‘WE DO NOT WANT TO IDEOLOGIZE OUR TRAUMAS’
Hurriyet Daily News
Nov 25 2009
Turkey
Four young men from the southeastern city of Hakkari formed the first
Kurdish metal band and named it Ferec. The band is a global pioneer.
They recently released their debut album ‘Helîkoptêr’ in their native
tongue to mark their coming. Daily News spoke to their frontman Reh
Fuat on music and beyond
The Kurdish word "ferec" means, "the last shining star in the sky
at dawn; the eve of light after darkness," according to Reh Fuat,
vocalist for the Kurdish metal band of the same name.
"We believe that we have reached the end of the darkness we had to
live through, too," said Fuat at the beginning of our discussion about
the first metal album in Kurdish, titled "Helîkoptêr" (Helicopter).
Ferec was founded by four musicians who split from a folk band that
played at weddings and bars.
Another thing that Reh Fuat, guitarist Kaya Baratarna, bassist
AfirîÅ~_ and drummer Zêde have in common is they all started playing
music with the "baglama," a traditional folk instrument of Anatolia.
While the quartet was in search of new horizons in terms of music,
they found a mix tape that introduced them to the world of heavy
metal. "We knew that [metal] was what we wanted to do but we did
not know what it was before that tape," said Fuat. Unfortunately,
they lost that tape since and the identity of the band or artist who
sparked the flame for Ferec remains unknown.
The band has gone down in history as the first band to release a metal
album in Kurdish but they are also the only one in existence as well,
according to Fuat. "There was Koma Wetan, a band from Armenia, which
was not playing metal, but hard rock. We can say they influenced us.
However, there are no bands playing this style in Kurdish except us."
The people of Hakkari must have found it odd that they were playing
heavy metal. "Everything that is not directly related to material
gains is considered odd in a place where life is very hard," said
Fuat, adding that what the band was doing was first perceived as
"unnecessary" at best. Fuat said it is hard for metal music, which is
a product of Western industrial society, to exist in a traditional
society where individuality hardly exists. "But we are aware that
humanity is getting closer to forming a single community. Just because
this isn’t so visible in Hakkari, doesn’t mean it’s not important to
us." The band believes that the concept of individuality will evolve
faster among Kurds today because individuality is on the agenda both
locally and internationally. "We are trying to form a connection with
the world that is apart from just being Kurds, or alongside that,
but one that features our individuality, too," Fuat said.
The booklet of their album lists "Hevalno," a song by international
Kurdish musician Å~^ivan Perwer as the opening track but the song is
not on the CD. "We could not reach Å~^ivan Perwer because he lets his
lawyers handle the royalties," Fuat said. The band was disappointed
with the lawyers for asking for such a high price from a band that used
a bank loan to record their album because they could not initially
afford it. According to Fuat, "Hevalno" is kept in the booklet as a
reaction. He said they still play the song live onstage.
One look at the album cover is enough to capture the political content
of the songs if you are familiar with the Kurdish problem in Turkey,
but that is not all. Ferec has songs about love, too. "It is not just
about politics here. We fall in love, we fight, too," said Fuat. Their
lyrics are rebellious, but not pessimistic. The line "Ci bikin warê
me hemÃ" sotin" (What can we do? They have burned all of our houses
down), is followed by "Tev werin warê xwe nÃ"da xemlînîn" (Come on
let us beautify our houses once more). "Being optimistic is the most
important part of our perception on life," said Fuat. "We are trying
to produce hope. We do not cry out just to resist, we do not just
swear. We also have hope that the world can be a better place. It is
probably because we are from a region where you cannot stay on your
own two feet without hope. We do not want to ideologize our traumas.
We believe that we must think of tomorrow, too."
On the other hand, Ferec is a metal band and anger is an important
element in the music. Anger is a clear emotion, which is audible in
the title track of the album about helicopters. As kids, the band
members thought the helicopters represented games, but soon realized
it was all too real. The chorus, which includes the only Turkish words
of the album, goes: "SerleÅ~_ker dike qêrî" (The commander shouts)
"Rahat hazır ol niÅ~_an al" (Ready steady aim).
Fuat said Hakkari is a very special place for them, not only because
they were born and raised there, but also because the town is important
as a place where many important names in Kurdish literature were
born and many different ethnic groups and religious beliefs have
coexisted in peace throughout history. The band does not like the
term "tolerance," because it does not believe that people "tolerate"
each other. Instead, Ferec’s uses the definition of "the culture for
living together."
Turkey has come a long way since the official policy of the government
towards Kurds and the days of "there are no Kurds, there are mountain
Turks." The members of Ferec certainly believe the "Kurdish initiative"
by the current administration is a positive thing. Fuat said the
highest ranks of the government speaking about the past injustices,
and the torture and cruelty of the past as if in apology, is progress,
but that it is not enough. "Other citizens of Turkey, the ones who
were militarized, were made into enemies of the Kurds. They suffered
similar traumas to ours and deserve an apology, too. The people of
Turkey must be told: ‘We have deceived you for 90 years. We made
enemies of your brothers and we are apologizing for that, too.’"
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
