Derya Köroğlu of Yeni Türkü: Words that witness the era fail us

Ceren Çıplak
 
“Some Other Thing”, “Destina”, “The Rain’s Hands”, “If it Weren’t for your Letter”, “Wrapped in Wire” and “Masked Ball” - you are no stranger to these numbers that have attained a folk-song kind of anonymity, are you? Well, Yeni Türkü, which brought these songs to life, is forty years old! Yeni Türkü will give a concert on the Zorlu PSM Drama Stage at 9 pm on Tuesday 24 October as part of the Vestel Home Made with Pride Concerts
 
Winding back over forty years, I start my pre-concert chat over coffee with Derya Köroğlu, who has doggedly kept the group’s name alive even if there have been split-ups in the group.
 
- Let’s wind back over forty years, but, when those years pass before your eyes like a film reel, which still catches your attention?
 
First days, like first loves, are unforgettable. In the first days, we would congregate in Selim Atakan’s home and tried to give our all with what we had attained in musical terms. There was great excitement at that time, anyway. The political environment was in disarray but there was the undying fire of that youth movement throughout world. We embraced music with that wind, that love. We pushed our own repertoire to the limit and tried to stretch our abilities to the full. We composed music at home. This, in short, were the first days.
 
I balked at that suggestion
 
- Turning back and looking over the forty years, there have been frays and split-ups in the group. Is there anything that makes you say, “If only?”
 
In the nineties, when we were recording “Heave Heave”, we were in disagreement musically and, in any case, Selim Atakan left the group after that. Selim was into Britpop. He was making Britpop arrangements. There was a musical parting of the ways in the search for something new. If, instead of making “Heave Heave” and splitting up, everyone had done their own thing before “Heave Heave” it would have been more productive for all of us.
 
 
- Is Yeni Türkü Derya Köroğlu, or is Derya Köroğlu Yeni Türkü? Did the way you came to prominence within the group also make you uncomfortable?
 
Or did it have a price? Yes, it happened a lot that I came to prominence. Record companies came and offered me albums. Companies also told me that I would be better off materially on my own. They said, “You stand out and everyone knows you, so continue on the road alone.” But, I balked at this suggestion in principle. I kept on rejecting these offers. There was a faithful side to me. I thought we had set out on the road with the idea of a group and we should continue like that. I am also a person who believes on the group level. Being together with the friends, working together and complementing one another have always excited me. Yes, coming to prominence creates problems in a group but it was not a problem for Selim Atakan. He said that he had no objection. We are friends and everyone in the group was honest with one another. This is also the reason we survived.
 
- There has been no album for five years. Why? Or, is a new album in the pipeline?
 
I cannot say that a new album is in the pipeline. The biggest sticking point is the lyrics, not the music. Using words is very difficult. In this world, among these things we are going through, we cannot find the words that will speak directly to people’s hearts but at the same time will bear witness to the period without being didactic – which is our speciality - and without sloganising. They evade us. Lines poured out of a kind that became ingrained in everyone’s life. We still sing these words and this music together at festivals.
 
There is nobody who reads literature
 
- Yeni Türkü has had a lot of input from poems. Are you thinking of giving poems another look?
 
There was a time when literature was in full flow, but there is nobody left who reads now. Poets cannot find anywhere to print books and they print everything themselves. There is such a strong past that it is hard to move outside it. Or, I don’t know, is it that we are afflicted by laziness? The same applies to MFÖ. They have brought out an album, but I am curious to see how many of the songs in that album the audience sings along with at concerts.
 
- Are you afraid that the audience won’t sign along with your new songs?
 
It is not a fear, but the important thing is whether it comes together, whether it works or not.
 
- A good chemistry formed between Yeni Türkü and Murathan Mungan, in terms of lyrics and music. Why does this togetherness not continue?
 
Murathan has not gone near song lyrics any more for many years. He has drawn a distinction between poetry and song lyrics. He has never accepted his poems being put to music. He says song lyrics are a different thing and he doesn’t want to write song lyrics just now. He has devoted himself to books only and has steered clear of that path. So, this has prevented us from doing anything together in recent years. But, we will surface from the depths somewhere one fine day. I must say that every song finds life through its era. Songs find meaning through the spirit of the time.
 
- Is your worry about output that does not strike a chord with the era?
 
Yes. You cannot perceive of aesthetics as just a form. Look at the music people listen to today. A world is floating by which is a bit external to us. Maybe we cannot enter this world.
 
- Do you think you bore witness to the era with your work? Or to Turkey?
 
There are certain words that speak of the present, too. As such, maybe they also capture the present. “You are either outside the loop or inside.” These words are still valid fifty years on. “Don’t imagine it’s injured, it won’t fly again” – these are lines that have become ingrained in hearts along with the music. They also contain the Mediterranean spirit. There is an ever-present sensitive side to Mediterraneanism. However cheerful it is, it always has a troubled side.
 
- But we the audience want the Yeni Türkü of the here and now.
 
I will let you know if I discover today’s Yeni Türkü.
 
- Do you read a lot of poetry books?
 
I mostly read poetry. I love classical Russian literature. But, my reading habits have waned a bit nowadays.
 
- The album culture...
 
Everyone is tapping away. Give it a tap and they say, “Oh, that’s lovely.” You don’t even know what your tapping. The singer’s name is known, but as to who’s playing or who wrote the lyrics – there’s none of that. We were the first ones to put the lyrics in an album like in a booklet. There’s a commercial thinking that dominates music. We reached a place outside this. Not knowing who made the lyrics and music means you’re listening to music by rote. Actually, they probably don’t put pop music lyrics in the album because there is no value in them being written out.
 
Humans cannot be without music
 
- Are you outside pop music?
 
There are varieties of music called Turkish pop. Pop has never been fully distinct in Turkey. Kral TV in its time put out rock, pop, arabesque and folk music all together on the same list. This means this is how we are and we pick our way through such confusion. Kenan Doğulu is a very good representative of Turkish pop. As to Tarkan’s last album, I didn’t like it at all. These are efforts of very low merit made for the sake of sales and in the endeavour to be popular. I call it an effort and not music. You’re Tarkan and you need to retain that quality. I don’t see this trend with Kenan Doğulu. Kenan Doğulu also wants to sing his songs to the wide masses but he does so without impairing the quality of the music. I really like Ceylan Ertem and Jehan Babur, though.
 
- You are a graduate of Ankara Science High School and the Middle East Technical University. What do you see when you combine music and mathematics?
 
Even the most primitive tribes have rhythms. There has been music in humanity’s struggle with nature right back from those times. There is a need for music to make yourself exist. Humans find the strength to live with music and rhythm. Humans cannot be without music.
 
- Is it still the case of the night owl with the guitar?
 
Still the night owl, I’m afraid. In fact, had it not been compulsory in high school days, I wouldn’t have got up in the morning. That’s the way I am. Add a guitar and music to that, and I live for the nights and will continue to do so.
 
- There was a time when you placed adverts in Cumhuriyet to sell albums.
 
In the eighties, you used to get advertising for plays and albums. People used to follow those adverts. Those who saw the adverts wrote to us and we replied to the letters and sent albums in the post. We made silk-screen cassette covers. Silk-screen printing still continues as an art form. We used to make Middle East Technical University posters with that printing technique, too.
 
We need a government that makes sensible decisions
 
- How do you assess the events of the day?
 
Turkey is undergoing massive change. Undergoing this change also causes very devastating things. The terrorism-related events we experience each year and what we experience with our neighbours or even the whole world show that we are not in a durable position. Turkey needs a government that makes sensible decisions. It is unable to achieve this within this confusion. We are also losing justice. In fact, I see Turkey’s current situation as being most perilous.
 
Another kind of türkü!
 
- The group’s name is Yeni Türkü (New Folk Song) but its numbers are not folk songs, even if they are as striking and anonymous as folk songs.
 
We use folk song in the sense of traditional popular music. There is no equivalent of türkü in another country. It is something peculiar to Turkey. Türkü conveys the idea of Turkey’s music or Anatolia’s sound. At the first stage it was a bit more türkü. There was the baglama. Sazes from Turkish music got mixed in, as did the lute and kanun. But then what we did started to resemble songs. Our style that resonated in people’s ears was the Mediterranean style.
 
There is the Yaşar Miraç factor a bit. He had a magazine called Yeni Türkü. He called the poems he wrote folk songs. After all, we couldn’t speak of “New Song” because we had no such thing on our horizon at that time. Another kind of türkü! You need to think of it as the türkü renewed.
 
- You made a lot of music for TV series. Series nowadays are intrigues. Everyone trying to pull the carpet from under one another’s feet. Could you do the music for such a series?
 
I probably couldn’t. Today’s series are more or less 150 minutes and there is music every second, because the scenes are empty! Just padding. How can you have a 150-minute series every week? People are wrecked, I mean. Especially those in the production teams of those series, God help them. Our music went really well with those family series of the nineties typified by “Super Dad”. We did the music for “Seven-Hill Istanbul” in 2000 and it captured that spirit, but then things went sour. I gave up on series music at the point when station staff came and said, “Let’s stick music in here.” These are things I can’t cope with.