually living.”
“Turkish artists like Erkan O ur [the venerable folk-singer and
fretless guitar-player] and Cengiz Özkan [Turkish folk-singer and saz-player] are very important for me. As I said, I’m mostly influ- enced by traditional artists, Â ık Veysel [the great, blind, Turkish balladeer who died in 1973, like the previous mentioned, all to be found on Kalan] for example. They seem to me more sincere. I don’t care if the artist’s voice or music is out of key. I’m mostly inspired by their sincerity and soul. I can’t comment on pop music, because I don’t listen to it.”
“Currently I’m listening to Armenian songs. There is an album just released on Kalan called Dersim Armenian Folk Songs. I like Per- sian, Indian, Latin-American and Spanish music. I like Nina Simone, Tracy Chapman, Amália Rodrigues and Fairouz for example. But my tradition has its roots very deep inside me. I stay faithful to it.”
It seems to me that she has three audiences: a Kurdish-speaking one who understand the lyrics, a Turkish-speaking audience who only understand the Turkish songs. They hear Kurdish as a foreign language. And then there’s the international audience who don’t understand either language. They simply hear it as ‘world music’.
“It’s a great pleasure for me to play in Europe. There it doesn’t matter if I’m Kurdish or Turkish. But in Turkey, politics are central. If you’re giving a concert to Kurds, you can’t pretend. If you’re giv- ing a concert to Turks, you also can’t pretend. Politics are in front of the music. It’s hard to make music here with a Kurdish identity, because you have to consider things besides the music. You have to know that somebody can throw an egg when you’re on stage. You have to know that you might be taken into custody after the show. Basically, what I’m doing is music, but Kurds are in a very critical, sensitive, painful period now, so as an artist, I have to be very careful. When I do concerts in Europe, I feel more free.”
“Both my parents are Kurdish. At home we spoke both Turkish and Kurdish. We express ourselves in whichever language we want to use. They’re now in Istanbul. ‘Why?’ is a very sociological ques- tion. Our villages were burned, bombed. Our relatives were taken into custody. We lived in a war. Like other families, we had to move. In the mountains around Dersim the war goes on.”
“Aside from music, we are working on political activities, really they are mostly social activities. For example we’re in co-operation with village workers, with the association of children of internees.” There are many ways to end up behind bars in Turkey if you’re politically active, especially if the State perceives you as an enemy of the State – and it doesn’t take much.
She had trouble with the song Keçe Kurdan which (along with the album which includes it) was banned for a while. So when she's choosing songs for the records, does she find herself censoring which songs and lyrics she includes? Or is she now able to choose any songs without worrying about the political consequences?
“I’m not singing political songs. If I have a [legal] problem with a song, it will be called a political song, but the songs I choose are not political. But I’m singing in Kurdish, and that’s a political issue. The songs I sing are about love, separation and war. But I don’t choose political songs. For example Keçe Kurdan can be seen as a political song, but only for women. The song is about the revolt of women against male sovereignty.”
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