Ears of Maize: Ears of Maize here in conversation with Aykut Ozen on behalf of the LA-based Turkish psychedelic band, Ölüm, coming to the Chapel March 6th in support of The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Aykut, it’s a pleasure to have you here and have your time. I wanna jump right into it. What is in the name? Tell me more about, sorta, your mission statement and the name of the band itself.
Aykut Ozen: Yeah. So, um, I’ve been working on these songs quite a while now. It’s been probably, like, over five years, actually. The band only has been around a year and a half so far. Turning point was, like, finding the right people. The founding members are, including me, Mikey Longhair, and Foster Pace, which are two of my incredible friends and very dedicated people that I love dearly. So the name of the band was kind of a little bit of a controversial thing. We were working on some of the old traditionals in the beginning of the band when we were gonna start playing shows, and me and Mikey had been practicing together. He plays the keyboards, and I play guitar and sing. And we booked our first show, still trying to figure out the name, and there was this Turkish song from Cem Karaca, the artist, actually from Bariş Manço first, and these words go in the song lyrics. So Mikey kept hearing these things, and then he’s like, “How about this? How about that?” So there were a couple ones that I’m like, “There’s no way. The meanings are so off,” you know? And then he heard the word ölüm, which essentially means death. I mean, as grim as it is, you know, I’m like, “Okay, that kind of sounds interesting,” you know? Not that we’re, like, a really grim death metal band or anything, but, you know, it’s kind of surrealistic, psychedelic, I guess, so that’s how we landed on it, in a nutshell, honestly.
Ears of Maize: Are you the only Turkish national represented in the group, or do other folks have ties or origins to Turkey itself?
Aykut Ozen: Yes, I am the person that is born and raised in Turkey. Just recently, our friend Bianco hopped in on the second guitar. He’s Turkish, but, um, Mikey and Foster definitely– well, especially Mikey is very much a collector of Turkish psychedelia and records and whatnot. But yeah, to answer your question, I’m kind of the only person being from there, that region.
Ears of Maize: Did you find that there was a sharp learning curve with the band to sort of get into your mission and vision of the sound, or because folks had been sort of indoctrinated by these tunes and these collections in other influences, it was a very natural progression?
Aykut Ozen: It was quite natural, I would say. It came together quickly. Foster being an incredible musician, I mean, and Mikey having the ears for listening and collecting over the years, all I had to do to just present the songs to them and, like, in a couple of weeks, we were able to kind of get it going, you know?
Ears of Maize: I’ve read that some of your direct influence is sort of targeting that 1962 to 1982 period of what’s considered the golden age of Anatolian psych rock. Is there a specific year or a, like, sub-collection of those 20 years that, you as a band, are specifically seeking out in sound?
Aykut Ozen: Yeah, I would say we’re definitely more on the nose of the ’75, ’76, I would say. From aesthetic point of view, too, we are very much inspired by ’70s clothing and cars and music and everything. But yeah, the ’62 was the beginning of that era, those people kind of slowly building the sound, you know? And around early ’70s, mid-’70s, it kind of became what we see in these videos as this incredible thing that is the Anatolian rock revival. You know, the bands figured out– they finally mixed this East meets West sound. Um, so I would say for us, especially for me, ’75, ’76 would be the era that we kind of just work with.
Ears of Maize: And again, are there signature records or artists that you feel were at their peak in that ’75, ’76 era specifically within the genre?
Aykut Ozen: Yeah, man. So one of the main records is the, uh, Erkin Koray stuff obviously. Like, he was kinda like the more rock and roll one. Uh, the record that kinda changed a lot was called Elektronik Türküler, which means “electronic Turkish music,” you know, essentially. So that’s a very turning point record. And then Barış Manço has a record called Yeni Bir Gün. I think that came out in ’76, if I’m not wrong. Another very heavyweight record with beautiful songs, some traditional, some modern stuff. And Selda, of course, is another figure that we’re heavily inspired and love her. Um, again, around those times, this is a reissue, but that record came out. And Bunalım, which some people may not be aware of, but this was a very kind of a heavier stoner rock band, I think around like ’72, ’73, and some of the members joined to play with Barış Manço later on, and most importantly, Ahmet Güvenç, which is the bass player of Barış Manço, which is an incredible figure in Turkey, and he’s still around, actually. He’s still playing. So it’s been kind of a dream to eventually meet with him and hopefully play with him at some point, you know.
Ears of Maize: Were you able to see any of these artists when living in Turkey and exposed to seeing concerts of theirs live in person, or discovered through collecting their records now?
Aykut Ozen: I’ve never seen them live, you know. It was before my generation, obviously, you know. Barış Manço passed away, like, in late ’90s. I was just a skater kid, so I was kind of bouncing around, like, I’d been listening to a lot of punk rock and stuff. But I remember my dad telling me stories about Erkin Koray, and he’s like, “You should listen to him.” So it took me a little bit to fully embrace and understand the quality of this era and how they mixed this incredible music with whatever they were hearing from America and England, you know?
Ears of Maize: Is it music that you have to be handed from your parents or by a prior generation, or is there culture within Turkey that allows a younger generation and, sort of, the youth of today to find this themselves and have access to it?
Aykut Ozen: That’s a really good question. So, like, a figure like Barış Manço, for example, he was very involved with TV stations and he was almost like David Bowie in the sense he kept renewing himself over the years. So in that case, still people are aware of Barış Manço in the ’80s or ’90s or, or, you know, right before he passed away. But the deeper stuff like Erkin Koray, Bunalım and Cem Karaca, some of their heavier stuff that’s more tapping into psychedelia, yeah, you would need someone to kind of show you that, point you at that. ‘Cause a lot of these people made this really underground-sounding music, but then eventually tapped into pop music, which the main population will be more familiar with right now. So if you wanna share with a younger generation, you would have to show them the records and explain them the videos and whatnot, you know. But they resonate a lot, especially Barış Manço. I mean, he used to have a program called From 7 to 77. Like, literally, like, TV show with a huge variety of, uh, age group of people that loves him.
Ears of Maize: So was there a first, sort of, introduction record that was put in your hands that started you on this journey?
Aykut Ozen: Honestly, with me, it started with CDs. Like there was compilation CDs people would sell on the streets around early 2000s. I mean, they were pirated, unfortunately, and there was a ton of like Erkin Koray stuff in there because the old records are really hard to find, right? And there weren’t much reissues around that time. That’s kinda how I got into them, and then YouTube and all that internet stuff kinda just building up. But yeah, for me, it was really just like mixed CDs, you know?
Ears of Maize: Do you find that those records are easy to come by?
Aykut Ozen: In Turkey, yes, at certain times it may be easier to find some of the stuff, but over the recent years, obviously, this stuff got valuable and everybody’s a rare fit, so when there’s an original [it] ends up on eBay, it can go all the way up to $1,000, you know? But the point being is it is a later appreciated type of music worldwide for sure. Like, so Erkin Koray, you know, Cem Karaca, Barış Manço, they were listening [to] like Uriah Heep and stuff. A lot of people don’t know this there, but I know it, you know? They were really into the Western music. You know, that kind of interesting energy of the time, that world political energy and everything. But yeah, the records are definitely not easy to find, and I think when you find them these days, I mean, they’re worth a lot of money, you know? I remember my parents having records, but Turkey is the type of place– like Europe is like that, too. Like, they get rid of stuff really quick. They don’t keep older things, you know? [Chuckling.] So I remember, like, asking my mom, I was like, “Do you remember my uncle, whatever? They had all these records.” But I’m like, “Where are they?” “They’re all gone.” Where? They just gave them away, you know? Spread around who knows where, you know?
Ears of Maize: One of the things that I keep hearing you mention is, um, the discovery element: YouTube videos or old television and also this comment about the aesthetic, you know, this golden age of Anatolian psych rock or, you know, your fixation with the ’70s specifically. And I wanna call that out because actually how I found your music was through the power of video, discovering the band through the video Aman, directed by Fred Joseph and filmed in LA at Savannah Studios. Do you wanna talk to sort of that aesthetic, that song, the video and, sort of, your coming out party with all of that?
Aykut Ozen: We just finished recording new songs, and we just finished making the new video for one of the new singles. And Fred, again, is doing all of this stuff, and he’s an incredible friend, very deep-minded person with video gear and, like, vintage music and vintage camera gear. Yes, absolutely. I mean, we really didn’t expect– I mean, I knew I love my songs, you know? I’ve been living in art, you know? This is my life. But I really didn’t know what to expect, like, what people are gonna see this as. But as soon as that music mixed with those visuals, which again, it was, like, a collaborative effort, I was showing Fred about these older videos of Barış Manço that’s shot on eight millimeter, 16 millimeter, and he knows that stuff so well. He knows, like, world cinema, you know? Um, yeah, he was able to magically kinda just– it’s just real deal stuff. We love it, so I think it resonates to the audience. I had people, “This is old stuff, right? This is not new.” I’m like, “No, we just did this, like, two weeks ago,” you know? [Chuckling.] And again, in some ways, I love this vintage retro energy, but I’m very much of a modern artist, you know? I love music from any era, you know? I don’t wanna be pinpointed in that world. But we like the aesthetic of that period, and in the videos we do kinda carry that into the visuals. And I think it goes with the music, so, you know, people seem to dig it.
Ears of Maize: I think you nailed it on the head. Again, you can tell your influence. You can tell your attention to your craft and the source material that it took to, sort, of build that look. And it comes across sincere to that time, that place, and others that had done it, but also with your own, sort of, identity and moving forward. So bravo, and I’m excited to see what comes next.
Aykut Ozen: Thanks, man. I mean, like I said, Fred is the main brain behind the visuals. He’s an incredible human and, I mean, he has old TV cameras and stuff. And those first two videos were shot in one day, literally, like, in six, seven hours. Yeah, he made it look magical, you know?
Ears of Maize: Does any of that sort of dedication to aesthetic and visual art part of your plan for stage show and live performance and bringing more of that to life, to audience, and to the live concert setting?
Aykut Ozen: Yeah, I mean, I must be honest, we do, we do spend quite a lot of time in the look of the band. But, I mean, it’s not a new thing. Like, me and Mikey and Foster, we’re all in the garment kind of business a little bit too, you know? I’ve been making clothes myself for many, many years. Um, so yeah, we do curate the band, the music, and live shows. I mean, lovingly, we just spend time, you know? Like, I mean, I personally, like, pick my outfits and stuff because I love being inspired by the people that excite me from the past, you know? We truly kinda enjoy this type of lifestyle and whatever that may be, the conversations, the music, the videos. So yeah, that kinda reflects the shows too. At the shows, we do have some kind of aesthetic that kinda just, like, shouts out to the past, I guess I would say, you know? But then again, I am a full-time artist, you know? So I study new artists, old artists, jazz, rock and roll, whatever, you know? So my mind is mixed in with everything, but I have my own persona, so that persona vibes best I guess with that certain era, so we feel comfortable in those outfits, you know?
Ears of Maize: Yeah.
Aykut Ozen: Any era is like a color. That era specifically aesthetically looks so interesting to my eyes, like music, you know? I mean, you could pick any era, any type of music, but it’s like synthesizers, it’s like guitars. Certain ones have more organicness to it, and for us, I think that organicness comes from the era. So it is important to stand behind it. Like, we proudly love looking a certain way, you know?
Ears of Maize: Yeah. No, and it comes across as totally earnest. And again, if anything, it’s wearing influence on your sleeve and a love of a certain time and a certain sound. And, again, as someone who listens to far more music that was made before I was born versus music of the now, um, I can totally relate to that.
Aykut Ozen: Yeah. Yeah.
Ears of Maize: Another thing that you mentioned that I kinda wanna circle back on is, sort of, this idea of being a modern artist, but also glorifying, you know, past sound or a sound of another time and place. How do you, sort of, hold the relationship of riding that razor’s edge of, you know, a preservation of past, but also being an artist of today?
Aykut Ozen: Yeah, this is also another important point for our viewers and listeners both in Turkey and, you know, over here in different places. Um, so in this genre, the majority of the catalog is older songs. Like, there’s a ton of old traditionals. So even in the ’70s, if you listen to a lot of these records like Barış Manço, Erkin Koray, Selda– it would be like hundred-year-old stories or there was like bards, you know, back in the David of Saul, the poets, you know, so I emphasize a lot that I wanna bring newer, like, originals to this genre, and it’s a kind of a complex thing because it has a lot of traditional energy. But then again, you know, I also love rock and roll, you know? Mainly I’m, like– I like rock music. So, um, I guess to answer your question is I do spend extra effort not to lean on too much onto the traditionals because it’s so easy to– I mean, I hate to say it, but it is easy. As an artist chasing a good melody, good lyrics, I mean, I dedicated my life to it and I love it, you know? And I know how hard it is to come by to a good melody, a lyrical content that the audience can be like, “Yes, that’s exactly how I feel,” you know, that kind of connection. But when you’re doing traditionals, you’re just taking past stories, as beautiful as it is, it’s much less work. So I guess what I wanna emphasize is I spend ex- extraordinary amounts of time hoping to come up with new harmonies and melodies and lyrics that are, of course, somehow slightly modernized, but that can kind of highlight some of the past times, you know? I have, like, 15, 16 originals that I wrote, and it took me many, many years. You know, songs doesn’t happen, like, really quick. Nowadays everybody expects content to come really quick, but, uh, you know, I try to write them as honest as I can, you know? But yeah, I wanna get more originals to this genre. It kinda deserves it, you know? And it’s doable. It’s a little work, but– other than Aman, which is Ordunun Dereleri, so far all the newer stuff we recorded is just original tracks that I’ve written. I’m hoping people would appreciate that sort of effort, you know?
Ears of Maize: I appreciate that, and I love your dedication to your craft and wanting to lay new territory within the genre.
Aykut Ozen: The Western audience, they don’t know. You know, they can hear any melody from anywhere in the world, and because I value the artist so much, I always bring up, like, Aman, for example, Ordunun Dereleri– so I picked that one because a lot of people don’t even know Sayat-Nova. They’re not even aware of it. I think it’s important to educate people: hey, like, song 80 years ago written by, like, this old blind man on a field, so they should know that. So the credit should go to him. Of course, you’re bringing it to the new audience, but I’m a strong advocate of this. It’s important to point out who made it first, you know? People should know. And then, yeah, let’s enjoy it all together, but let’s give the credit.
Ears of Maize: Can you give us any teasers as to upcoming music or, um, new things coming out of the project?
Aykut Ozen: Very, very, very soon coming out, we recorded four more songs with, uh, our good friend Kyle Malarkey. He has a beautiful studio in Malibu. It’s all analog. Um, so the first song, we just shot a video again with Fred. We shot it on 16 millimeter with this beautiful old camera. So that’s gonna be coming out, like, very soon, maybe after these shows that we’re doing with Brian Jonestown And then my goal is honestly just release new music and new video, like, every three months. That’s been my plan since the beginning of the project, but it delays a little bit because it’s a lot of work. But right now I’m so excited that we have an audience. Like, it’s small, but it’s a really solid, you know, very, like, well listening audience. So I wanna, like, make sure that they’re getting what they want, you know? They want more. So there’s– this year definitely there’s gonna be, like, more content and, I mean, we’re so grateful, playing these amazing shows. We’re playing in Joshua Tree, there’s, like, a music festival there. In so many ways, like, we’re so grateful, like, in such quick, short period of time the band is picking up pretty, pretty fast, you know?
Ears of Maize: Absolutely. And that’s something I wanna shine back to you, is that, um, to be as just ripping as you are– like I said, I can’t get enough of it, and, um, congrats on what you’ve accomplished in just this short amount of time. So congratulations on that.
Aykut Ozen: Thank you. Like I said, music is my life, and it’s a strange high that I can’t describe, you know? It really, really feeds into my system, and it makes me wanna create more, and it means a lot. Like, people who has good knowledge of music like yourself, I mean, we have a lot of people around the world asking for more, and, like, how stoked they are to hear a band like this. A band like this just happened, you know? Again, with all humbleness, I’m up in the clouds. Like, it’s just beautiful that– And everybody in the band is just– we’re so happy. I wanna give a thanks to Anton, too, from Brian Jonestown. I mean, we had a couple of key people like Jeff Matz from High on Fire. I mean, honestly, they just heard us, and they just sent us a message on Instagram. We’re like, “What? What the hell?” Like, “Okay. Well, yes, of course.” Very grateful that this sort of energy is just happening around the band right now, you know?
Ears of Maize: Absolutely. And again, as a fan of the sound, it’s– I have to pinch myself to– in recognition that we’re getting new contributions to the greater Turkish psych space. I mean, just within the last year I also sat down with Derya Yıldırım and Grup Șimșek–
Aykut Ozen: Yes, we have played with her, yeah.
Ears of Maize: And again, that was one of my favorite records of last year. And to have all of these projects in my lifetime, it’s unbelievable, right? So I thank you for your commitment to the art. I thank you for your passion. It, again– it comes through. And for those of us that have just had a taste of it, again, here as a Western audience are trying to do our research to now go back and find all those influences, it’s so refreshing to be able to live in the today and also revisit the past at the same time. So thank you for your contributions.
Aykut Ozen: Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, Derya is also another pioneer at this. We played with her in Los Angeles, and– extremely kind human, like, super humble, but an incredible artist. Um, so yeah, I think the energy is like, let’s grow this, you know? There’s gonna be other people coming in to this, sort of, like, a sound, I think. To inspire and to get inspired, you know? That’s what I live for, you know? The more people that can inspire me, that I can kind of share that, reflect that back, we all need that. So, um, thanks again, man. I mean, this is so exciting to at least, kind of, just share these things that are in our heads with our audience and with you. Really appreciate you guys.
Ears of Maize: Awesome. Just in closing here, I wanna give one more plug. Again, I’m talking to Aykut Ozen from the band Ölüm, and a reminder that they are coming to the Bay Area here March 6th, playing The Chapel in support of The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Best of luck out there on the road, and thank you so much for your time.
Aykut Ozen: Thanks, man. Appreciate you. Hi, everyone. My name is Aykut Ozen, one of the founding members of the band Ölüm. We are a Turkish psychedelic band based in Los Angeles, California, and you are listening to 90.7 FM KALX Berkeley.
