Hollywood award-winning duo says the world already knows Turkish music well

Now they have bigger dreams and even more things to do to achieve their goals in life.

Uğur Ateş and Serhat Karan are two young, but ardent and passionate, musicians. They love what they are doing and they know what they want in professional terms. So they simply concentrate on what they need to do. For these young musicians, this is how they have been successful thus far, having never failed in what they planned.

The duo launched their album “İstanbul” in July 2011, an album prepared for the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Kültür A.Ş., but the album returned to the agenda once more as the public is quite curious about the young musicians’ work because they were recently awarded a Hollywood Music in Media Award in the Best Instrumental category in November 2011.

Both musicians started playing music at an early age. While Ateş began playing the bağlama when he was in high school, Karan started playing the guitar when he was 14. Being classmates at the conservatory at Haliç University, Ateş and Karan became close friends and planned to realize projects together. “We shared so many things,” says Ateş, in an interview with Sunday’s Zaman. “Later, in the last year of university, our interest in jingles led us to become involved in the media sector.”

They have been working in this sector for four years, making jingles and soundtracks for films, documentaries and serials; but the duo also work as educators. Ateş teaches bağlama for the İstanbul Municipal Arts and Crafts Training Courses (İSMEK), while Karan gives guitar course at the Art Lovers Association (SASED). This pace of work does not prevent them from making their own music and compositions in addition to the time they spent working on the album. “The album ‘İstanbul’ is composed of seven songs, taking on the concept of İstanbul’s seven hills,” explains Karan. “We started working on it in 2010, and it’s an instrumental album. We composed the songs and played along with our very precious musician friends Eren Erdoğan, Emre Erdan, Ömer Arslan Oray and İhsan Özer.”

Way to Hollywood

While their composition “Nokta” (Point) was coming to life, the duo came upon an announcement that would perhaps be one of the most significant turning points in their lives. The composition “Nokta” would bring them the Hollywood Music in Media Award on Nov. 17, 2011, and with it much attention. “There are websites that millions of musicians use for their musician profiles,” says Ateş. “We listen to other musicians as much as we can. We used to pursue awards every year because many musicians that we loved were awarded in the past, like Hans Zimmer. And we saw the announcement of the winners on these websites. At that moment, we were working on an instrumental album, and we had just been working on ‘Nokta.’ We decided to give it a try. We believed in our piece because we felt that it was a strong one. And we thought it was very important when we were nominated for an award because this was a first for Turkey and there are very remarkable works done for the instrumental category.”

The adventure to Hollywood begins for the duo with little support except from their families, but there was one newspaper that believed in them right from the beginning of their adventure. “Zaman contacted us, and it was the first to interview us,” says Ateş. “Then, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism contacted us, became our sponsor and gave us great support. But because Zaman is the only institution that supported us from the very beginning, it is very special to us.”

“Actually, we didn’t try to think about the results until the last day,” says Karan. “We tried not to think about the award. We went to the ceremony very modestly, but when the ceremony finally began, we asked ourselves how all this would end. We were both expecting and not expecting anything because our song was a powerful one, but the other nominees were very strong. It was an amazing experience for us. We met many producers and musicians and exchanged ideas.”

During these exchanges, the young musicians undertook an important initiative. “The best agreement that we made was to become the distributors of iTunes in Turkey,” explains Ateş. “In this way, we will be able to reach out to musicians who, for instance, couldn’t establish an agreement with labels in Turkey. Or maybe you don’t want to launch an album at the moment, but you can have your songs listened to all over the world and still earn money.” Apart from iTunes, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) will represent the duo’s songs in America.

Supported by their families since childhood, Ateş and Karan feel this award was actually given to their families: “They deserved such an award,” says Ateş, adding: “But we have never done anything for money, fame and popularity. We make music because we love it. And we want to make music for the rest of our lives.”

Making music or being popular?

The duo is working on a new album as well as three film soundtracks and two documentary soundtracks. “The new album is not an instrumental one; this time we are working on compositions with lyrics,” says Ateş. “It will be a pop-rock album that will be released in mid-2012. This is a style that is not expected from us, but it makes us happy. It evolved from when we used to sit down and write poems and make compositions at night.”

Ateş and Karan feel free to work in various styles because they do not see themselves confined to one style of music; thus, they work on various projects simultaneously. “All the projects we do are so different from each other, and all of them have to have a unique style,” indicates Karan. “Unlike musicians who are recognized for a certain musical genre and always make albums in the same genre, we cannot confine ourselves to one genre.”

Since the Hollywood Music in Media Award, we’ve frequently wondered how Turkish music can be better introduced to the world. “We use and we are nurtured by Anatolian instruments,” says Ateş, adding: “It was in the early days of the conservatory that I dreamed of introducing the bağlama to the world. But you later discover this is not that important. The musical depth, the path of Aşık Veysel, Aşık Mahsuni and others show you the way. You see that it cannot become universal and has to remain local. On the day of the award ceremony, we played our song, not to introduce our instruments to the world, but to feel happy.”

“After all, the audience doesn’t usually notice the instruments; it listens to the music itself,” says Karan. “This is a concern that is unique to us: introducing our music to the world. Besides, foreigners already know our music; people have been using it for years in their projects.”

Trying to achieve musical depth, the young musicians have felt uneasy about being “artists.” Ateş asserts: “We are not artists. This is a grave responsibility. In Turkey, there’s an understanding that whoever appears on television and sings a song becomes an artist. We are not artists, we are musicians. Art is an entity and includes many elements: theater, literature, painting and so on. Since we are not aware of the responsibility of being an artist, we call everybody an artist. If you don’t contribute to your society, if you don’t shed light on its problems, then this should be questioned, but unfortunately we don’t question. Today, music products are simplified with regard to melodies and lyrics because the audience thinks simple. Producers give the audience what it wants for money and popularity. Our goal has never been and never will be popularity.”

For Karan, the existence of popular culture is a reality, but the limits should be better defined. “Popular culture exists everywhere, and this is very normal,” says Karan. “But there must be an alternative stream to mainstream music. In Turkey, this is very restricted, and that’s why, subcultures have always remained underground. Alternative music in Turkey should come to light.”

The duo has many dreams and many projects; however, its ultimate dream is a very simple and sincere one: “It may seem small, but it is hard in Turkey. We want to die making nothing but music.”