13 November 2010
Ruşen Alkar, who makes music with Street Orchestra, says 'music is an emergency brake for me' She wants to convey her music to her audience without being a part of the music industry. She also wants to form a globetrotting orchestra and sing in all world languages…
Ruşen Alkar doesn’t prefer to be “visible” in music market although she has been making music for years now. She now makes music with Street Orchestra. She appears in festivals and sings at protest actions with her new music friends. We talked with Alkar about her music, her plans and why she is not visible.
Having started her music life in Diyarbakır Fine Arts High School, Alkar received musical training in Dokuz Eylül University and now doing her doctorate at Fine Arts Faculty.
MAKING MUSIC WITH AN AMATEUR SOUL
Alkar says “The thing that started in primary school and will never end” about music. She underlines that she makes music with an amateur soul and doesn’t describe herself as professional. “I want to make music with an amateur soul to not turn it into something senseless when I earn money from it. I am trying not to earn money from music”.
Ruşen Alkar is a music teacher and earns her living by teaching.
With her description “emergency brake”, Alkar in fact summarizes her relation with music; “Music is something like an emergency brake for me. The reaction of what I take into my inner world from outside. Something that results from my deficiency in expressing my feelings, something that arises completely out of my control. I have never planned to make a song of my feelings and compose them. It is a feeling that erupts itself, something like reflex”.
MOTHER’S WORDS BY THE GIRL WITHOUT MOTHER
Besides playing guitar and singing on the stage, Ruşen Alkar also composes songs, one of which is Girl Without Mother in Kurdish; “Why are you waiting for me mum/ I don’t know how to live/ how to learn/ I am in an useless worry/ no time here/ no piece here/ as you always said/a girl without mother is like a mountain without paths”.
Alkar tells the story of her composition as follows; “It was a song about personal loneliness. A girl without mother is like a mountain without paths, was a Kurdish expression my mum would use often. I wanted to make these words permanent as they are quite important for me. I wrote it in one of my bad days in Diyarbakır”.
NO ALBUM PLAN FOR FUTURE
Ruşen Alkar is not planning to make an album in future. She tells the reasons as follows; “I don’t have any dream about being discovered or making an album. I have been making music for a long time now. I met many production companies and saw what a degenerate surrounding they have. There exists a music sector where music and musicians are used as consumable items and I don’t want to be a product of that. For myself, I can’t think of a life style where I stroll about to help production companies earn. In addition, it is not necessary to make an album in a period where music spreads so fast via internet”.
WISHS TO GLOBETROT
Well, what are her plans? Alkar answers this question by telling her dream; To form an orchestra like the Street Orchestra I am making music now. In all corners of the world, to make the music that reflects the culture of world people. To found an orchestra that I will be able to take enjoy with while making music”.
Translation: Berna Özgencil
ANF NEWS AGENCY /
ANF NEWS AGENCY
