Making Music
My true passion in life happened to be making rock music. I decided to share the story of how making rock music and playing in bands acted as a guiding factor and pretty much shaped my entire life. Despite all the sacrifices I’ve chosen to make to peruse my dream. Making rock music has pretty much brought me all the joy and positive things I highly value in life. Without having this driving passion of mine, I am confident that my more income-generating professional career and my finances would be better off today. My life and my personal history, on the other hand, would most likely be way duller. Finding my true passion relatively early on was indeed a blessing to turn this life that was given to me into an exciting adventure. That said, not having found our true passion yet, and going out there to seek it, can turn itself into an exciting and enriching experience as well. Sharing the story of pursuing something I am deeply passionate about can maybe contribute to inspiring others to seek or pursue their true passion in life.
My First Exposure to John Bonham in Ankara during the 70s
I was fortunate to grow up in a home where music was highly valued. My parents (especially my dad) were into the 70s rock and classical music. While I was still living in my home country’s capital Ankara as a young child, I was exposed at a very early age to bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and composers such as Mahler and Beethoven. Besides all these great names, I personally was fascinated by what was after fact called the Turkish Psychedelic Rock movement. As a child, I was a great fan of artists such as Barış Manço, Cem Karaca, and Erkin Koray. For me, they were more than just rock stars. I used to perceive them as some kinds of superheroes. Besides the fact that they played great music in a language I could understand, they also had big Turkish mustaches just like my dad did. The ‘stache element alone could have sufficed to raise them to the superhero status for me at that time, but the reality was that they were fascinating in all aspects of their music and image.
Resisting to the Keyboard
While we were still living in Ankara with my family, I was also fortunate that my parents got me some pseudo piano lessons which I was able to take on a Casio keyboard. After our move to Geneva, Switzerland in 1984, I got even luckier and was able to take, legitimate piano lessons on real pianos. Despite all this privilege, I had access to, the actual instrument never clicked with me. Even though my piano professors would see some kind of musical talent in me, I was a terrible piano student, and terrible at playing the piano. I loved music as a fan, but the lessons were incredibly dull to me. In my very early teen years, on top of the fabulous 70s rock bands, I started to get into listening to groups such as Iron Maiden, U2, The Cure, and The Sex Pistols. I have to confess that growing up in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, I was also exposed to terrible French pop music during the 80s and early 90s. All that to say, I haven’t only listened to cool bands during my childhood and teenage years.
The Red Ibanez
One day with my mom, we were invited to a Turkish get together in Geneva at one of her best friends house. I must have gotten bored to hang out with adults, so at one point, I took the initiative to explore our host’s basement on my own. That’s where I came across a red Ibanez electric guitar. I was instantly fascinated by the looks of the instrument. I had no idea how it could be played. I took the musical instrument upstairs and showed what I had just found to the börek eating, Turkish black tea drinking crowd in the room. Our host told me that her son wanted to play the guitar a while ago, but he had kind of given up on playing the actual instrument. She told me that I could borrow the red Ibanez if I wanted to. This was the very beginning of a long and exciting journey for me.
Baby Steps into Rock n’ Roll
The guitar also came with a tiny practice amp. As much as I did not like the piano, I was very soon going to become obsessed with the six-string instrument. After 10 minutes of holding the red Ibanez in my hands, I had naively but with all my heart decided to become a rocker for the rest of my life. The only little problem was that I still did not know how to play the guitar.
There was a guy named Takuro who lived in our neighborhood. He and his family had freshly arrived from Japan and taken over the house where my very best friend Atsushi and his family lived in. This was right after Atsushi’s definitive departure to Japan with his family. Atsushi and Takuro’s dads worked for the same Japanese TV company and were sent to Switzerland for a four-year mission each. Takuro did not know how to play the guitar either, but he knew how to play one thing. He could play the bass line of “Stand by Me” of Ben E King on the guitar. He thought me how to play the bass line on the red Ibanez. It was very challenging for me at first, because I was a complete beginner. The red Ibanez guitar very quickly became my new best friend. It was tough for me to put the instrument aside and do other activities. If I would take a break from it, soon after, something inside of me would push me to go back and play some more. I was happily addicted to playing. I had found an instrument for which I was genuinely motivated. No one had to tell me to go practice, I just wanted to play it all the time.
Playing in Bands
A few months later, I formed my first band with my best friends from Jr. High I was attending in Versoix. Along with the guitar, at one point, in parallel, I also started to play the bass, because nobody seemed wanting to play the four-string instrument in my close circle of friends, and the ones who did weren’t ready to play in a band yet. After a couple of years playing with friends, I started to respond to adds and play with other musicians in town. I played the guitar in one band with an excellent rhythm section (Alex Perez on bass and Bernard Widmer on drums.) I must have gotten inspired by the way they made rhythm section work since soon after we stopped playing together, I started to spend more time playing bass guitar. Back then, among my circle of musician friends, I did not see myself as one of the best guitar players. I slowly discovered that I was maybe more talented for the bass. I soon started to audition for bands as a bass player.
Although I was far from being a real bassist during that time, there seemed to be a lack of rock bass players in Geneva. Every audition I would attend, people were willing to have me in their band. I briefly played in a couple of groups as a bass player, until I joined my first serious band,
The Split & My Move to San Diego USA
The split of Swoan was emotionally devastating for me. Back then, I was 24 years old, and I still wanted to rock more than ever. My next move needed to be as big as the emotional pain I was going through. I decided to move to the United States and start a band over there. What could have been seen as a naive dream of a young man with a broken heart who wanted to rebound from a significant setback, turned soon into solid reality! My decision to move to Southern California was taken under the influence of heavy emotions, and I had not done much planning. Almost miraculously, everything ended up working out perfectly for me. I moved to San Diego in September 1999, and in early 2001 I was already playing bass in a band called Bosom of the Urgent West. The same day of our very first show in town, during the morning hours, we were invited to a local TV station named KUSI to perform one song. My very first public appearance in the US as a musician ended up actually being on local Television. We’ve played about 20 shows with BOTUW before our two guitar players decided to leave the band, both pretty much at the same time.
With Chris Conner the drummer of the band, we wanted to keep playing and pursue our rock n roll adventure together. We started to look for a guitar player and met Kenny Schulte. The three of us started a band called Channing Cope. For our second album Sugar in Our Blood, we were able to get signed on a national label based in Michigan called 5440 or Fight!, released three albums, play near 300 shows, and went on a dozen of tours including a full-on US national tour in 2015. The six years we stayed together were probably one of the highlights of my life to this day. Besides our accomplishments as a rock band, I had gained two more brothers in life. Being active in a group and playing the music I loved with like-minded people was an incredible feeling. Besides, all that goodness, being able to play in an active band in a foreign country, enhanced my social life as well and helped me to integrate myself into the American society. I ended up living for about eleven and a half years in San Diego. I had an incredible time and met the most interesting people ever. Without rock n’ roll being involved, none of this North American adventure of over 10 years would have happened.
In addition to my pursuit of a rock career, in parallel, after earning some credits at San Diego City College, I was able to transfer to the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and graduate from there with a degree in 2008. Knowing that my last interaction with a school in Switzerland, was when I had dropped out of high school, getting a degree from a renown university was a huge accomplishment for me. (My diploma has Arnold Schwarzenegger signature on it! Just for that, it was all worth the effort.)
I had actually called it the quits with high school so I can build a real career as a rocker with Swoan. And the same rock n’ roll which had taken me from my studies was now the primary motivating factor to get me a degree. I first enrolled at San Diego City College, so I could legally stay in the US and continue to rock with Channing Cope. These two significant events in my life of quitting and enrolling to school, show how rock n’ roll has always been the main influencing factor in my decision making. At the end of the day, I believe that my decisions made with a rock n’ roll agenda in mind have brought me way more positive things in life than negative ones.
Black Sea Storm
Around the same time as we had founded Channing Cope with Chris and Kenny, I started a solo project named Black Sea Storm. It wasn’t my first attempt to do something alone. I had a solo project in Geneva called Deniz’s Home. I did a bunch of recordings with it but never released anything.
I wanted to get back at playing alone on the side so I could keep being creative on nights when I did not play with my band. Black Sea Storm acted as a laboratory to become a better bass player and most importantly to get better at initiating and constructing backbones for songs. From 2002 to 2009, I would mostly write songs with multilayered bass lines until one day in 2009, I started to have access to electric guitars thank my boss at the time, Daniel Garibay who would let me borrow his guitar equipment. I had no particular desire to play the guitar, but since I was interested in my music to sound more like a full band, out of necessity, I started to play the guitar and the drums on top of my bass lines and my singing.
As the years were passing by, the logistic aspect of playing in bands and going on tours was becoming more and more difficult for me and for the music playing people around me who weren’t full-time professional players. Having a solo project where I could play all the instruments, record, digitally publish and distribute my own music worldwide, without passing by a label was a solution that allowed me to pursue my dream during the times when I wasn’t involved with a band. After the split of Channing Cope in 2009 I’ve been pursuing writing and recording songs for Black Sea Storm to this day.
My Last Band Experience in the US
In 2010 I had the opportunity to play as a stage bass player for a great musician named Kenseth Thibideau. I was able to join him, and his band for a total of 30 shows or so. We went on a couple of little tours to Texas for the South by Southwest festival and up the West Coast up to Seattle from San Diego. The line up was made of incredible musicians. Joining Kenseth’s band allowed me to play with Tim Soete of The Fucking Champs, John Baez of Rumah
Back to Switzerland
Times without being in a band had unfortunately arrived. After my dream like an adventure in the US, it was complicated for me to play with local musicians in Geneva again. I did not have the motivation to audition, or put a band together in the city were the red Ibanez guitar had sparked the beginning of a fantastic journey. During the six years I stayed in Geneva, I did not play with other musicians, I was able to record and release two Black Sea Storm albums (Renk Son Güneş, and Issız Ada), and I would regularly play on my I own. Playing had become such a big part of who I was, that I couldn’t think about giving up making rock music. My mind and my body needed this daily interaction with a musical instrument.
My Move to Argentina
After losing my steady day job opportunity in the software industry, I had for five years, and not being able to find a new job after being laid off. I decided to repeat my North American adventure with the south of the continent this time. I decided to move to Buenos Aires. Although I had to sell most of my music gear before departure, I took my bass guitar and a bunch of cables for recording purposes with me. After six months of being in the city and only playing my electric bass without any amplification, I could not handle the reality of not being able to create and release songs with Black Sea Storm anymore. I decided to purchase an electric guitar on my birthday of 2017 and invest in simple portable gear for recording. I had a ton of other, probably more important issues that I needed to deal with as a newcomer into the country, but I knew that once I start creating music again, the rest would fall into place on its own. In Argentina, I was able to write and release multiple single albums, in quite minimal home recording conditions. (The single album recorded in Argentina which got the most streams on Spotify to this day is Baharlarda.)
Once again, I could witness that having the courage to give priority to my true passion was the right thing to do. As I had foreseen it, as soon as I started to make music, other elements of my life have one by one began to fall into place. To the point where shortly after getting the music thing going, I was able to score a steady work opportunity as a freelancer and started to play with other musicians.
The band adventure in Argentina did not last very long but was a beneficial experience for me. For a couple of months, our musical meetings with the band have been entertaining and highly creative. After 15 months of being in Argentina, once again, rock music was allowing me to meet new people and was contributing to integrate myself into the society I was living in at the time. Thank my true passion in life, I was feeling less like an isolated expat living abroad.
Becoming a Nomad
Once the Argentinian jam band was no more, I decided to live my life as a nomad across Latin America. I had absolutely no fear doing something like that because I loved touring so much when playing in bands that a dream of mine was always to live in a constant state of travel. Ironically my only concern was that I did not know how could I include Black Sea Storm into this new lifestyle.
Incorporating Music to my Nomadic Life
After living as a nomad for over five months without playing a single note of music on an instrument. Once again, life without playing had become unbearable for me. On Christmas day, while I was in Querétaro, Mexico, I purchased a relatively cheap acoustic guitar made in China. My first intention in buying the guitar was to gather new ideas and record them later on when I’ll have access to my electric bass and guitar waiting for me in Buenos Aires in storage. I realized that in parallel to gathering new song ideas to be recorded later, I could also adapt my already released songs to the acoustic guitar and perform them live.
Turning my Nomadic Life into an Ongoing Rock Tour
After my six-month-long Mexican visa was close to expiring, I decided to leave Mexico for Peru. At that point, I had adapted enough songs to the acoustic guitar that I started to play on the streets of Lima as a street musician. The response and support of people were just astonishing. In about two hours of playing the parks, I would be able to pay the rent for the day of the room I was renting. From February 2019 to July 2019, I played the streets pretty much every day. It was an incredible musical and human experience. I learned so much playing as a street musician. Once again, in this particular situation, music was allowing me to meet the most interesting people and have a social life wherever I would go.
Starting to Play Legitimate Shows with Black Sea Storm
As of July 2019, I was back to Mexico with a new visa and began to headline real shows with Black Sea Storm. I perceived this as an incredibly important moment in my career as a rocker. After over 28 years of always struggling in finding a solution to keep on rocking, I was now able to do the entire process from songwriting, recording, distributing my music, to playing it live all on my own. This without a label, without a booking agent, without bandmates. I could now potentially play a show any given night, and all the earnings my music would generate from shows or online streaming would support the adventure. Although the level of my music’s popularity was still modest with Black Sea Storm, I was incredibly proud of being completely autonomous. If something did not go the way I wanted it, I had only myself to blame for it.
This nomadic lifestyle with legitimate shows boosted my social life wherever I would go. It allowed me to meet more incredible people and discover exciting activities that they were involved in. I started to collaborate with people who would help me with my projects and return them the favor as much as I could.
Today on September 9th, 2019, music is the main driving force of my nomadic journey. Being in a constant tour mindset makes me go from city to city meet new people. As to what the real purpose of all that is I am not sure. There may be a higher purpose than promoting my music. I want to keep doing it until I find out.
Raison d’Être and Context of this Post
This is an updated version of a post I had first published on April
Although my music and health blogs are on separate URL’s, for me, they are very much connected. This is why I felt the need to update this post on my journey of following my true passion since my childhood years and connect it with what allowed me to resurface from physically and psychologically depressing times. Today I can easily say that I have more willingness and energy to rock than when I was in my 20s. I hope my experience and both projects could have a positive effect on others to pursue their true passion in life.