Get to know: Loradeniz

Hailing from Istanbul, but now based in Amsterdam, Loradeniz spend most time of her life practicing music in many different forms. Learning how to play the piano at a very young age, the producer, composer, DJ, and of course pianist has become an artist on the rise. Ahead of her mix for the Rhythmic Culture podcast, we sat down to learn more about her.

Interview by Lieke Trienekens
Photos by Brendan Reterink

Nice to have you on our podcast series Lora! We are following you for some time now, so we’re excited to get to know a bit more of you!

Thank you very much! I’m happy to be asked. 

You’re born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. Growing up there, what were your first memories related to music and what role did music play during your childhood?

Music played a main act in our house and car.  All sorts of music was appreciated and it was always pretty loud: Turkish pop to r&b, rap to classical music, arabesque to folk rock. I grew up listening and singing to Simon & Garfunkel, the Beatles, Celine Dion, Tina Turner, Cat Stevens as those were my dad’s go to artists.  Aside from that – I vaguely remember, but my brother used to play the piano and I was quite interested in what he was doing as much as the sound that was coming out from that giant acoustic black box. So that I had started / was made taking piano lessons when I was five and there my educational musical journey began.

Was there a certain point or trigger in your life that made you decide to go for a career in music?

The main trigger was my mum indeed, so as the musicians that were in our lives. I think the decision has been made for me at an early age. There was a smooth pressure going on as these surrounding adults were thinking that I was talented and pushing me to play the piano, and life encountered me with the greatest music tutors in Istanbul. Playing the piano was the main practice in my life for a very long time. After I got enrolled in the conservatory at the age of eight I think the career path was already set – I was going to be trained to become a concert pianist. I didn’t like playing the piano the first fifteen years, yet I always loved music. Maybe it was the pressure of obligations which I didn’t enjoy. One morning, I woke up and decided not to spend the rest of my life practicing eight hours of piano every day, and so my bachelor in music production and composition has started. I relearned music and explored imperfection, thereby my passion towards practicing music changed directions and planted loving seeds relative to spending long hours in a room, alone, again! It’s a quite long answer to your question but the journey is long so this is the best summary I could do. I never made a decision to go for a career in music, I think that was the only option I had, it feels more like the career in music decided to go for me.

“I relearned music and explored imperfection, thereby my passion towards practicing music changed directions and planted loving seeds relative to spending long hours in a room, alone, again!”

We saw your studio featured in the Dekmantel ‘Record Rooms & Studios’ photo series. What should be essential in every studio?

A certain mentality I believe. Quality over quantity vs. less is more. A pair of mixing headphones is needed first (it’s hard and expensive to manage good acoustics in a room, so relying on speakers is tricky in my opinion), a midi keyboard and a DAW. 

If you could pick any gear possible to add to your studio, what would you definitely pick and why?

Hmm, tough one. Today, that’d be a drum synth. Erica makes really good synths, but again today, I would go for Soma- Pulsar23. So the choice would be that cause making a drum sound isn’t my strong suit, therefore having the pulsar friend could help in the process.  

Besides spending time in your own studio, what projects are you working on at the moment? We saw some photos of you in the studio with Interstellar Funk, could you tell us something more about that and other projects your currently work on?

I’m working on a film scoring for Revive and Nous’Klaer, two remixes, mixing two tracks and making new tunes. Olf (Interstellar Funk) and I joined the artist in residency program that Volkshotel offered last year. We spent the summer in his studio making tracks. We didn’t limit the process with a certain form of a release, and did just focus on enjoying our time making tracks. It was highly productive, working together was easy. We will release the music, and the time will tell when and how it is gonna happen. 

What can we expect from you in the near future? Any stuff you’re excited about and would like to share with us?

I’m very excited about everything I mentioned on the previous question. We can expect more releases in the near future. Apart from them, being a part of a radio team and a music community makes me feel grounded. I’m co-programming and hosting a monthly radio show called ‘the Ottoman Export’ at Radio Tempo Não Pára. Our approach towards booking artists, getting to know them, running a radio, the events we’ll be hosting and the upcoming changes makes me very excited. 

“I never made a decision to go for a career in music, I think that was the only option I had, it feels more like the career in music decided to go for me.”

What can we expect from you in the near future? Any stuff you’re excited about and would like to share with us?

Hmm nice one! I’d like to collab with Lyra Pramuk, Anna vs June, Ludowic, Jon Hopkins, Identified Patient, Giant Swan, Pan Daijing… The list goes on. 🙂

You made a mix for us and before we have a listen, is there anything you can tell us about this mix?

This recording came out few days after playing a b2b with Lee aka Derozan last week. I really loved what we created there, it felt like a very musical story telling overall. I didn’t try to create a story on this one particularly, but sounds like it naturally evolved in that way. It was one of the least concerned mixtapes I’ve recorded.