Endless Summer
Sonsuz Yaz means infinite summer in my native Turkish language. The Turkish component of the actual song stops right there at the level of its title. Sonsuz Yaz is an instrumental song, it has no lyrics. Among the 57 released Black Sea Storm songs to this day, Sonsuz Yaz is the sixth one which does not contain any vocal tracks. I have created a new Spotify playlist with all instrumental Black Sea Storm songs. We’ll see how fast I’ll be able to extend it. Instrumentals usually come in the picture when they want to. I never intentionally start putting a song together, thinking that it is going to be instrumental.
The Island
It’s a pleasant coincidence for me that on the release date of this single album dedicated to the summer season, I happen to be on Isla Mujeres near Cancun getting ready in few hours to leave the island for a new destination on the Mayan Riviera. It would have been difficult for me to be in a more summerly situation than that. It was already a great coincidence that I landed in Cancun thank to more affordable plane tickets. I then decided to beat my own prejudices against mainstream resort destinations and explore for a while these types of places that I would typically try to avoid. I believe traveling is the best remedy against preconceived ideas. Go and see it for yourself attitude suits me well. So far the experience has been a positive one, although the whole Cancun beach thing I still don’t really get it. I am guessing that if one stays in one of those luxurious hotels, then it could make more sense.
Isla Mujeres, I enjoy the little bit more down to earth vibe the island has, although it stays extremely touristy and mainstream in my views. At times it feels a bit like being in the U.S. due to the high number of people speaking in U.S. English around me. The social vibe is overall amiable, everyone seems to have a positive attitude. The island is so small and relaxed that even strangers have the tendency to greet each other on the streets. There are only two negative aspects I can find to this heavenly place so far. One, it is considerably more expensive than other areas of Mexico. The other downside then would be that the hotels tend to monopolize the beaches. This results in pedestrians having to walk next to the cars. I often end up in a situation where I am walking for hours under the sun with polluting cars and golf carts on one side, and hotel entrances on the other. It is hugely alienating factor for a flaneur like myself who walks around to see engaging things and relax and tries to reflect during the process. It was a similar experience in Cancun when I tried to visit the famous hotel zone. The hotel entrances are not welcoming at all.
In Isla
Trying to get a show for Black Sea Storm on the island
On my second day of staying here, I decided to walk to the southern tip of the island. After a 40 minute walk under a harsh sun, I came across a reggae club named The Joint. It was all painted in Rasta colors. The patrons were mostly English Speaking people most likely from the U.S. having alcoholic beverages in the middle of the afternoon.
I walked in into The Joint’s outside patio. I was greeted with a “what do you want” from a first waiter. I told him that I was a musician, and I was looking to get the contact information of the person in charge of the booking. He sent me towards a second waiter, who seemed to be very sketched out by me asking for an e-mail address or a phone number. He then sent me to the bar, and there the bartender told me to wait and asked the second waiter to go to the office and talk to the person in charge of the booking. I waited for about five minutes. The second waiter came back from where I believe to be the office and told me that they had no open slots for a new act. And his attitude was quite condescending towards me.
This was my second experience trying to book a show in Mexico. So far things seem a little complicated for me being able to perform in front of a live crown with P.A. and a microphone. Here I am trying to book a mini slot at a club in Mexico on a tiny island. I am not even aiming to make any money during the initial stages. I am ready to play in between sets of other acts. In return, I am getting the worst rock star attitude in the world. Even when I was trying to book shows in L.A. in the past for my former band Channing Cope, I never got confronted to such a bad attitude.
This last booking attempt made me even think that maybe my Spanish has improved to a level where the guys believed that I was a local trying to sell them something or trick them somehow? On that day, I was not wearing a shirt, I am physically lean since I am regularly dry-fasting, and I have a week-long beard on my face. It is a possibility that they thought I was living on the streets or something.
Black Sea Storm Vinyl Stickers
The only success on this mini adventure was to be able to put a Black Sea Storm sticker on the “Punta Sur” street sign and meet a young man named Damian. On my way back, I stopped by the side of the road and Damian was selling fresh coconuts and fruit salads. I had not eaten for the past 19 hours or so. I decided to break my intermittent daily fast with some coconut water and then eat the meat of the fruit. Damian told me he was 16 years old. I asked him if he was going to school. His reply was no. I asked him if he was into computers, maybe that way I could motivate him to learn programming or a digital skill on his own. He said no again. I asked him if he had any passion in life other than selling coconuts. He told me that he was very much into music and he would like to buy a guitar. I told him that I was a musician, and I also said to him that music has brought me the greatest joy so far in life. I told him that it could be the best decision of his life to purchase that guitar. I gave him a Black Sea Storm sticker. He seemed really excited to see that I had a legitimate looking band-sticker and my music was distributed online on the major streaming platforms
The story behind these stickers goes back to 2010. Back then I was dreaming of putting a band together and tour across the U.S. with Black Sea Storm. The idea of U.S. made Turkish rock sounded at the time very inspiring to me. I wanted to do the same types of tours I did with Channing Cope, and The Kenseth Thibideau Band, and see how the reaction of the crowd would differ from hearing some rock n’ roll sang in Turkish.
A talented silkscreen artist and country music drummer named Robert Ivy made a bunch of cool looking silkscreened vinyl Black Sea Storm stickers for me. Shortly after I had my stickers, I abruptly decided to leave the U.S., and the Black Sea Storm U.S touring project ended up not happening. I am so glad that I had not thrown away the stickers, because nine years later here I am in Mexico with all the stickers in my backpack, and they’ve been helping me a great deal so far.
I am going to keep looking for opportunities to perform live
I think the resort towns are probably not the best choice for booking an act like Black Sea Storm. I believe that I will have more success in booking shows in more urban areas. I am going to keep pushing. I feel like with Black Sea Storm I won’t fit comfortably in a defined genre popular around here. That said, I have faith that if I can perform live, I can reach peoples hearts with the power of music alone. I am thinking of introducing more instrumental moments to my set. That way if people can in the first place connect with the music then it would maybe be more comfortable to accept and enjoy a foreign language that isn’t English.
