Helicopria

Biri Türk, biri Afrikali ve üçü de ABD'li Berklee ögrencisinin olusturdugu 'Helicopria' isimli grup 17 Haziran'da Ghetto, 24 Haziran'da da Hayal Kahvesi'nde Istanbullu müzikseverlerle bulusacak. - Aksam Newspaper

“KiMLiKLERiMiZ PROGRESSIVE TARZINI ORTAYA ÇIKARDI”

Yurt disinda konserler veren Helicopria grubu Istanbul’a geliyor. Berklee’de okuyan gençler, Ghetto, Hayal Kahvesi Bistro’da sahne alacak
Tesadüfen tanistigi Helicopria grubuna solist olarak katilan Sirma Munyar, Berklee Çagdas Kompozisyon ve Prodüksiyon Bölümü’nde okuyor. Inanilmaz yetenekli müzisyenlerle çalistigini söyleyen Munyar, “Oldukça eklektik ve özgün bir tarzimiz var. Bunun sebebi grup üyelerinin farkli müzik türlerinden etkilenmis olmalari” diyor.

* Helicopria nedir, nasil kuruldu?Progressive rock tarzinda müzik yapan bir grup. Berklee College of Music’te okuyan, biri Güney Afrikali, biri Türk, diger üçü de Amerikali olan bes ögrenci tarafindan kuruldu. Grubun temeli, Sulene van der Walt ve Elijah Melanson tarafindan atildi. Sirayla önce J.P. Bouvet’yi, sonra da Drew Moore’u aralarina alan ikili, grubu gögüsleyecek bir vokalist arayisina girdi. Bu süreç sirasinda ben, Sulene, Elijah ve J.P. ile tesadüfen tanistim ve seçmelere katildim. Yolculugumuz böylelikle 2010 senesinin mayis ayinda baslamis oldu.

* Grubun üyelerinden bahsedebilir misiniz?Grubun kurucu üyeleri iki gitaristimiz; Sulene van der Walt ve Elijah Melanson. Sulene Berklee hayalleriyle, birçok seyi geride birakarak Boston’a gelmis. Simdi Berklee’de burslu olarak film müzigi bölümünde okuyor. Elijah Amerika’nin Kuzey Carolina eyaletinden; Berklee’de gitar performansi bölümünde okuyor. Aramizda progressive rock konusunda en bilgili kisi o. JP Amerika’nin Minnesota eyaletinden; Drew ise Florida’li. Ikisi de Berklee’de profesyonel müzik bölümlerinde okuyorlar. Ben Robert Kolej’den mezun olduktan sonra Berklee’ye burslu olarak basladim. Istanbul’da sürdürdügüm kisa caz kariyerinin ve Berklee’nin yaz programi için kazandigim Arif Mardin bursunun ardindan, içimdeki müzik yapma güveni ve istegi daha da pekisti ve Berklee Çagdas Kompozisyon ve Prodüksiyon bölümüne basladim. Simdi aradan iki sene geçti ve Amerika’da tanistigim inanilmaz yetenekli müzisyen arkadaslarimi evime, Istanbul’a getirme sansini yakalamanin mutlulugunu yasiyorum.

* Ne tür müzik yapiyorsunuz?Grubumuzun yaptigi müzigi progressive rock olarak tanimlamak en dogrusu. Ancak oldukça eklektik ve özgün bir tarzimiz var. Bunun sebebi de grup üyelerinin farkli müzik türlerinden etkilenmis olmalari. Örnegin ben Türk müziginin yani sira caz, alternatif ve klasik türlerin tesiri altindaydim hayatim boyunca; haliyle bu tür müzikleri icra etmekle ilgiliydim. Sulene daha çok punk rock ve alternatif rock’la ilgili. Elijah rock ve metal türlerinden hoslaniyor genellikle. J.P. ise caz/fusion’dan. Drew’a gelince; o, bu gruba dahil olana kadar progressive rock müzikle pek hasir nesir bile olmamis. Hayati boyunca R&B/Neo soul tarzlarinda müziklerle ilgilenmis. Hal böyle olunca, herkesin yaratici kimligi masaya konuldugu anda ortaya alisilmadik bir bütün çikti. Sonuçtan son derece memnunuz.

“Yetenege dört elle sariliyoruz”

* Eserler nasil ortaya çikiyor?Eserleri öncelikle Sulene, Elijah ve ben bir araya gelerek yaziyoruz. Ben sözleri ve vokal melodisini yaziyorum. Onlar da akorlarin üzerinde çalisiyorlar ve sarkilarin genel semasi bu sekilde ortaya çikiyor. Daha sonra bu sarkilari provalarda Drew ve JP’ye dinletiyoruz. Onlar da kendi partisyonlarini yazip, sarkilarin sekli hakkinda fikirlerini beyan ediyorlar.

* Helicopria’nin hedefleri neler?Helicopria’nin tüm üyelerinin ayni anda okula baslamis olmasi büyük avantaj. Ikinci senemizi henüz bitirdik ve önümüzde iki sene daha var. Su ana kadar Boston disinda Florida, Connecticut ve New York’ta konserler verdik. Okul bittiginde en büyük hedefimiz, anlasabildigimiz bir plak sirketiyle imza atmak ve kariyerimize her zamankinden de profesyonel bir sekilde devam etmek.

* Okulda basari grafiginiz nasil? Sizin Berklee’de ögrenci elçisi seçildiginizi duyduk...Hepimiz bölümlerimizle, derslerimizle çok ilgiliyiz. Insan istedigi isi yapip, istedigi konuda egitim aldiginda zaten elindeki bilgiye, yetenege dört elle sariliyor. Aldigimiz egitim, içinde bulundugumuz ortam bizi her geçen gün bir adim daha ileriye götürüyor. Zaten akademik basariniz kadar okul disinda mesleginizi ne kadar iyi yaptiginiz da önemli. Sanirim bu iki faktörün bir araya gelmesi sonucu Berklee beni geçen sene ögrenci elçilerinden biri olarak seçti. Bu sene de görevimi sürdürmeye hak kazandim. Bu görev kapsaminda okulu çesitli etkinliklerde temsil etmenin yani sira, okulun düzenledigi mülakatlara katilip basvuran ögrenci adaylarina yardimci oluyorum.

“iSTANBUL’DA STÜDYOYA KAPANACAGIZ”
Istanbul’a sadece konser vermeye degil, ayni zamanda dört sarkilik bir konsept albümü kaydetmeye geliyoruz. Istanbul’da kaldigimiz sürenin bir kisminda bu amaçla Babajim Stüdyolari’na kapanacagiz. Bu projenin disinda tabii ki en büyük hedefimiz, müzigimizi mümkün oldugunca genis kitlelere duyurmak. Bu amaçla 17 Haziran’da Ghetto’da, 24 Haziran’da da Hayal Kahvesi Bistro’da konserler verecegiz. Ayrica 11 Haziran tarihinde Okan Bayülgen’in Disko Krali programinda bir canli performans sergileyecegiz. - Milliyet Newspaper

SIRMA MUNYAR INTERVIEW

"We're going to record an EP in Istanbul"

Vahap Munyar's (Head of the Economy Department in Hurriyet Newspaper) daughter Sirma got accepted to Berklee College of Music in Boston and came together with four other young musicians to form Helicopria. After playing lots of shows in The US, the band is here in Istanbul today to perform to their Turkish fans as well as recording a 4 track EP.

Q: How was Helicopria formed?

A: Helicopria consists of five musicians who go to Berklee College of Music; one from South Africa, three from The US and one from Turkey. The founding members of the band are Sulene van der Walt (guitar) and Elijah Melanson (guitar). Later on, J.P. Bouvet (drums) and Drew Moore (bass) joined the band and together, they started looking for a vocalist. During this process, I coincidentally met Sulene, Elijah and J.P. one night and found out about the search and decided to audition. Shortly after, the band decided to pick me as their singer and our journey began from there...

- Could you introduce the band members?

The founding members are our two guitarists; Sulene van der Walt and Elijah Melanson. Sulene was raised in Cape Town, South Africa and just like me, she decided to come to Berklee, leaving everything else behind, to pursue her dream. Now, she is majoring in Film Scoring. She plays and writes in Helicopria, as well as performing with another Boston based band called Super Prime. Elijah is from North Carolina. He is currently majoring in Guitar Performance. His vast knowledge in progressive rock has helped us unite our abilities and become one. J.P. and Drew have been playing in different projects together even before the band started; so, they were already used to working with each other, which made everything easier for us in the beginning. J.P. is from Minnesota and Drew is from Florida and they are both majoring in Professional Music. After pursuing a short jazz career in Istanbul and receiving the Arif Mardin Fellowship for the 5 week program of Berklee, I have decided to study Contemporary Writing & Production. It has been two years since we all started Berklee and now I am lucky enough to bring these incredibly talented musicians I have been working with to Istanbul, to my home.

Q: With what words would you describe the music you make with Helicopria?

A: Progressive rock is the best label we can come up with for our music. However, I believe we have an eclectic and original style. I think this derives from the fact that all the members have different tastes in music. For instance, I am influenced by Turkish music as well as jazz, alternative and classical genres. Sulene is more interested in punk rock and alternative rock. Elijah likes rock and metal whereas J.P. enjoys playing and listening to jazz and fusion… Drew is the only one among us who had no idea what progressive rock even stood for until he joined the band. He has been under the influence of R&B and Neo Soul throughout his life. Therefore, once everyone's creative identities were put on the table, we have come across a unique sound we never expected to hear. We are very happy with the result.

Q: Who writes and arranges the music? Who writes the lyrics?

A: Sulene, Elijah and I have writing sessions besides the band practices. I write the vocal melody and lyrics, while they work on progressions and the sound of the songs. Then, we bring in the basic forms of the songs we write to the rehearsals and Drew and J.P. get the chance to write their parts as well as reviewing the songs to contribute to the arranging. After several rehearsals, we finalize our songs.

Q: What are your post- graduation plans? Could you talk about Helicopria's further goals after this tour?

A: It's so lucky that we all started Berklee at the same time. We just recently finished our second year and we have two more years until we graduate. We have performed in Florida, Connecticut and New York so far and in the next two years, we want to reach out to as many people as possible in other states of the US as well as different countries in the world. Our biggest goal is to sign with a label we can agree with after college and continue our career in a more professional way.

Q: Where have you performed so far?

A: We play shows in Boston quite often. Other than that, we played in Florida, Connecticut and New York. We are planning to add more states to our list next year.

Q: Would you define yourself as a good student? We heard you have been selected as a student ambassador; could you talk about that a little bit?

A: We are all very much involved with our majors and courses at school. Since we all work for and get educated on what we always wanted to do in our lives, we hold on to our talents and opportunities as strongly as possible. The education we receive and the environment we grow up in adds to our progress every day. At Berklee, in addition to being a good student academically, we all need to prove ourselves to be successful musicians outside the campus. The progress I have made with Helicopria contributed to my personal success as well, and helped me getting selected to be a student ambassador. Now it is my responsibility to represent my school and help the young musicians who are nervous and excited to make their applications to Berklee and make sure that they are at ease. Sometimes I travel with the audition team for this purpose. I am more than grateful for being selected for such a highly rated position.

Q: What are you going to do during your stay in Istanbul? At which venues will you play?

A: We are going to have a few performances and record a 4-track concept EP at Babajim Studios. Our main purpose with this tour is to reach more fans who have been following us from Turkey. We are going to play at Ghetto on June 17, and at Hayal Kahvesi Bistro on June 24. We are also going to perform at Okan Bayulgen's show "Disko Krali" on June 11. - Hurriyet Newspaper

"Helicopria is a progressive rock band that juxtaposes lofty melodies and an entrancingly soft lyrical quality with some pretty shred nasty guitars" - Northeastern MEISA

"Cheers exploded from the crowd the moment they stepped on-stage -- not even to perform, but to merely set up... and the audience never lost interest." - The Boston Phoenix

"A tight prog band, oozing with potential in the local Boston scene... We all felt their potent energy in studio with some of our jaws rattling on the floor. - UNregular Radio

"I've seen these guys (Helicopria) perform! They are awesome!!! Great people too! All very humble. I look forward to their success." - YouTube

"AAAHH! I'm so frustrated that you don't have 50 new songs up every minute... all amazing... give us more! Seriously, this is my new favorite band." - Ultimate Guitar Forum

"...they're well-mixed, the singer is spot-on, drums are great, bass is amazing, and the guitar tones are just to die for..." - Ultimate Guitar Blog