The self titled debut album “Painted on Water” release in June 2009 by artists Sertab Erener and Demir Demirkan is a combination of traditional music and art from eastern culture with America’s roots music, jazz and blues representing the culmination of a truly global vision. The group “Painted On Water” just completed a highly successful tour in the US.

Ucombo music editor Meg Dilts had the opportunity to interview both artists about their career, collaboration, and the making of this wonderful international music project.

SERTAB ERENER has been among the most acclaimed female artists on the Turkish pop music scene for over 15 years. A conservatory-trained coloratura soprano, Erener’s versatility in opera and pop styles has won her an army of devoted fans, and global sales of over four million records. In 2003, she represented Turkey at the Eurovision Song Contest in Riga, Latvia, and became the first Turkish singer to win the Eurovision first prize with “Every Way That I Can,” co-written with her partner in PAINTED ON WATER, Demir Demirkan.

Demir Demirkan is the songwriter, arranger, co-producer, guitarist, and singer for PAINTED ON WATER. Embarking on their world music and jazz/blues/rock fusion together after ten years of successful collaboration on Erener’s pop projects in Turkish and English, PAINTED ON WATER was co-produced in Los Angeles with Jay Newland, a nine-time Grammy-winning producer and engineer.

Meg: Hi Sertab and Demir, thank you so much for taking the time to talk us about making this wonderful global music project. Prior to Pained On Water, you had been collaborating for over a decade. You co-wrote “Every Way That I Can,” the song that helped launching Sertab’s international career. How did you two meet? What was your first collaborated project?

POW: Hi Meg, thanks for interviewing us.

We met in the summer of 1996, at a club where Sertab was singing. I had just relocated to Istanbul from Los Angeles and she had had her 2nd album released. My first thought was “she should be singing worldwide!” And honestly, I can say that was the moment I fell in love with her.

I started working on another singer’s debut album, meanwhile we got together with Sertab for some of her demos. We prepared a 2 song demo for Arif Mardin, he was in Istanbul at that time. That’s also the time we got together as a couple. The first project we worked on was Sertab Gibi, her 3rd Turkish release. We co-wrote songs and I did the production, arrangements and a lot of guitar playing

Meg: Sertab, your work in PAINTED ON WATER represents a new creative plateau in an already accomplished career, you said that “In this album, not so many variations, and big voice in the performance, but instead — soul. Expression.” Music is all about reaching out to the audience and igniting listeners’ emotions and passion. That’s every artist’s dream. Do you find yourself using different singing techniques? Since you were trained as an operatic soprano?

POW: When I was studying music and vocals at the Conservatory, I used to be very fond of some singers, musicians, and bands. During my education, I used to perform jazz, pop jazz , pop, with different bands as a lead singer. But of course, to create my own individual sound of voice was the most necessary and important thing in my career. So now I definitely am using different techniques when I am singing and enjoy it. it makes me free.

Meg: Demir, In 1992, you studied at Musician’s Institute in Los Angeles with Scott Henderson, Frank Gambale, and MI founder Paul Hanson, also playing studio and live gigs. When you were studying in Hollywood, you passed A&M Studios every day, and you wanted to record an album there. Thus recording Pained On Water there is a dream come true for you?

POW: It really is a dream come true. I passed by that studio so many times and wondered who was recording at that time behind those gates. At that time I was a big fan of Extreme (the rock band) and Nuno Bettencourt, and I knew they recorded there from an interview of his. I remember thinking to myself “one day…” But the irony is I never really got to record at A&M studios because the name had changed to Henson Studios oh well, close enough, it was beautiful recording there.

Meg: There’s a funny story that you had to search for A&M Studios since they changed their name to Hanson. How did you eventually find them?

POW: Exactly! I knew studios were still there but I couldn’t find it on the internet when we tried to book. I did a little research on the web and finally got convinced that Henson is the old A&M studios.

Meg: Painted On Water takes its name from an art form. It is a visual art that artists paint on water. But that’s only part of the basic concept.
Can you tell us more about the inspiration and the story behind making this wonderful project?

POW: The original name of the art-form is Ebru. The artist paints a picture on a tray of water treated with some oils. The water is thickened a little so it holds the paint but still has that dreamy-watery feeling. It’s very beautiful to watch, kind of like a moving picture you watch while it evolves into its full form. Then, the artist covers the picture with an absorbent sheet of paper on which the picture is printed. You can actually freeze that moving picture in time but the picture on the water gets destroyed.

This whole process, when you scale it to larger proportions and contemplate on it a little while, is actually the very much like this human drama that we call “life”. We try and make the best of our lives as far as we can imagine and actually paint a story. Meanwhile we know in our hearts that one day we’ll be no more and all this would be non-existent. But still, we keep on painting our life story with all kinds of colors like love, fear, anger, passion, glory, sadness and envy.

On another plain, it’s just like music. We play music every day, we know the sound gets lost in eternity but we still do it for the sake of its beauty and for the sake of its own. Now, a recording is just like the sheet of paper that we lay on the water tray. It absorbs that moment and freezes so we can listen to it anytime we want.

I hope this all is making sense because it’s really difficult to explain art as art is an expression for in itself. But yet again, I’ve tried to put it in words

Meg: Painted On Water is an album that is a culmination of both Eastern and Western music. Eastern music is taught by hands on approach and western music is passed on by notations. As a songwriter, do you find it difficult to notate exactly what you want and to express your intentions?

Because notations and dynamic markings have their limits?

POW: I think the main difference is about composing something and making sure that it gets into the record as it belongs to you. I believe in the ancient eastern cultures, the main teaching was that nothing really belongs to anyone exclusively. If someone wrote a piece of music, it was for that time and place. In time especially in the west, the whole thing evolved in a way that people wanted to be able to repeat that experience. It’s an act of “attachment” which is actually the number 1 on the list to get purified of. We all have heard of practicing “detachment” in Buddhism and Taoism and the likes by now. I don’t think this only applies to music. There are some more areas that western record-keeping culture evolved greatly. Please don’t get me wrong I don’t want to sound like I’m against the western way, on the contrary I support it. I think western notation system is highly effective on expression. My whole education is based on the western culture, it’s just that I was born and raised in Anatolia, in Turkey Don’t we all have our own little dilemmas ?
The main difficulty in adapting eastern music for western instruments is harmony. The folk songs didn’t have any chord because that’s just the way it is in middle eastern music. The scale system is different. I had to come up with some harmonic backgrounds that made sense for the melodies and context.

I also have to add that in the Classical Turkish Music Conservatories a slightly altered version of the western notation system is being used. I believe that the rest of the eastern and middle eastern countries are using a similar notation system. You have to have some kind of a system in today’s world. We all love what’s exclusively ours, it’s the global culture now

Meg: We must thank the recording technology, so we can all enjoy this truly global vision. It’s been our great pleasure talking to you both. Hope we can talk to you again in the near future and look forward to hearing more wonderful music from you.

POW: Thank you very much. We have already begun to talk and think about our second album already but I’m sure it’s going to be a good while for it to shape up. In the meantime we want to play as much as we can and share this music with as many listeners as we can.

Painted on Water is managed by GNL Entertainment in Istanbul, Turkey and is represented by Redwood Entertainment, Inc. in North America.