Bedük ‘going’ on his own unique path with new album

“I’m a guy from Ankara,” says Serhat Bedük, who only goes by his surname, answering the “urban myths” about him. “I have never lived in Germany or in the United States. I only stayed in America for two years when I was a kid. That’s all my adventure abroad.”

After his first two albums, “Even Better” and “Dance Revolution,” Bedük has just released his third album this month, “Go,” from which the first video, “Electric Girl,” has already created much buzz. “I can’t say that this one is better or worse [than my previous hits],” says Bedük in an interview with Sunday’s Zaman. “That would be as if I’m dispraising my previous albums.”

The new album, comprising 12 tracks, offers a contemporary approach to dance music blended with a so-called “spirit of nostalgia” and rhythm. “The difference in this album is that it is much more analogous and it is much more musical, but it is also so much ‘2010’ in terms of its sound. There are two sounds: one is the DJ sound, and the other is more musical.” Having worked with Çağlar Türkmen, a prominent sound engineer, on this album, Bedük indicates that they wanted to do something different. “What I tried to do was to establish a real balance between these two [sounds]. And that’s something totally new.”

From ‘Serhat’ to ‘Bedük’

What was the magic spell that turned Serhat into Bedük? “I made an album titled ‘Serhat’ in 2004,” he recalls. That album is particularly remembered for the cover he did of the song “Adam” (Man), made popular in the 1990s by Sibel Alaş. “I had wanted to use my surname then, but then [record producers] thought that would be weird.”

Three years after his debut album, Bedük made the decision that changed his life. “I said to myself, ‘I have to do what I really want to.’ ... There are thousands of Serhats out there, I thought to myself, but there’s only one Bedük, which means ‘great’ in Chagatai Turkish. I founded my own label and [embarked on my projects] without knowing what was going to happen. I just wanted to do what I loved and thought was good.”

That transformation also included a shift in language as well. But singing in English “is not aimed at promoting my music abroad; it’s not because I think that English fits better to dance music,” he says. “It’s just because when I enter the studio, English songs come out.”

“My Woman,” his first single, stayed on the MTV Europe World Chart Express for several weeks soon after its release, during which time Bedük started to make appearances in music festivals. This was quite challenging, considering the average music listener’s general impression about dance music in Turkey is that it is something like belly dance music. “I’m not an idealistic man, but I turned idealistic. I just wanted to make my own music. Now, I’m holding a flag, and I’m proud of it. However, I think that expressing this kind of feeling too much reflects a certain complex. Why should we need to prove ourselves to the world, saying, ‘Look at us, we can make good dance music, too.’ Yes, we can make it. So what?”

“Audiences around the world give the same reaction,” says Bedük, discussing international audiences. “They embrace [new music] very quickly, but at the first moment, they can’t understand what’s going on; there’s some dance music on the stage, but with some musical character; yet, they can’t identify where this man is from...” This is the key perception for Bedük. “People asking ‘where’s this man from?’ was very important for me because, then they would find out that I’m Turkish because I don’t use darbuka rhythms in my music and say, ‘Look, I’m Turkish’.”

“All I want to do is good music. We don’t know which country many international musicians are originally from, so you should just focus on the music.”

As for musical sources, Bedük has no limits. “I listen to any kind of music, and I have to do so because I’m an arranger and a producer. But I mostly like Jamiroquai, the Bee Gees from the ‘70s, Kool and the Gang, Robert Palmer, the power pop music of the ‘80s such as Duran Duran...”

Dance music for everybody

“I don’t discriminate against people,” says Bedük. “Anybody from any sex, any race and age can listen to my music. I’ve seen 45-year-old men dancing in front of me as well 15-year-olds sending me e-mails.” The age range of his audience seems surprisingly broad -- particularly for the specific genre of music he is making -- but the reason for that could be because everyone can find something for her/himself in his tunes. “The majority of my fans are university students because they can embrace innovations very quickly,” says Bedük. “But older generations like my music, too, because I’m making the 2010 version of the music that they used to dance to when they were young. They find some elements of their own youth in my music.”

As a musician who cannot be seen on the celebrity programs on television, Bedük prefers to maintain a low profile about his private life. “My stance is a deliberate preference,” says Bedük. This makes people recognize him only through his music. “I’m trying to do what feels sincere,” says Bedük.

One of the most significant things about Bedük is his innovative videos. “While making the music in the studio, you listen to it many times, and you form an image that accompanies that song in your mind,” he says. “I don’t care whether I look good or bad in a video or whether there are gorgeous girls dancing behind me. My only aim [in making the videos] is to focus on the song and to create a [visual accompaniment] that serves the song.”

He will shoot the second video for “This Fire,” for which he promises he will again be offering something original. He will shoot the video in early April and release it in mid-April.