Cover Photo Credit: Toni Petraschk
Berlin-based Anatolian new wave/krautrock/post-punk trio Kara Delik will release their debut album next April, following a series of very impressive EPs. We spoke to the band before their concert at Berlin Neue Zukunft in December 2024. You can read the whole conversation below.
First off, introduce yourselves to those who don’t know you.
Eilis Frawley: I’m Eilis, I play the drums, and I’m from Australia.
Barış Öner: I am Barış, I play the saz, and I come from Istanbul.
Andi Sommer: I’m Andi, I play bass, and I’m from Germany.
B: Eilis and Andi used to work in the same venue a couple of years ago, and they became friends. My best friend was living in the same flat as Eilis. I think that because it was the pandemic, everyone was bored and had extra time than ever. So me and Eilis made a very spontaneous jam, and she was like, “I also have my friend Andi who would like to join us for the next round!” and we just started jamming.
E: Independently, when we had a lot of time. (laughs)
Can you each give one very random fact about each other?
A: Barış can fall asleep anywhere in five seconds, which is very impressive. (all laugh)
I’m jealous of that.
E. Andi probably has the best high kick in the world.
B: Eilis is the sweetest and the most colorful person in the Berlin punk scene.
How would you rate 2024 out of 10?
(all sigh)
E. It was a tough year. I would say 4 for me personally.
B: Three and a half.
Getting lower.
A: For me, somewhere between 1 and 9.
E: Wow.
A: Yeah, everything’s been there.
And as a band? Hopefully higher?
E: Yeah, I would say 7.
B: Yeah, I was going to say 8. It was a productive and busy year. I think we did a good job.
Among this year’s memories, what was the best concert memory you had, and why?
E: We held our own festival. Don’t really remember our concert, but the whole day was very nice. (laughs) Or maybe playing Desertfest in Antwerp.
A: Marseilles was also a lot of fun. Big adventure.
E: Milan too.
B: Yeah. A lot of fun experiences.
You all have very diverse music tastes, and only a few common bands you all enjoy. Apart from King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, what do you think is the band you’d all gladly open up for?
B: Not so many. What is one act that we all can agree on?
E: Does it have to be realistic?
No, not at all.
E: I think we should open for Beyoncé. (all laugh) I think her fans would love us. They can dance.
Actually, that question was partly observational to see if you would name a pop star. When I asked Oliver Ackermann of A Place to Bury Strangers the same question, he picked Lizzo just to shock people. (all laugh)
B: I can give a Turkish name I would like to open for. (thinks) Yeah, pass. I couldn’t think of anyone.
E: Beyoncé forever.
I think one really cool lineup would be Beyoncé plus King Gizzard plus BaBa Zula plus you. (all laugh)
E: We can ask her.
B: That would be an interesting festival.
Among the tracks you released so far, can you name two, one easiest and one hardest to make?
A: I think “Strange Attractor” was pretty easy.There was an idea of how it was supposed to sound, and it was done quite quickly.
E: In my memory “Dogs” was quite easy, but I don’t really remember. It’s been a while.
B: For the hardest one, we had one song which was getting faster, we had to stop and change the metronome.
E: “Frankenstein”, maybe?
B: Yeah. That was the working title of “Stones”. There was a tempo change and we had to record a separate thing.
You said that as if tempo change wasn’t a common occurrence in your songs.
B: Yeah, but that one was difficult. We were playing at 100 BPM and the B part was 150 BPM.
Do you have a specific tool or instrument in your collection that you haven’t used in your music yet, but would love to at a certain point?
A: No. (all laugh)
B: I have string instrument alternatives to the saz, like cümbüş and lavta. I have to first discover how to electrify them, because I cannot play acoustically. It also took me some time and counseling by Andi to learn how to electrify the custom instruments without having a problem on the stage. (laughs) So yeah, I have many things to try, but I think we will have to wait for, I don’t know, five albums or something.
Speaking of albums, what is the status quo on that front? Do you plan to go with EPs or albums in the future?
A: We just recorded an album, which is coming out in April next year. So yeah, that is definitely our plan. I think it’s also a lot of fun to do it in smaller chunks, because if you do an album, it’s always a lot of work to like, write a lot of songs, then record a lot of songs. With EPs, you can be much quicker. Having an idea, recording it and putting it out can happen in a couple of months, while with an album, it has to take a year or something.
E: Maybe we can always do 5 EPs and one album. (laughs)
What can you say about that album that’s coming soon? Or what are you willing to say?
E: We recorded it with a very good person called James Trevascus, and it was a very nice experience. I can say we’re going to play many concerts, and that everyone should buy the vinyl. (laughs)
B: Yeah, the album is going to be interesting, because it’s the first album. We tried new things compared to EPs. Not that different, but still somehow different. I think finding that balance was very nice.
As we speak,´you are about to perform your final gig of 2024. How do you feel about it?
B: It’s really exciting, because we’re going to play so many new songs for the first time in Berlin. We just played them last weekend- The Berlin crowd feels safe. They are our base crowd, since we are also based in Berlin. I think there is some excitement to play new songs, because we know that some people have already heard us live, so they know the older ones. I can say that it’s nice making a final show without getting bored, because it’s a new show of one upcoming thing. It’s the last show, but it also feels like the first show of the new upcoming album.
E: I always get nervous to play in Berlin, because all your friends come. (all laugh) They know what you do normally. When you’re going to a new city, you don’t know anyone. You play and everyone’s like, “That’s awesome!” Still, we played almost 50 shows this year and I think it’s really nice to have one last home show.
Any plans for a concert in Turkey?
B: Yeah, we are in contact with a couple of people and the offers are starting to get a bit more realistic and doable. Let’s see, maybe next year, hopefully.We would of course like to come and play a show in Istanbul. I’m always talking about it, so I would like to show my friends how our city is.
Can you name the last three songs on your streaming platform history?
E: That’s a good question.
(The band members try to find out how to check the last streamed songs for the next few minutes, only to find out that the backstage we are sitting at has no internet connection to check the songs.)
B: I can at least tell you what I listened to most recently. I just discovered an artist called I Mark 4, and the song name is “Ray Ban”, like the sunglasses. I could call this genre elevator music.
A: And I last listened to Vaudeville Villain by MF Doom.
Let’s imagine we’re at a Musicians Theme Park 100 years from now, where every artist or band featured has their own memorial stone with a certain lyric by them written on it. Which one of the lyrics would you like to see written on Kara Delik’s stone?
A: “Gözlerin”.
E: (laughs hysterically)
B: OK, I’ll explain this joke. My lyrics apparently have the word göz (eye in Turkish) featured repeatedly. Andi finds this hilarious. While writing a song, I improvise with the lyrics and somehow, I always say göz. It’s kind of stuck in my brain. There’s always something about seeing or not seeing something or just eyes. So we might just write eye.
You can check out Kara Delik’s Bandcamp profile here.
