Teoman: The album wasn't listened to, the book won't sell either

Beloved rock musician Teoman, who released the album 'Ben, Zargana, Deus Ex Machina' last year as well as a novel titled 'Sayın Bay Rock Yıldızı', made candid remarks.

Speaking to Fatih Vural from Diken, Teoman said the following about his latest album and new book:

“I had been experiencing a complex about myself for a long time. No one was expecting such a thing from me; but I kept saying, 'I've reached my maturity in music. Let me finish this business with a final album that I feel good about!' I don't find the songs very satisfying for myself anymore. I wanted to do something like the concept albums I listened to in my childhood and youth. I wanted to end my career with an artistic album that I would be at peace with, using what I know from David Bowie and Pink Floyd. I made 'Ben, Zargana, Deus Ex Machina' and felt relieved. I said, 'Let there be no commercial concern whatsoever. Let me make a concept album that is consistent within itself.' The book 'Sayın Bay Rock Yıldızı' and the album went hand in hand. I had been writing the book for three years. The book had started earlier. I am very pleased with both. My mind is at ease now!

If we look at the streaming numbers, 'Ben, Zargana, Deus Ex Machina' was listened to less than my other albums. I already knew it would be like this. I didn't write 'Sayın Bay Rock Yıldızı' to reach more readers either. Literature, as you call it, is not a 'feasible' thing on a global scale or on a Turkish scale anyway! I would have made more money playing at one or two dealer meetings than I did writing this novel. The book's sales won't be very high either…”

"I AM THE ONE WHO READS THE MASNAVI, AND I AM THE ONE DRAGGING ON THE GROUND FROM EXCESSIVE ALCOHOL!"

When asked about the contradictions of the character Timur in his book, “Do these contradictions reflect the old Teoman?”, Teoman replied, “Of course they reflect it, but I have never been Timur in the literal sense.”

Here are the notable highlights from the interview:

Fatih Vural: In the interview we did in 2006, you told me, “If I had lived in his time, I would have been one of the people around Prophet Muhammad.” One day after that interview, headlines like this appeared in the media: “Teoman, who said he would have been around Prophet Muhammad if he had lived then, was in a state where he couldn't walk due to excessive alcohol in Beyoğlu last night.”

Teoman: That is something I don't like to share with people, but I experience it within myself. It's in Timur, too. Timur gets emotional when he hears the morning call to prayer. I get emotional too. Timur wants to find peace by reading the Masnavi. Look, the Masnavi is standing behind you! (Laughs) Those contradictions in Timur are in me as well.

Fatih Vural: Those contradictions seem more like a color in the perception of your fans. It doesn't grate, it doesn't bother…

Teoman: I am still trying to look at every side of life and draw a path for myself. I am the one who reads the Masnavi, and I am the man dragging on the ground from excessive alcohol!

…

“I AM VERY AFRAID OF DEATH”

Fatih Vural: Timur doesn't love life, but he is afraid of death. He wants death—true to your wonderful song—to be ‘fast and painless.’ He wanders in the waters of suicide. But he is not a character strong enough to commit suicide either…

Teoman: He isn't! Because he is also very afraid of death.

Fatih Vural: Is Teoman like that too?

Teoman: I don't exactly love life, but I am truly very afraid of death.

Fatih Vural: But you have much stronger anchors than ‘others’ to not be afraid of death.

Teoman: I am someone caught in between! (Laughs) Timur doesn't want the hypocrisy of agnosticism, the arrogance of atheism, or the god of the deists who sets up the universe like a clock and then leaves everything to its own devices. He wants to run to Allah, but he can't convince himself there either. Then there is nowhere left to go. There are so many possibilities anyway! Timur is someone who is not fully satisfied with any of them.

Fatih Vural: Timur has a very modernist confession, saying, “I am not afraid of being alone, but I am afraid of dying alone…”

Teoman: He is afraid of both dying alone and dying in a crowd. There is nowhere for this man to go! He doesn't want to be a man without women, he cannot enter into emotional relationships with women. He has been left without an exit in so many areas! He is squeezed from all sides.

News Source: 12punto