INSAN-2

May 2020 | People | Turkey

Conversation with GSA among with plenty of possibilities:

“Life turns into what you have been convinced”

Words | Onur Baştürk

Here is a conversation with Gaye Su Akyol (GSA) as we review all possibilities. Read right away before quantum offers new possibilities.

I wonder your state of mind during these quarantine days. Are you the ones who says ''I have put myself in a creative session'' or the ones that says ''I am not doing anything’’.

I am experiencing a lot of different emotions but I know it is normal. You do not encounter with an epidemic such as this everyday. But I will say this; clearly I have been waiting for this period for a long time! Surviving was like living in a organism that stinks from bottom to the top. Diseased, malignant, foul, ambitious and unbalanced… The world as it is now were already like this last time we have left it. We have faced the truth that we can not go on with the system we used to live in, or probability of another world, and with consuming, shameless, arrogant gluttonous people. Are we all faced it yet? I don't know... But one thing is for sure: Either we fit in to this or we will be gone.

NO, WE WON'T BE REACHING NIRVANA INSTANTLY

How does this period reflected to your music?

I have got lots of new songs. Notes, some groundwork, verses... I have got enough to fill at least two albums. Think of the notes on the book as if they have been done by music; drafs, scribbles, moods, ideas.. “The things you can not make fun of will seize you”, my mind is currently scrabbling with this sentence, applying it everywhere like a litmus paper.

Does this epidemic will achieve to change ourselves? Or once everything settles down will we forget this will ever happened and live like we used to do?

No, we won't be reaching to nirvana instantly. But we are in something historical. Once this period is over we will be able to agree lots of things all so easily. Like a stone thrown in the water, we have also inevitably changed, and we will be keep changing. Maybe it won't look like something revolutionary or maybe some of us will resist to it and will try to go back as it is used to be but it's futile, lot of things will change.

IT WAS LIKE A MIRACLE AND A TORTURE

Before the epidemic you were traveling a lot due to music tour. Did you miss traveling to other countries/cities?

2019 is like both a miracle and a torture! We gave over 100 concerts in different places on earth. Even changed three planes and five different cars within the same day. At these times my migraine showed up again which was dormant over the years. On one hand there was headaches and exhaustion, on the other hand there was excitement and passion, yet I have yearned so much being able to just sitting at home, doing nothing and having no responsibilities...

For me 2020 is taking a breathe, resting, having a chat with myself, updating my needs and creating in my home. With the epidemic it became a must but I am not complaining. Frankly, I have missed my home, friends even more I missed myself, I haven't yet to missed any other place.

I WON'T BE SURPRISED IF THERE WOULD BE ANY ZOMBI ATTACK

There are theories of virus being a conspiracy... How much are you close to this idea or how far?

Everything is possible! All these theories like “Someone in China ate a bat and got infected then infected the world'' or “We are all in a simulation, and got an error now it needs to be shut down” or ''The families who runs the world are declared themselves a biological war and this virus is a part of it'' are nonsense. If there would be a zombi attack tomorrow I won't be surprised. Althought it is the very thing that connect me to the life; being everything possible.

LIFE TURNS INTO WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN CONVINCED

I dont know if you have watched the movie called ''Mr. Nobody’’. The film were talking about the choices and the parallel lifes and universes affecting by each choice. Now I want to ask a parallel universe and quantum question: Were there be any other Gaye that may give other decisions on the past and moved on differently than your path? If you believe there would be and if you had the chance, which Gaye's life would be interesting that you would follow?

When you look at the universe from the eyes of the quantum mechanic that would tell us none of the physical action is certain and predictable and everything we know is nothing but statistical data. We are currently know not so much about the quantum physics and they are quite limited. The universe is filled with infinite possibilities, and I am quite neutral to the idea of another me living in one of those infinite possibilities. It is hard to be convinced by any of this. They have left blurred and unknown this on my programming. Life turns into what you have been convinced. So you must be very careful what you have been convinced with.

TRT'S STUDIO AMBIANCE BACK IN 70’s

“Rock’n Roll musical Societie’s” live records broadcasting came across with the isolation days, and I think it is good. When did you come out with this idea?

Exactly one year before, we have recorded it on May-2019, and planned to broadcast it within two months. Althought it took longer, and we had also tours going on,other video projects and exhibition projects got in between. For the last 8 months videos were waiting ready to be published. We did a little overhaul and wanted to sent them to the infinity which felt good...

I wanted to recreate the ambiance of TRT back in 70’s while there was no CGI and computer based effect were very little. So we have recorded in front of the green curtain and converting them into retro futurist videos while we were trying to catch the ambience of those years.

All the videos are the product of İdil Ergün. There was no other intervention besides talking about the ambiance and its connection with the music. I think freedom is the corner stone of such collective works. On some videos we have used Anatolian motifs and symbols.

What have you watched/read/listened during this period ?

What I love to watch and finished series are Normal People, Anne With An E, The Kominsky Method, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Bosch and Undone.

Beside these I have watched the Miles Davis “Birth Of The Cool”. On Spotify I have made a list called ''GSA'yla Karantina Keyfs’’. I am now adding some of the musics I listen to the list. I have read Allen Ginsberg's ''Kaddish'', Shunryu Suzuki's '' Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind'' and Judith Butler's ''Gender Trouble’’.