Hi ECENAZ and welcome to BuzzMusic! Being a proud Turkish singer, how do you plan to incorporate your culture into your music production?
First of all, thank you for giving me the platform to talk about my story, I appreciate this. Yes, being Turkish brings a lot of culture to my music because I grew up with Turkish music and culture and am heavily influenced by that. I spent a long time figuring out what was unique about me, and I came to the conclusion that it was my roots. Therefore my plan is to use Turkish instruments and sounds in my traditionally created r&b songs. I don't want to take it to a world music direction where people wouldn't think it is r&b anymore, but by the use of Turkish instruments in my songs I hope to show people that r&b and pop are not fixed to only what people traditionally think it is.
You have such a talented and soulful vocal range, have you received any formal vocal training? Thank you so much! Yes, actually it is funny because in Turkey we don't have a lot of vocal mentors who are experts in popular music, therefore when I first started I took classical voice lessons and was singing opera. A year later, I found out that it wasn't making me happy and I came across another teacher by a friend's reference. She is a jazz singer but still' she was aware, was actively interested and learning r&b and pop. She helped me prepare for my auditions and record my songs, I have a huge appreciation and respect that she came into my life and helped my voice grow.
We love your take on R&B music, do you see yourself fusing other genres into your future works? Yes, definitely. A lot of people wouldn't see this coming but I actually get better at rapping and put some rap verses in my songs. I love how rhythmically diverse rap and spoken word can make a song and I would love to be not dependent on another rapper to do that.
What is the message you are trying to portray in "Everything and Anything"?
This is a song that I wrote for my first love in high school. You know the drill. But it is actually finding out things about the person that you have loved. I wrote this song right after that perfect image of the person in my mind was gone and I started seeing the flaws of them. It is about seeing that you are better for that person and that they had bad intentions that you weren't aware of when you were in love with them. The line "You made me feel like a princess, but baby I am a queen now." comes from that idea.
Thanks for chatting with us and we're excited to hear more from you. What are your next steps? Any planned albums or tours?
Thank you so much again! I am going to be releasing a new single in December and hopefully another one in January. In terms of touring, I feel like I need to build more of a fan base and original content to go on a tour. But that is one of my main goals in 2020. So definitely everyone keeps in touch with me via my social media, every announcement is on there! Thanks, BuzzMusic.
Listen to ECENAZ's music here.