Good evening Tarkan and V-Sag, we're from indonesiaclubbing.com, we're here to interview you, we'll ask you first some general questions and then more technical ones. To begin with, how did you first start DJing? I think Tarkan started a lot earlier than V-Sag did, right?

T and V : Good evening!
V : Yeah of course, he's more experienced than I am...
T : Yeah because first he's younger than me, but that doesn't matter really because he's a very good DJ, even though he started years later than me.
V : Yeah but I have a great teacher, Mr. DJ Tarkan... (giggles)

Okay...So how did you first start really, I mean as a DJ? Did you start with...I don't know, other type of music, playing piano,or something like that before becoming a DJ and getting involved in the clubbing scene?

V : Ahmm...Yeah I used to play the piano, for like...six years, I started making my own music when I was so young, I was like...eleven or twelve years old, I used to be a software developer, work computers for companies so my computer skills help me to learn how to make music. I had a computer when I was young, I always played with it, while I also played the piano, so, it came along somewhere. It happened after some years, you just know how to make music.
T : I started more as a DJ, I also had a piano at home, but I wasn't so interested on it, I preferred batteries and drums, something that had a kick on. I started as a child, taping pens on the table and everywhere, I needed something kicking on to dance. But I started DJing at home in my young years, with my own mixer and turntables at home, and later I met Master Producer V-Sag, I also learn a lot of things from him, he's also very experienced with softwares, but to be honest my side is more DJing and V-Sag is more producing. DJing is interesting because you can't make any mistake, it's like running against time, you can't go back if you do something wrong, you can't say "Okay I'm sorry it was wrong" and you can't change it you know, so you have to be really focused, concentrated, and that's why I love DJing very much.

Do you have any influences, DJs you regard as idols? Maybe for V-Sag it's Tarkan?

V : I used to listen to Deep Dish a lot in the first ten years. But after a long time I also start building my own style, I met DJ Tarkan, so... He's the one I've always wanted to be, you know, I like his style, I like his DJing very much, his flow...He's what I wanted in a DJ.
T : Thank you very much...
V : No no it's true, I don't say this because we work together but it's real. When I started listening to his sets, I was just amazed.
T : Thank you again... Well of course I watched a lot of DJs in Turkey, when I was really a child too, in Turkey I went to clubs at their backdoors, because I wasn't yet 18, I couldn't get in. I was just sitting there and listened to the music somewhere, just focusing on the DJ, and whenever I could I always go to the DJ booth, I watched a lot of DJs really, to see what's going on, then of course I also build my own style, my own music, which my heart tells me "This is your music".I listened to a lot of music, buy records or get them everywhere. But to be honest, since a very long time, maybe since ten years, I never listen anymore to any other sets of fellow DJs, of course we get music from producers and we also make our own music, and from other forms of music we get, and with these tracks you build your own set, your own flow. Because you have to write a story with it. This is very important. DJing is not just mixing tracks, it's really getting people inside your music, well, like writing a story! Every set you do must be a story. Like I say, everybody can learn mixing, but flow on the set, breakdowns, connecting melodies, creating the set, you have to concentrate, you have to be awake to know your tracks very good. The connections at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the tracks, to also change your sounds inside the set. You can't just change tracks all of a sudden, you have to chain, going higher, down, write a story with it. But nobody will understand this. At the end of the set, you've played so many sounds with it you don't know how you did. Then you're a good DJ. If you mix like, one to one, this is very important in DJing.
V : For example I've worked since three years with Tarkan but I'm still learning! I'm still trying to understand how he did this. Magic? Something like that.

When did you two meet each other for the first time?

V: We met around three years ago through MSN. We started speaking, he listened to some of my productions, this is what's good to our connections, I was looking for someone who'd like to play my music, he was looking for some music like mine to play, so...we connected. It was three years ago. I just finished my military service, he listened to my productions, he liked it, and then when we met, I listened to his sets, I said...Wow what's going on here, literally, my music, very well remixed. I listened to something new for me. This kind of story I never thought before.
T : The funny story is, after some months talking on MSN, he was coming to play in Istanbul. Because we were already talking on MSN without seeing each other, we already became best friends, now it was time to see each other, because it could also be a disappointment, like online dating.
V : Yeah we could've met and had nothing to say! (giggles)
T : Yeah because also I'm Turkish and he's Greek, and there are some problems between the two countries. When V-Sag came, I told him he could stay awhile so we can do some productions together, I can show him the city of Istanbul, but he said, "I don't know, I'm not sure..." because his parents told him...
V : They told me to be careful in Turkey... (giggles)
T : Yeah of course parents are like that.
V : I played once in Cyprus but going outside Greece for such a longtime was the first time for me back then and it was in Turkey and I would meet someone I just met on chatting, so my parents were worried.
T : Then he came, at first he said he'd stay one or two days, then two days later he said he'd stay 3 months.
V : I ended up staying the whole summer there.
T : We played all around the country together... It was really funny.

And since three years you always play together or also separately sometimes?

V : Sometimes separately, sometimes together, it depends on the clubs. We're trying of course to play together always because first thing, we enjoy having time together, we have so much fun! We're like bestfriends!

So do you consider yourselves as a duo or two separate DJs?

T : Mostly it's Tarkan and V-Sag, but sometimes also only V-Sag, sometimes only Tarkan, with his own album with down tempo tracks. We have three things : Tarkan and V-Sag together, DJ Tarkan, and DJ V-Sag. Sometimes we can't also play together because sometimes he's playing in Greece or Hungary or Germany, and I'm at the other side booked for the same night so of course we can't do it together. And sometimes it's also good to go alone, because everywhere I go, if people know DJ Tarkan then they know DJ V-Sag, and vice versa. That helps our names to go faster around the world.
V : If we were the only ones to decide, we'd go everywhere together.

Some duos play more often separately now, and some like Simon and Shaker stick together all the time...

T : Simon and Shaker started together so they stick together, it's different, at the beginning I started on my own separately and V-Sag also started on his own separately, then we got together, so it's not the same. It depends on the demands too. Booking fees, agents and everything.
V : It's like fate, there are some people who started together and after one or two years they separate, us, we started separate and now we form a duo, it's like the opposite.

What about the DJ Mag thing, Tarkan was voted world's number 78 and V-Sag 110? Is being on the top of DJ Mag list important for you or is it just an extra?

T : Right now we're climbing the list. I'm sure we both are gonna get higher on the rank. We have to be. Because if you're a very big name, you've been on the top since 20 years, well then yes you can go down. Well if we weren't on DJ Mag we're sure we will still be here today anyway. DJ Mag is important but the most important thing is of course how you DJ, your productions, if people like your music or not. Because there are so many people around the world who don't even know about DJ Mag. They don't know how to vote, doesn't have English to understand what it is, then junk mail problems etc. Because there are also so many good DJs who aren't on the top 500 of DJ Mag. But of course being on the list is good for you. Most importantly if you're a good DJ and you're on the top of the list. For example in this list there are also some fake ones, you don't know who they are, or big names who can't even DJ very good! You have to be good and then you have to deserve your venue on the list, because then nobody can say "Hey this DJ doesn't deserve his venue here". Well there are some DJs who aren't on the list, then of course they say it's not important.
V : What I don't like, is that, I saw some DJs, putting on their websites or their MySpaces, "Please vote for us", and after they don't get into the top 250, they say, "Come on, this is not important, who cares about DJ Mag anyways". This is bad for your name. Either don't ask (beg) people to vote for you, or just accept your loss.
T : Of course asking people's support to vote for you is okay.
V : But if me and Tarkan aren't on the list, we'd just say, "Okay we tried to get into the list but we can't manage this". We'd never say, "Oh come on what's this DJ Mag thing anyways". Respect please.
T : A lot of people also don't know when to vote. You can't just shoot them if they don't vote for you!
V : People have to really like your music. We try to play the best we can, we try to produce good music, and try to catch people's attention by that. For me, and I think Tarkan also believes the same, there's no other way. What can you do?
T : This is the slowest but the best and the strongest way to climb up the list. You and your music only. There's nothing else. Like us, we have nothing behind, we have no agency. Well we have a manager who takes care of me and V-Sag also but he's not an agency.
V : Wherever we play it's because they ask us. We have no agent who will send mails to thousand of people asking "Hey you want DJ Tarkan and V-Sag to play at your venue?" No. We don't have that. Everywhere we play it's always because club owners, or fellow DJs, or even a fan who comes to the club and request our presence. We never say "Oh please,can we play here". Patience is the best way to get higher.
T : If people like your music, they will end up coming to you, they will find you. With internet now everything has become a lot easier.You can find and book anyone through their websites, their MySpaces, message them. Like me, right now I still have like 250 messages waiting to be read and to be answered, V-Sag also. We try to answer, spending 10 hours a day writing back, and then you keep getting messages back,like racing against time! For our recording label, No Smoking Recordings, we still have a lot lot lot music to hear, people to answer... But we love it, that's what keeping us here. Otherwise we can't keep up with all these things to take care about. You need to be really focus on this.

So what do you think about Stadium? How the crowd responded...
T : Yeah it was a great night. Great club, great sound, great crowd. Great event really, we also had the highest amount of people there who came for us. That makes us very happy because we came from a long long trip, Turkey and Greece, so we enjoyed here, our first time in Jakarta. Of course we hope to come back again. Thanks to Alung, a great person we met here, of course it's also important for us, people who are doing this event, this event, who are taking care of the DJs, and this is very important, we give Alung ten out of ten points.
V : Yeah with him we can go everywhere...

Now what about music producing? I know, like you said, it's more V-Sag's thing but you also produce alone and together. What kind of software and equipments do you use to produce? Only computers or a complete studio or something else? What techniques can you advise?

T : Acid Pro to put them altogether.
V : Yeah mostly computer. These kind of days we don't need anything else apart from a strong computer.
T : Maybe ten years ago you still need studio and the equipments inside, but nowadays computer is all the equipment you need.
V : I never needed anything else in the last few years other than my computer.
T : People don't believe it, they say "Oh come on how can you make sucha sound with computer only?" But that's the truth. The important thing is how to use the software.
V : And to know what you're doing.

Do you have any tips, tricks, hints you can share?

T : Of course everybody has their own techniques, maybe we can't tell you now, but the most important thing is you have to spend time. You have to be alone, this is the most important thing. The computer won't explode, you know what I mean? That's why, practising practising practising, sort of feeling and everything, but also how to use the program. You have to spend years! It's not like you spend one week and you've produced a good thing, it's like DJing, now everyone is a DJ. Everyone's downloading the music, well this is bad for the labels. Labels expect people to buy music so they get money, but people don't buy. Labels close everyday. An important thing also is to support themusic, the stores, buying the music, and try to be a good DJ before youeven download music, don't download if you don't even know how to mix. Everybody's now also a producer, a great producer (for them). This is getting bad because now there are many bad music getting released - everyone has now their own digital label, they try to make a big name, and this is bad in one side. Sometimes, after getting rejected by a big label, some people just release their own music with their own label. Even though the mastering, the mixing, the quality of the music and the production is so bad, they don't care. This is not going to make music step forward, this makes music steps backward, and this is what we're scared of and sad about.

So I assume you're against piracy?

V : We're not criticizing piracy you know, because to be honest, piracy is one of the free things that makes a DJ famous. Believe me. If it only depends on me, I will make a music and put it online for everyone to download in a piracy software, and the next day people will get crazy to get the tracks. But the thing is, some people have worked about this, behind the production, so at least a small support for music will be okay for labels, digital stores. People there are working all day, making music, publishing music, advertising, they have to get paid somehow. Piracy of course kills a big part of this,but in the other hand it's also good for the labels and the tracks. If there's a balance between these, it's good. You can't expect everyone to buy music, but not everyone steals either. Too much of both is bad. Balance is the best way. I also download sometimes, but if I like it so much at the end I buy it anyways. But sometimes you can lack of time to go to the shop, or money to buy everything you wanna listen to. I sure understand people who cannot buy everything. But at least some support to buy the few things they really really like is good for the labels mostly.
T : It's also cheap, for one or two dollars, but the thing is to have the fee and to have a thought about it. Getting on the website and to have a credit card, are important. People who don't understand English and have no credit cards can't buy music online. On one side it's a good promotion for us producers and DJs, but of course the labels also do have people who work for them so we care about that.
V : I myself won't take a single euro from the label, I told them to give everything for advertisements, I get my money more from DJing, from events. We don't care about ourselves, we're musicians and we love our music, this is it, but I care about the labels.

Last question is about your own label, are you seeing it to be huge and extremely commercialized in the future, or are you going to stay underground?

V : I think we will stay underground because this is what we can give to people. This is our way. If we wanted to go more into the mainstream, more commercial I mean, we'd do it from the beginning. This is what's special to us, the underground, the big music, we're trying to be more 'quality', all these things are now underground. You can't be commercial and at the same time giving underground music. It's totally opposite things.
T : But of course we're open to all things that have good quality. It can be house, it can be deep, disco, jazzy, it can be everything, at least we have to feel the track, to love the track to release it. We are open to everything but it has to make us really excited.
V : We have to fall in love at the first sight with the track! If I listen to it once and I like it we'll release it.

So...time's up, thanks a lot for the interview, it will be online soon, we'll email you the links...Have a safe and nice trip back to your home countries!!

T & V : Thank you very much!!