The Second El Teatrito Show

Continuous Improvement

Having two shows at the same venue one week apart from one and other presented itself as an excellent opportunity to me. This situation not only gave me the possibility to play twice but also allowed me to build upon the first show and improve my live set.

One thing I learned while working in the software industry which I am bringing to Black Sea Storm live performances is the concept of continuous improvement. When you are the only musician involved in the process, the approach of constant improvement becomes far more easy to implement than if I were to play with a band. For instance, if I do not like how a particular song sounds during a show, or if I think a part is weak once played in front of people, I can just change things with ease to improve my set before the next show. The same thing goes with the order of the songs.

This is truly an exciting situation to be in. It’s a great feeling to think that touring is also a creative tool in addition to already being a promotional one in my current situation. Every night I am performing live, my songs are confronted to an audience. I am able to gather what I sensing in terms of the quality of the attention and body language of the people watching the show. I do this at an almost subconscious level since I am mostly focused on playing during the show. Sensing the audience allows me to see what is working and what is not working so well. From there, I can try to improve and rearrange things as I go.

I decided to translate my lyrics

The week that followed the first El Teatrito show, I focused on four different tasks to make continuous improvement possible. Practice the parts I did not perform well, rewrite the parts which did not feel optimum to me in a live setup, change the order of my songs. And lastly, I decided to post a Spanish translation of my lyrics to the Black Sea Storm website. Now it is possible to have access to the words of all Black Sea Storm songs performed live in Turkish and in Spanish.

Translating lyrics was something I was entirely against initially. When I was a child living in Ankara to rock on Led Zeppelin’s jams, I did not need to understand a word of English. For me, lyrics are mostly tone. When I listen to a song or watch a movie, the meaning of the lyrics or the dialog isn’t essential for me. That said, the words making the dialog or the lyrics need to sound good to my ears. In that sense, I believe that there is an art of creating a good tone with lyrics.

Motivated by Accessibility

I tend to have a formal approach when it comes to consuming art rather than a semantic one. So my motivation to change my mind and translate the lyrics wasn’t necessarily so people could understand what my songs are about, but more to show that I am conscious that I am touring in a Spanish speaking country, that I respect the local culture and that I am willing to make an effort so my work is more accessible to people living in this part of the world.

A Lifestyle More Than a Promo Tour

I am not here to just promote my music then go back home. This is currently my lifestyle. I live in a constant state of touring in a specific portion of the world. I make Turkish rock in Latin America as a nomadic person. This is why I feel the need to do everything that I can, so there is no barrier between the people coming to shows and my music.

If I was currently living in Türkiye and a Mexican rocker came to tour my country. If that person had translated all her lyrics to Turkish and was fluent in Turkish, not only she would gain a greater amount of respect from someone like me, but I would also give a closer attention to her work.

To accurately translate the lyrics, my good friend Javed of Nanishe helped me a great deal. I did the first draft of the translation job alone, we then sat down together with Javed and tried to adapt every line of the lyrics so the poetic component won’t be totally butchered by the translation process. It took us more time than expected to complete the task, but I feel like I gained a lot doing this exercise with him. Not only I learned a great deal of new Spanish expressions, but I probably was able to develop a new perspective on my lyrics and writing lyrics in general.

Formal Changes

To help me and the audience ease into the set at the beginning of the show, I decided to write an intro for the second El Teatrito concert. I decided to switch the positions of the first and the second song. I put Yollar Üstünde in first and Kayıp Bir Aşk in second. I also changed the positions of Baharlarda and Günün Sonunda. I decided to put Günün Soununda in fourth and Baharlarda in the fifth position to keep the rock momentum a bit longer before calming things down with a slower mostly arpeggiated song. During the first show, I felt that there was a loss of energy during Baharlarda, so in addition to the position change, I modified the song a bit. I replaced a one note at a time melody by newly witten arpeggios and reduced the number of bars of the main arpeggiated portion of the song to bring in the strumming part earlier. With those few changes, the set sounded and felt a lot different in comparison to the set I played during the first show.

The Day of the Show

The day of the show, I did my little routine to get ready for the event. I was wearing an Iron Maiden shirt. Some things we love since childhood never change. I called an Uber to make it to the venue. When the Uber driver saw the t-shirt I was wearing, he told me that he needed to put a different playlist on his Spotify app. We listened to some good old metal classics during the ride to El Teatrito. As we were approaching the venue, a storm was getting closer to Mérida. When I stepped out of the car, I could sense that it was going to rain very soon. There was absolutely nobody around, and the door of the venue was locked. I could access the WIFI of the El Teatrito, so I was able to message Amanda the co-owner of the structure to tell her that I had arrived. A few minutes later, she opened the door. The minute I made it in a heavy rain started to pour over the city. My guitar, my gig-bag and I have managed to stay completely dry. I had a bad feeling that the storm was going to affect the draw. People tend to not go out that much when it rains in Mérida.

The Show

There were definitely fewer people than for the first show, but I was lucky enough to have a very attentive group of people attending. Some of them had made it to both shows. My good friend, agent and lyric translator Javed and her sister Mari were there too. During the show, I felt like all my hard work during the week had paid off for the most part. I was told by the people who were present to both shows that the second one was way better than the first one. Ironically I was able to nail the more complicated parts of the set, but I’ve made some big mistakes on the easier parts. The learned lesson being; there is no such thing as an easy to play parts in a live setting. Every second of the repertoire needs the same amount of attention and focus because in a live situation some things that are evident in a relaxed environment could become very difficult to perform at times.

The ongoing tour is launched for real

The two shows I played at El Teatrito represent a big step for the Black Sea Storm adventure and the evolution of my current lifestyle. Now I can say that I have succeeded in turning my life into an ongoing rock n’ roll tour. I have three shows booked in Oaxaca so far for the month of August, and before my departure, I will be playing at Javed’s birthday. There is also a tiny possibility that I play at a boutique hotel in Valladolid before heading to Oaxaca.

A 22-hour bus ride is ahead of me to make it to Oaxaca City. I was able to find a %50 discounted ticket which is fantastic, and since it’s a night ride, I won’t have to pay for a place to stay during that night which is also excellent news. I have the feeling that the adventure is going to get more and more exciting from now on. In addition to this website you can follow the tour on Instagram Facebook and YouTube.