R:Hi Kaan, can you tell us about your background and your venture into music?
Kaan Düzarat: Foc edits is a collective music project from Istanbul, started by me Kaan Duzarat and Mehmet Koryurek (Mr. pink). Couple of friends also did some edits for foc edits since 2 years. Ave Astra, Anil Devran and Fattish did some amazing edits under the name foc edits.
i am a studio musician, dj, promoter, label owner from Istanbul and one day I was like ‘ok, like this old pop, or jazz track, whatever.. I need this part but i don’t like that part… let’s extend the part I like to play in my sets.’ and Mehmet joined forces…
He came up with some track ideas from his huge music archive, I also have a rare, mostly turkish folk/phsych records at home and am always digging around.

R: Are the FOC edits being pressed/released ?
Kaan Düzarat: We’ve first shared many free mp3’s on soundcloud.com/focedits then, we had a release last year on a label called 78 records from uk. It’s an ep with two edits called keep on steppin and keep on doing. Foc edits will be a label soon and we’ll be releasing our edits, mostly Turkish ones like Mogollar, Baris Manco, Ozdemir Erdogan, Fikrek Kizilok…and will be on vinyl only

R:Nice looking forward to that.How long have you, personally been producing music and why?
Kaan Düzarat:I started producing in 2000. My first release was in 2004 , played with couple of bands in college.
we use to play punk, rock, grunge, even trash. It was 1994-98 then I went to UK for a year to study English, and it was where I met electronic music, parties, club culture and music
names like fat boy slim and underworld was the bridge between my rock influences like pink floyd, led zeppelin, nirvana when I was in the UK. I played at many parties when I was in the UK, bought my first turntable there and started dj’ing until the radio station dinamo 103.8 started in istanbul, I was only playing at home to friends, collecting records, etc..It was like a school to me. I have my radio show called kompozit there on sunday’s 3pm (turkish time) from 2003-2006 i was working at station’s production room, doing jingles for the radio, operating radio shows, directing music at the same time, then I’ve started my own music production studio in 2006. Since then, i’m doing jingles, sound design for tv/radio ads, remix productions, and doing music with our bands foc edits and falso and hosting 2 shows on dinamo 103.8fm, called kompozit and vesvese on air.

R:How would you describe your own sound? (both as a dj and a producer)
Kaan Düzarat: Vesvese is our label with Arman Akinci, and we have a podcast and party nights under that name. I have many influences from Baris Manco to Moodymann, Neset Ertas to Mogollar, Michael Jackson to Nirvana, Pink floyd, J-dilla, Mulatu Astatke, Rimsky Korsakov and so on..
I can say it is where techno meets jazz and then they go to listen folk/rock and reggae at a pub.

R:haha I like that description
Kaan Düzarat:and swing also

R:I kinda get a similiar vibe from Tornado Wallace as well. Let’s talk nerdy. What is your production setup?
Kaan Düzarat: It’s a mix of both hardware and software but mostly analog synths and drum machines…I just record and mix in the box.

R:I feel like I’ve heard some 707’s on couple of foc edits
Kaan Düzarat:808’s mostly but not the original roland ones. I have an mfb 522 which is an analog clone of 808s.

R:Have you fucked around with Jomox boxes or tempest. they sound pretty decent
Kaan Düzarat:not the tempest, but i tried jomox once…big one! just had a new xoxbox bass line. It’s an 303 clone and sounds huge! acid!

R:It’s pure acid bliss
Kaan Düzarat: Yeah love it. it has 11 more mods on that one

R: With the price of the real vintage synths skyrocketing I feel like everyone’s going with the analog alternatives these days…So how’s your synth rack ? Any favorites you want to mention / Anything on your want-list?
Kaan Düzarat: My first ever beauty is rhodes mark1, a gift from my mother when I got married 6 years ago. Since then i’ve been seeking for real stuff! I have a juno 6, a russian beauty ritm 2; Ritm 2 is a monopohonic little synth with bad ass oscilators from 70s.
dx7, micro korg, little phatty, mfb 522, xoxbox bass line
stomp boxes for live processing such as moogerfooger ring mod.
mxr analog delay, roland space echo 201
I also use acoustic elements like shakers

R: Anything on the want-list?
Kaan Düzarat: I need a mutron stereo phaser pedal, it sounds so big. it’s called bi-phase by mutron
i have their phaser 2 and micro 5 V’s
they have amazing analog character that you can easily feel
some real stuff from 70’s
it’s sound is really distinctive on steve wonders keys
wurlitzer 200 also would be nice
and i need a 16 or 24 channel analog mixer with many auxes, to play live..
to tweak channels by aux send fx

R:What about your performance setup ? Do you play any live stuff as you mix
Kaan Düzarat: I had some experiences on the stage doing live electronics
We have a band called falso. It’s a 3 piece electronica-dub-phsych band.
I play records when I dj and I use usb sticks for unreleased stuff…no more cds
but my live set up would be 2 drum machines, fx pedals, looper, reverb and delay pedals and a 16ch or 24 ch mixer with 6 auxes etc..

R: When you start producing do you have a predetermined sketch of the track in your mind or does the track come out/evolve out of simple ideas as you are producing?
Kaan Düzarat: I sometimes have some little riff or bass groove in my head that I start with, sometimes I start with a sample and from there I process and progress it.
I believe that the ones I finish quickly are the ones that I’m most satisfied with
Sometimes I get stuck and it goes nowhere

R: What’s on Kaan Duzarat’s Ipod lately? Who are some new-comers to the electronic music scene that really excite you ?
Kaan Düzarat: these days, my ipod has many tracks by friends that i met in red bull music academy new york. that was really such an experience to me to meet that beautiful people. also listening to jdillas since a while, mostly instrumentals..
new comers: de la montaigne, kid smpl, pick a piper, louis baker, trancemicsoul are some names i can tell you from the academy…
and also from istanbul; kerem akdag, sarp yilmaz, gantz, kozmonot, sami baha, anil devran, just to name a few new comers from where I live.
some of this guys are close to me, and all of the are nice people, which is much more important than the music itself, I can say that they are not dicks.
We’ll release some of this guys music in the near future on foc edits, and on vesvese.

R: What does the future hold for Kaan Duzarat? What are you focusing on right now and in the long term?
Kaan Düzarat: I have a 2 year old girl which is my present and future including my past. Also I’m focusing on production more than before.I’m moving my studio after 7 years. It will be our base for any music related movement such as our parties, bookings, labels( vesvese and foc edits), my band falso, remixes, originals etc..
We’ve just launched a new sunset event series called orange date. First one was with nicolas jaar band, steve bug, anthony collins and vesvese crew, and was a great evening with nico’s show under sunset! Next one will be in cesme with kyle hall and marcellus pitmann in august 24th. We’re also working on live performance rehearsals of our 3 piece band falso (www.soundcloud.com/falsogotz). In the long term, i hope i’ll be around and i hope i will say ‘ok, that looks fine’, when i look back..