Interview with Berk (vocals and guitar) and Batur (bass) about Yasru, a doom/folk metal band from Turkey.
Hi! Please introduce yourself and also tell me when Yasru was founded.
Berk: Yaşru (pronounced Yash-ru) is a Turkish Folk Metal band, based on ancient Turkic music founded by me in 2007 as a one-man project. After 2009 this project turned out to be a band.
You have signed with the Italian label WormHoleDeath to release worldwide your new album, ”Borubay”.
Batur: That’s true. We have some other associate bands under the same label. As we see, WHD was the perfect choice for us.
What is the concept behind ”Borubay”, also what are the lyrical themes?
Batur: It comes from the words ’’Börü’’(Wolf) and ”Bay’ (wealthy) or ’’Bey’’ (Man) in Göktürk language, which is illustrated by Ömer Tunç and came to life. He is a warrior from one of the 9 clans of Göktürk Khanate. Nature holds great importance in ancient Turkic belief so we tried to blend it with Börübay’s character also his environment and tell the story of him. One of the line of Börübay goes: “Erlik olur bedenim, düşman üstüne” – My body becomes Erlik, unto my enemies. Erlik is believed to be a “God of Death and Underworld” in Tengrism(Academic term). Most of the words of our other songs includes terms like these.
There exist two other releases (2012 and 2014). Is the sound of ”Borubay” different than the previous albums?
Berk: Yes there are two other records from 2012 and 2014. We can say music styles are same on both of these albums. ”Börübay’’ is more powerful and have a faster tempo than the previous ones.
What feedback do you get from people for your music?
Batur: They encourage us for keeping up what we do, that is a fact. Both they and us havea great anticipation of what we could do in the future. We already knew the potential of our music. But we gotta be modest here, since “Börübay” is our first worldwide attempt with a record label.
How do you see Yasru on the Turkish metal scene? Usually, metal bands in Turkey risk to be mocked by their genre playing because of the religious fanatics…
Berk: In three years there is an increasing population of who likes our music in Turkish metal scene. Even people not into metal genre likes our music because of folkloric elements. Turkey is not the same with other Middle-Eastern countries… Rock & Metal roots goes way back to 60’s. So in my opinion Turkish people are used to hear this kind of music. That risk is same with European or any other countries…
Batur: That risk cannot be helped in my opinion. We are musicians, we cannot force to change other people views in this. As long as we got the support and appreciation of our listeners we know that we cannot be held back with these kind of problems.
Will you be on stage soon aswell to promote the new release?
Berk & Batur: We are already working on some opportunities for concerts.
What other plans do you have in the future?
Berk: We will keep on making our music. Hoping to increase our audience worldwide!
Thank you for this interview! Do you also want to say a message to the metalheads around the world?
Berk: Thank you very much for your interest and interview. Our message: stay with METAL and cherish your folklore!
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