The Turkish queen of darkness - Şebnem Ferah

Şebnem Ferah is, in theory, Turkey's official Goth queen. However, as it always happens in that wonderful place that is South Eastern Europe, things aren't so straight and easy with her. Even though it's true that Şebnem does cultivate a somewhat Goth-ified image and occasionally delves into the realm of hard rock (in fact, she first started her career as the lead singer of a moderately successful hard rock band, Volvox), she is primarily the most prominent female vocalist of an eminently Turkish cultural phenomenon called Anatolian rock. Anatolian rock first emerged in the mid-sixties as an adaptation to Turkish tastes of American and U.K. imported rock music. However, it soon gained prominence, and by the early seventies it was an already well-established genre, fronted by legendary singer/songwriter Barış Manço, viewed by many as the father of the movement. From there, Anatolian rock has gone to develop further, adding elements of traditional Turkic, Armenian and Balkan music, and occasionally borrowing from Western Classical music and Arabic folk.

That’s where La Ferah appears. The daughter of Macedonian immigrants of very distant Turkish descent, Şebnem had a very happy childhood, surrounded by middle-class comforts and the ever-present sound of Rumelian and Slavic folk. Her parents, mathematics and physics teachers at a secondary school, were also professional musicians, and she received her first music lessons from them. Eventually becoming a very proficient guitar player, Şebnem wanted to be a professional musician, but her parents would have none of it. She was told that only a proper career would do, and was sent to the prestigious, American educational model-based Bursa Namık Sözeri High School, in Istanbul. While staying there as a boarder, she decided to form her first band with a group if six friends, Pegasus.

After its first summer festival, Pegasus lost two members and disbanded, but after a couple of months the five remaining friends decided to give it a try once again, and in 1988 the sixteen-year-olds formed Volvox. However, Volvox couldn’t play frequently due to the fact that it had to be a hobby – no one’s parents would accept it as anything else. Things changed, however, in 1991, when Ferah, then an economics student in Ankara’s Middle Eastern Technical University, met fellow student Özlem Tekin. Both girls became good friends, and after joining Volvox, Turkish-American Özlem gave her fellow band mates the courage to drop out of university and start playing full time. She would also exert a strong influence by exposing them to American indie rock (ugh! :-( ).



Sadly, Volvox were not as successful as they might have deserved. After three years of playing in bars, where they had a very loyal following, they decided to disband. However, fortune was smiling at them. One of their records was picked by Turkish State Television as part of the soundtrack for a series of documentaries on Turkish music, and Şebnem caught the ear of (will you guess it? ;-))… Sezen Aksu and her then lover, equally legendary Armenian songwriter and pianist Onno Tunçboyacıyan.

She became, like Sertab, Tarkan and many others before and after her, a tea-sandwiches-cum-background-singer and telephone dialer (apparently, Sezen hates it when she has to dial phone numbers herself – ah, the horrors that divas must endure for the sake of their art! ;-P), and the rest is, as they say, history! If you’ve liked what you’ve read and will hear, go to buy Şebnem’s albums at Tulumba.

Bu Aşk Fazla Sana/This Love’s Worthless To You

Şebnem’s first single as a soloist, from her début album Kadın/Woman (1996). A somewhat conventional acoustic ballad, the only highlight of which is the soaring, even majestic chorus. It will no doubt sound very ordinary to Western ears, which is the reason why it became an enormous hit in Turkey – its direct approach and instrumental simplicity (for Turkish standards), made it extremely exotic in a country in which even the lowest forms of disposable pop, are forced to carry the weight of an extremely rich musical legacy on their shoulders. Simply put, this song didn’t attempt to be an exercise of applied musical scholasticism; it’s just unaffected and simple - and that’s what made it stand out. Video.

Fırtına/Storm

This is a blend of house and rock with very light touches of folk (I would even dare to say that you’ll have difficulties to identify them). This song would make those sickeningly pretentious, ‘asocial-teens-market-research-says-you-like-this-crap’ wankers Evanescence, turn green with envy (which would be a welcome change from their overuse of Norma Shearer’s Silver Stone #1 white make up anyway). This is a dark, aggressive track that truly honours its title: having passed the first moments of tense calm, everything explodes into a furious hurricane of deafening roars and raging winds. This song marvelously juxtaposes the debacle of a failed relationship to the violence of a storm. Beautiful. Video.

Sigara/Cigarette

This is one of the biggest hits from the 2001 album Perdeler/Curtains. It shows a very strong Middle Eastern influence, but everything is done so carefully and with such subtlety, that it passes through your ears as a light mist. It is one of Ferah’s few full incursions into proper Anatolian rock, and it is truly delightful. With a lovely, sinuous melody that slowly and delicately drags its way across the aggressive background, it has many beautiful highlights, but the gorgeous flute that accompanies Şebnem’s voice during the chorus is simply magical. Video.

Hoşçakal/Noble Jackal

This is my favourite song from Şebnem's powerful new album Can Kırıkları/A Soul’s Pieces (2005). Even though the name of the song is a bit bizarre (God knows what was running through her mind when she wrote it), this is in fact an extremely beautiful and moving ballad that will carry you across distant plains and rocky hills in a moonless night, trying to make a living out of scraps that someone forgot, or no one else would want (yes, that’s what the song’s about!). The entirely human sense of desperation and the brutality of nature blend into one and are expressed beautifully by Şebnem , who shows the exceptionally sensitive songwriter she is with this piece.