Interview with She Past Away

We’re only here for the extreme sounds and sonic blasts, but also for music that touches your soul and mind in a totally different way, a calmer one that has a lot to offer. She Past Away do exactly that with their post punk and new wave songs and will be visiting Greece again in Farika Fest together with Lebanon Hanover and Selofan. On that occasion, I spoke with Volkan Caner about various subjects. Here it goes…

Good evening and welcome to Metal Invader! I’m pretty excited for this interview, since I truly enjoy your music. So, first of all, are you alright?

All is well, thank you.

A decade has passed since your actual formation and that’s a pretty big deal. Did you anticipate this success when you made your first steps as a band? How does is feel to be here ten years later?

Well, we didn’t set off with a purpose of success, but we believed in our music. We are happy to reach this point as an underground band.

After so many years, you decided to part ways with İdris Akbulut, thus Doruk Öztürkcan became a main member of your act. Why did this happen and how things have changed now? I guess that wasn’t much of a change, bearing in mind that Doruk stood beside you all this time as your producer. Is that the case?

Yes we are with Doruk since the time when we started to present the band. He joined in as the producer, later he joined the stage with electronic drum kit. At the end of 2014 we went different ways with Idris mostly because we had different approaches in life. I have been writing lyrics and composing and Doruk was producing so there was no change to the way the music was realized.

She Past Away originally come from Bursa. Turkey’s scene is a bit limited, especially taking into consideration the genre you’re serving. How difficult was for you to emerge from such a place and what do you think was your most important step towards that?

Bursa is where I was born and grown. Even though the band was established there, we became active in the period when we were living in Istanbul. We went through some hardship due to the fact that there’s not a scene for our kind of music. We just kept on doing what we believe anyway.

As we all know, you prefer writing your lyrics in Turkish. Given the fact that your language isn’t commonly used in music, did it ever cause any problems for you or the band? In such an emotionally charged musical expression, isn’t it difficult for the lyrics to touch people’s hearts when written in a language only a few understand?

It feels more sincere to write and compose in the mother language. I can’t speak German, French or Russian but I am a fan for many bands who sing in these languages. I don’t get a feeling of lacking because I don’t understand the lyrics, in fact it feels mysterious and I feel the urge to read about them.

Talking about messages, even though one can find the translations of your lyrics on your website, only you can essentially walk us through your themes. What are the main lyrical themes of She Past Away and what feeling do you want to induce to your listeners?

They are about the negative aspects of life in general. Loneliness, the void, nightmares…also some songs are about the religious oppression.

Where do you draw inspiration from for both your lyrics and your compositions?

Inspiration can come anytime, anywhere, in any form…It can be a movie, a book, an album or a daily event…

Doruk has been your producer and engineer for almost your entire career. How enabling is it for a band to have its own member as a producer? Does this make things easier for you?

Surely it’s good luck, he made so many things easier for the band.

As you once stated, “we generally feel closer to Europe because of its freedom and lifestyle”. Do you believe that if you were located somewhere else, things would have been done differently, would you’ve been treated differently or would the crowd have more easily access to your music?

Well I believe things would have evolved faster and easier. People are more open and enthusiastic about music in Europe. This creates a larger and stronger underground scene.

Even though you’ve established quite a loyal following, your actual releases are just two. Is there a reason why you’ve only released two full length records in your 10-year-old career?

In fact, things took off in 2012 after the release on Fabrika records. We literally had no activity before 2009, the time when we met Doruk and recorded our songs. We had a struggling time between 2009 and 2012 when we played some shows in Istanbul.

We toured heavily in the recent years. Tours take a lot of time and breaks concentration. We decided to take it slower in 2018 so that we can finalize our ideas on the new album.

Is there any new material recorded or any ideas about future releases? Should we expect a new album soon?

Yes we started recording new songs, we hope to release it this year.

You recently performed in Athens and Thessaloniki and you will again in a few weeks. Guess you’re happy with how things are working out.

We played longer sets to satisfy the wonderful audience in both cities.

That’s all from me for the time being, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions! More to come on Thessaloniki, hehe! Would you like to send a message to our readers?

Thanks for the wonderful interview. Thessaloniki night was incredibly enjoyable, we will come back in 2018.

Harika sorular için Teşekkürler. Ve Thessaloniki! Umarım en kısa zaman içinde tekrar görüşürüz…