If
her friends didn't push her into the audition for the school's rock
band when she was 15, Djanan would still be in the wardrobe of her home
in south Turkey where she used to spend hours singing between the
sound-proof winter coats. Ultimately, she would spend the next 3 years
performing with her band in their home town, covering the songs they
loved to listen to. The band released their own album before
finishing working together and heading off to different cities in the
country. By age 18, Djanan had started making her way up North, first
moving to Istanbul where she performed in clubs, bars and festivals. In
addition to singing with a rock band, she was part of a quartet,
composed of piano and 3 vocals. The quartet performed a diverse
repertoire from musical theatre pieces to Italian arias.
She
fell in love with London when she came for 3 days as a tourist and
decided to move there simply to be a part of the music scene. Within
the first 6 months, she started collaborating and writing songs with
different musicians and bands such as Oojami, Group Bazaar, Viktor
Mastoridis, and more. At this time she was also singing jazz and
pop covers in and outside London. She has performed in major London
venues like Notting Hill Arts Club, Islington Carling Academy,
Electrowerkz, Albany, and Shunt Vaultz.
Djanan
writes her songs in both English and her mother tongue, Turkish. She
believes that languages already have their own melodies and musical
attitudes; and what the song wants to say almost determines which
language the piece will be formed in, without requiring much thought.
When gibberish works better, she just goes for it.
After
experimenting for years with different styles and sounds, Djanan is
currently recording her new songs with Sahan Satis, and Tansay Omar; in
close collaboration with Sajib Azad. She believes that the
different musical journeys she has taken so far have helped her in
discovering how to give personality to her songs, in a way that she
will feel closest to them. “I don’t love music or have any conscious
movement towards it. It has just always been a dominant element in my
life; determining, influencing or enhancing my moods. It was never in
the background” Djanan says. That's why you can see her bursting into a
song in the bus, on the street, in the supermarket... And that's why
she keeps on doing covers as well as her own music. She performs a
number of gigs every month, with a repertoire consisting of jazz and
swing standards.
She believes that there is
an attractive discipline in singing covers, as opposed to having the
ultimate freedom to express yourself the way you want to with your own
music. “You need to stay loyal to the core feeling of the song even
when you're adding your style to it. It is like spending some great
time with someone else's children and making sure you take them back
home safely.”
"Djanan brings a torrent of
energy everytime she is on stage! What a metamorphosis. I worked with
her on two occasions at our regular Costa Urbana night by popular
demand. Each time she surprises is me with the work that goes into
making gold out of any resources she has at hand. A very resourceful
singer-songwriter and a great, warm performer." - Paras Gravouniotis (polyglotta.net)
