MMWOS talks to Painted on Water

Hello all my Music Maven! I have a great new interview for you all. Painted on Water is comprised of musical sensations  Demir Demirkan and Sertab Erener. Demir and Sertab combines their traditional tunes from their birth country Turkey with a kick of rock guitars, jazz, and pop polish.  Chicago-based  songwriter, vocalist and instrumentalist Demir Demirkan and songwriter and vocalist Sertab Erener will talk about their music, their latest album, and more!

Here is MMWOS talks to Painted on Water

What is your earliest memory of music? In what way did that experience lead to Painted on Water?

Demir: As a child I was a fan of 50's and 60's rock-and-roll. I had a mixed tape of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and the likes. Some of my earliest memories are singing along to that tape, sometimes recording my voice while tapping on the table and playing it back to listen to it. I think there are many elements of that rock-and-roll attitude in Painted On Water. 

Sertab: Like most children, I was singing and dancing in front of a mirror with a hairbrush in my hand. Now I do that on a real stage. 

What is the most difficult thing you had to endure in life? How did it affect your music? 

Demir: I lived in Los Angeles for a while after I finished studying at the Musicians Institute. I was working a few jobs and trying to make music at the same time. I was a hired guitar player for a few bands while I recorded my album at the same time with the money I earned. I was also delivering flowers and food and, you know, jobs like that. For about 6 months or so, I barely had enough money for food and I had no time to sleep. I was getting by on a couple of bars of chocolate, a multivitamin pill and LA tap water. It was not pretty. That experience taught me to concentrate on what I like doing even when it gets tough for longer periods of time. That's also the time you sort out your true friends from the fake ones. It teaches you to strip things down to their essentials. I have been involved in every part of the music business and musicianship. From guitar playing to songwriting to producing to singing, from African music to blues to rock, to metal and Turkish music, this diverse experience has helped me adopt different styles into the music I'm doing now. 

Sertab: I've had ulcerative colitis since I was 12. Most of my childhood was spent in hospitals. It finally ended with three major surgeries with all of my large intestine removed. I was home most of the time not being able to socialize and that got me into music. It was my best company. I decided to study at the Classical Conservatory and my family supported me on this, so I became a singer. 

Who do you think is a real game-changer in the music industry? 

Demir: Digital revolution or maybe involution I should say. While making productions and marketing easy, it killed the industry, well, almost. No one knows where it will go from here but only assumes or simulates scenarios. I think the age of recorded music is ending, and age of live performance is beginning again. I mean real performances by people who actually know how to play their instruments well and sing well. As a listener, I am tired of listening to derivatives of a few bands with the same instrumentation and sound. We need unique sounds. 

Sertab: I think way before that, when audio recording was invented, it all happened. It gave birth to the industry as we know it. People needed real people playing real time before recording was invented. From then on, music was in the air without the musician. I think it was Thomas Edison who invented the first phonograph recording and Alexander Graham Bell started made the gramophone. 

How has art influence your music?

Demir: As a practice for composing, I used to look at a specific picture for hours and get the essence of it and then made that into an audible form, a song or a piece of music. Composing music with your eyes is a very enlightening experience. You have only one mind and subconsciousness, and deep inside hearing, seeing, feeling, perceiving are rooted in the same base. It is a meditation really. Our band's name Painted On Water is a very visual name and it's taken from the ancient art of ebru, which is paper marbling. Abstract drawings have an effect on the conscience. When you look at art while listening to music, it feels like you're bringing together two loose ends of the same thing. 

What aspect of the music making process excites you most, and what aspect discourages you the most?

Demir: I am fond of every step of the music making process, from lyric writing to mastering. I am chronically discouraged by the approach of record companies and radio to music and musicians. When the time comes for music to be monetized, if things lean onto the business side too much, that's when I think the listener is being degraded into a consumer. I think it is an issue about the music listener and not the music maker. I think listeners should take it into their own hands to choose what music they want to listen to instead of choosing what's being shoved down their throats by the industry. It's like choosing what you eat all day. 

Sertab: I love to be on stage and share music with people at that given moment. What excites me the most is that music is made, witnessed and consumed at that moment and then it's all a memory. Studio process is discouraging to me. It feels like a lab without feeling – no audience. The smallest mistake is audible and music gets ruined while trying to get it perfected. As an artist, you learn when to stop correcting mistakes. 

How has your hometown played an influence on your music?

We take a lot of elements of Anatolian music and put them into our own music. They could be rhythmic, harmonic or melodic elements. I think it enriches the music. It's embedded in our souls so we don't necessarily have to think about implementing those musical elements into whatever we do. It just naturally comes out that way. 

What has been your biggest challenge with your music and in the industry?

Demir: When it comes to the point of give-and-take, it gets frustrating. It could be a production that I'm doing or my album, or some record company person who walks into the studio after the mix and says something that should have been said months ago. This happens very often to musicians. I think they train them at the offices to be that way, you know what I mean?

Sertab: Anything that comes in between the artist and the listener ruins that relationship, be it the record company or any media who has a say on choosing what to put out. One of the positive impacts of internet is that it eliminates that middle man. 

What other genre of music do you enjoy?

Demir: I listen to a lot of folk singers and songwriters. Most of them are not very well-lmpwm. Sometimes I want to just hear the song without arrangement or performer's interpretation. It feels very sincere to me. I also like a lot of electronic music like Shpongle, Juno Reactor, Klaus Schulze and solo guitar music from Bill Frisell to Joe Stariani. 

Sertab: I really enjoy classical music. I sometimes listen to rock/alternative like Muse, etc. and some electronic downtempo stuff like Massive Attack. 

What does music mean to you?

Demir: I have given up searching for meaning in things after I realized that searching is the outcome of  need, or an emptiness inside. It's like searching for the meaning of life, you'll never find it but run into many conflicts, endless discussions and illusions. I prefer to mean something to life and mean something to music. I perceive it from the opposite point of view: “how I can I make myself more meaningful to music, to life and to the world?”  It's a way to salvation on its own. 

Sertab: me too... :)

When can we all see you in concert? Where can we buy your music?

We are on tour right now. We've just played 2 shows in Chicago and one in Toronto. We'll be in Tropicalia, Washington DC on March 20th, in Drom, NYC on March 21st and Johnny D's, Boston on March 23rd. Our music is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/chicago-issue-ep/id729908398 and every other digital platform to buy or stream. To buy tickets to our performances, visit www.paintedonwater.com or www.dromnyc.com.

I would like to thank Painter on Water for the interview!