Hi Sean;

Hope everything is allright with you. I will ask  a few questions about Sean Parker Band, then I will try to introduce Sean Parker to our users deeply. It seems as if you know Turkish people well in your writings. Turkish people are well known with their friendliness attitudes. I will try to  ask my questions as friendliness as public. Hope you will be insightful about this :)

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I want to ask a special question first… I think you have a very different, maybe a little adventurer mentality. All of us know that England has more facilities for music than Turkey. And also Sean Parker Band’s genre is more regular for Brits than Turks. So, -as you guess- my first question is, why did you leave your country and make your music in Turkey? I am really very curious about it.

In addition to the fondness I had for Turks already, I also could see that the world was getting smaller, and you can follow your creative drive wherever you are. Just because you move the centre of operations doesn’t mean that you have to give up all you’ve worked for. Also, Istanbul is an incredibly inspiring place to live and write.

You have released a very different album last year. Let’s start with it. “A Gun to the Temple” is a very different mixture. Everyone whom I have talked and wanted to comment on this album say that they are glad about this work which includes different genres in. How did you bring this idea to light?

It was just a progression on from the Istanbul album of 2006 and Transport EP of 2007. The first one was very indie, low key, and quite weird, and I wanted this one to be bigger sounding, and somehow accessible. I also liked the idea of psychedelic disco punk, a little like Spirits, sitting with something softer, like Whose.

I have another question on this subject… How could you name Sean Parker Band’s genre?

Today’s Zaman named it Art Rock, and I’m happy enough about that. Brings to mind The Fall, Roxy Music and Devo…

I guess the most famous name in the band is the drummer Muratcan Akçay (Magick, Tushe). Shall you please give us some information about the line up and the guest musicians who take place on album records?

A Gun To The Temple was recorded at SG Studios in Tunel, with Sertaç Guler co-producing, engineering and playing some additional guitar. Matthew Lemon, of Pis Yabancı also helped out on clarinet – and the guitar solos on Whose and Cascade are his. Fehmi Suda is our bassist of about a year, and there isn’t a musician in Istanbul who doesn’t know of him. I used to play in a band called It, and the bass player for them, Bob Lanz, also did the original bass line to Spit It Out. I hope Sarp Sanin and Erdem Yener will appear on the new album.

What is the founding story of Sean Parker Band? How did this project bring to light?

Playing live is a matter of confidence, and I had it after A Gun To The Temple was finished, so it was time to get a group together. Kenan Doğru, our first guitarist, and another few musicians had been students of mine, and I had heard their skills, and enjoyed it. There was a revolving door policy for a while, until Ayşe Akarsu (Sultan) introduced me to MCA, the drummer Banu Aydin introduced me to Fehmi, and Thomas Patron, french lead guitarist, went off to Thailand. Then I picked up the guitar, and that’s the current incarnation.

Did you get any reaction about the name of the band? The bands which are founded under a personal name take reaction in Turkey mostly. Did you receive any negative comment about this from your audience?

The reason we are called this is because I write the songs, played almost everything on both albums so far, and I’m the long-lasting member. Also, it’s honest. If anyone has had a problem with it, they haven’t let me know about it.

What about the aspect of Turkish audience to Sean Parker Band?

Sorry I don’t understand this question..

I have heard really great comments about “A Gun to the Temple”. What about the next album? Will there be any new album in these days? And also I wish to ask if new album will include different genres as “A Gun to the Temple”?

The next album will be named FLAMINGO, we’re recording it at the moment, and hopefully it will be out in the autumn – with a launch party at Ghetto. Our sound is different and far more idiosyncratic now – we have the power of a live band, and a well drilled-one. We’re listening to lots of Morphine, Talking Heads, Simon & Garfunkel and Lightning Bolt these days, so who knows how it will end up. It’s punky, raucous, very tuneful, abstract solos, with Fehmi playing like a snake wrestling with a rhinocerous.

And the last question about the band: Shall you tell us a little about your future projects?

There is the album, and this major show at Ghetto (hopefully Black Schwartz will come along for that one), the Eclectica festival at Yadikule in september – with Gold Blade, Malice In Wonderland and others – and another show at Dogzstar, our favourite Istanbul venue. There is talk of appearing on Gece Gündüz on NTV, and performing on Cine 5, radio appearances on The Pena Show on YÖN radyo with wonderful Ahmet Durakçı, and Adam Walton, BBC DJ, is a fan of our work, so we will make sure Flamingo is played on his show.

I want to start to ask personal questions now.

You have got your biography on some websites like MySpace, Facebook, etc. But we wish to know Sean Parker by his own words. Shall you introduce yourself by your own words?

Sean is an addition to my birth name of Ben. I added it in 1995 because of a stammer I had since I was 5, and couldn’t say B properly. I’m 34.

In Turkey you have played in some venues like Shaft, Kemancı, etc. And as I know you visit these venues often. What about the comments of people for your music or yourself?

To my face or behind my back? Most people are really positive and encouraging, but you need a thick skin. I’m quite outspoken, and happily complain that, even at famous places like Kemancı and Shaft, there are only covers bands. It’s nice to be an original live music pioneer, and I won’t stop that. It’s why places such as Dogzstar and Peyote are so important. A couple of people have asked why I write about turkish music, advise me to concentrate on my own music, and one criticised me for supposedly taking the stage away from Turkish musicians! Told me to go home to my ‘home’ country.

It is clearly seen on your “IstanbullDogs” writing that you really follow Turkish Rock culture intimately. And also it is clearly seen that you are against the unnecessary popularity. I wish to celebrate you for this writing. Shall you please share your opinions about Rock and Metal music culture in Turkey?

Every week I find a new track or tracks that I really love – and I really love tracks when I love them. The audiences are very behaved generally – real mosh pits are hard to find, sadly. Dorock appears to be the place to be these days, wonderful in the summer, and a real hub for musicians and rock lovers. Because everyone knows each other and everyone has played in each others bands’, and due to a natural turkish politeness, people are not generally overly-critical of each others’ music, albums or shows – not openly anyway. It would be great to see an alternative rock weekly paper, like the NME, released here.

 (P.S.: You may find Sean Parker’s İstanbullDogs writing herein below: http://www.resetmagazine.net/resetsayi36/muzik/IstanbullDogs-2009.html)

We know that you have written all of the songs in “A Gun to the Temple” album. Is there any project on writing a Turkish song? Or shall there be any surprise like a cover of one of the oldest Turkish Rock bands?

Heheh. My Turkish isn’t good enough! Above The Warzone has two turkish lines in it, and a new song from Flamingo (a great heavy one), Starting A Fight,  has some too – like a rhythmic device. That’s how my lyrics and singing are these days, simply rhythmic devices – don’t look for too much meaning in them. If I were a better guitarist I would love to cover Moğollar’s 2578 (?) – no lyrics, or many things by Manço or Koray. You never know.

just don’t forget the website www.myspace.com/seanparkeristanbul :)

 

Questionnaire (Every member has to reply all of them):

-          Equipment You Use (Trademark, Model): the worst Jackson japanese piece of trash in the world. I break my guitars too often to buy expensive ones

-          Birthday And Place: 19th May 1975, Exeter, UK

-          Favorite Bands: The Flaming Lips, Queens Of The Stone Age, Talking Heads, The Clash

-          Favorite Albums: The Flaming Lips ‘The Soft Bulletin’, David Bowie ‘Low’, Talking Heads ‘More Songs Abour Buildings And Food’, MGMT ‘Oracular Spectacular’, Athena ‘Herşey Yolunda’

-          Favorite Musician: David Bowie

-          Spare Time Occupation: teaching english

-          Favorite Drink: Efes Pilsen. or milk

-          Favorite Food: anything turkish homemade

-          The Best Sean Parker Band Track: Spit It Out. or Spirits

-          The Best Sean Parker Band Gig: Dogzstar, june 2009

-          Unforgottable Memory That Has Been Lived With Sean Parker Band: burning onstage at Istanbul Kültür Universite festival show, with two russian girl friends and MTV reps nearby, drinking Jack Daniels from paper bottles.

-          Unforgottable Memory That Has Been Lived in Turkey: headbutts, glassings, punches, earthquakes, thefts, muggings, attempted slashings, member exposure…

-          With Which Band You Dream To Be On Stage?: The Flaming Lips, The Rolling Stones or Fugazi

-          The First Album You Have Bought:Fine Young Cannibals ‘The Raw And The Cooked’

-          The Last Album You Have Bought: Tom Waits ‘Franks Wild Years’

-          Last Question: Philosophy of Life: You will regret the things you didn’t do much more than the things you did..

 

 

 

Thanks for your answers in advance.

Thank you Umit

Umit Gundogdu