The
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Mor ve Otesi (translated as Purple and Beyond) are Turkish
alternative rock band hailing from the city of Istanbul. Its current members
are Harun Tekin (vocals, guitar), Kerem Kabadayi (drums), Burak Guven
(bass) and Kerem Ozyegen (guitar).
The band was established in January of 1995 with a slightly different
line up by Kerem Kabadayi, Harun Tekin, Derin Esmer (vocals/guitar) and
Alper Tekin (bass) - four close high school friends in Istanbul, Turkey.
Their first album Sehir was recorded and mixed between August 1995 and
January 1996, and was released in June 1996 by Ada Muzik.
1997 was an important year for the band. It saw their first show outside
their hometown in the capital Ankara at ODTU (Middle East Technical University).
It was also the year the first line-up change took place with Burak Guven
replacing Alper Tekin. In 1998, the band began working on their next album.
The album Birak Zaman Aksin was recorded by their long-time school mate
and sound-engineer Volkan Gurkan. After the process, Derin Esmer left
the band and was replaced by Kerem Ozyegen. The album was released on
March 1999, once again, by Ada.
After the devastating 1999 Kocaeli earthquake, Mor ve Otesi started playing
more on social and political themes. They were also very active in the
opposition against the use of nuclear energy in Turkey. In July, the band
recorded a song, "Sen Varsin", to be included on a tribute album
for the legendary Turkish protest singer Bulent Ortacgil. They closed
the year with their most important performance to date, opening for Placebo
at the H2000 festival in Istanbul on December 9.
The third album Gul Kendine was once again recorded and produced by Volkan
Gurkan, and released in December 2001. The promo tour for the album was
also the bands first proper nationwide tour, and the closing concert in
Istanbul drew upwards of 5000 people. Receiving wide critical acclaim,
the show was regarded by the media as a musical treasure and an audio-visual
extravaganza.
In 2003, Mor Ve Otesi joined in for various anti-war activities by artists
of all kinds, and composed the anthemic "Savasa Hic Gerek Yok".
The song was performed in Ankara on March 1, along with fellow musicians
in front of a crowd of 100.000 people.
In May of the same year band released an EP called Yaz. Its opener, a
rock style cover of the popular 1990 classic "Yaz Yaz Yaz" became
the countrys summer anthem. The band followed the success of this single
with another nationwide tour which saw some unprecedented attendance numbers.
In Autumn, the band started writing their next album while working on
the soundtrack for a film called Mustafa Hakkinda Hersey. A song from
this soundtrack, "Bir Derdim Var", was also to be the third
single from the forthcoming album Dunya Yalan Soyluyor, and brought the
band the prestigious Altin Portakal (Golden Orange) Award at the acclaimed
International Antalya Film Festival for Best Song for a Motion Picture.
A new producer, the renowned bass player Tarkan Gozubuyuk, was chosen
for the album, and work began in January 2004. The album hit the stores
on May 1, 2005 and attained incredible early sales figures, becoming a
platinum-selling rock album, and the song received huge airplay from both
TV and Radio stations. The album contained considerable political criticism
against the activities of the USA both in Iraq and the rest of the world.
Song "Bir Derdim Var", was not only arguably the most popular
rock song to date in Turkey, but was also championed as Song of the Year
by musical authorities and fans alike. The commercial success of the album
which reached 250.000 units in sales was complemented by a very busy and
expansive touring schedule. The band played about 150 shows to date since
the release of the album, sharing its songs live with large audiences
nationwide, and the experience enabled the band to become a rock-solid
live performance act.
The bands last international foray for the year 2005 was a strong performance
at Simdi Stuttgart, an international music festival that took place in
Stuttgart, Germany in November. Video for the song "Uyan" reached
the 1 spot on MTVs World Chart Express. The video was re-edited from an
animation created by Andrei Khrjanovsky in 1968 which was shelved by Soviet
censors when it came out.
The band released their fifth album titled Buyuk Dusler on May 9 2006.
This is an album mainly dealing with the political problems of Turkey
and the personal problems of the group members, including loss of family
members and their relationships. It has a darker sound compared to their
previous albums. Mor Ve Otesi tour Europe (heavily in Germany) and the
West Coast in the U.S. in autumn to wrap up the year. |