Interview by Shauna O'Donnell
MUEN: I HAVE NOT COME ACROSS VERY MANY BANDS FROM TURKEY. WHAT IS THE MUSIC INDUSTRY LIKE ? ARE THERE MANY METAL BANDS THERE?
BLACK TOOTH: Actually there are a lot of metal band in Turkey. but proportianally they compose only a little part of the entire industry. Industry is mainly based on Turkish pop music. You may come across very good metal bands in myspace. Among them, there are not so much band that make english music. It is very hard to expand your music to abroad in Turkey. Because of financial problems. Managers are kind a reluctant to represent metal bands.
MUEN: TELL US AN INTERESTING FACT ABOUT THE BAND. WHAT MAKES YOU STAND OUT FROM THE OTHER SOUTHERN ROCK/METAL BANDS?
BLACK TOOTH: We love to make shows as a band. Everybody in the band gets so excited when there is an upcoming show. I think most of the people who love our music loves also our shows. We like to enjoy our shows all together with the fans. During the shows, we drink with them, we sing with them we even play instruments with them. After Pantera, people looked for the bands that can fill the hole. Sometimes we get such responses from the listeners like "I haven't enjoyed a show like this since Pantera". I think that's what makes us stand out other southern bands.
MUEN: ALL OF YOU WERE IN DIFFERENT BANDS BEFORE YOU BECAME BLACK TOOTH RIGHT? WHAT OTHER PROJECTS OR BANDS HAVE YOU WORKED WITH?
BLACK TOOTH: Orcan, the lead guitar, had a band named Escape-Mode like 10 years ago. In fact he'd been looking for a bunch of people to make souhern metal for years till Tuna and Deniz showed up. Tuna (vocals) and Deniz(bass) had been planning this Black Tooth Project for years but they had some problems, such as finding the right people to make kick ass southern metal. Finally in 2006, we all met in some bar and drank and decided to make their Black Tooth Project come true.
MUEN: YOU NAMED THE BAND AFTER PANTERA'S OFFICIAL DRINK OF COKE AND WHISKEY. YOU'RE HUGE PANTERA FANS I TAKE IT. HAVE YOU EVER MET THEM? WHAT OTHER BANDS INSPIRE YOU?
BLACK TOOTH: No we had not that chance to meet them. There are a lot of bands inspring us but some bands like Black Label Society, Lamb of God, Pumpjack, COC, Down influenced us. However, Pantera had a great great influence on each of our lives and music. But this must be clear that we are not a Pantera tribute band. Yes we love to play some covers. In fact we haven't played another cover from another band? , but we'd like to be known with our songs.
MUEN: ALL OF YOUR MUSIC AND LYRICS ARE WRITTEN BY YOUR BAND MEMBERS. WHO DOES THE WRITING AND HOW MANY SONGS HAVE BEEN WRITTEN SO FAR?
BLACK TOOTH: After Orcan had joined the band, we made 10 songs. Before Orcan , band had like 20 songs written. All the Songs were written by all the members. Actually it works like this. Someone comes up with an idea or riff. And then, in studio, we all work on that song all together. Lyrics are written by the same way. No one, alone himself writes the lyrics. We define a concept and work on it all together again.
MUEN: YOU HAVE NOT YET RELEASED A CD OR EP. WHEN DO YOU THINK YOU MIGHT RELEASE ONE?
BLACK TOOTH: It is so simple to answer. When we make a deal. Hah haa.. Yes we all want it to be in US. So we are planning to come to US again in the summer of 2008. After a tour (i dont know how long yet) , we really want some guy come up and say "Ok guys here is the record deal. Let's make it". We are patient for that.
MUEN: I HEAR FROM OTHER BANDS THAT MYSPACE HAS REALLY HELPED ALOT WITH PROMOTING THERE MUSIC. WOULD YOU AGREE?
BLACK TOOTH: Yes. In fact no other band can agree this as much as we do. By the help of myspace we made our dreams come true. Which is going to US and playing at some shows in Texas where the southern metal was born. The story is like this. Rita Haney had stumbled upon our myspace page one day. She's sent a message to us and asked if we can make it to Us and can play At Ride For Dime 3 in Arlington. At first, we could not believe that. The request was amazing. Naturally we accepted immediately as any band would have done at that point. This story shows how myspace is so important for the bands that really wanna show themselves to the world.
MUEN: HAVE YOU BEEN TO THE U.S.? IF SO, DID YOU PLAY ANY SHOWS WHILE YOU WERE HERE?
BLACK TOOTH: Yes. We were at the Ride For Dime 3 in August 2007. It was the first time we'd been to US. We enjoyed a lot. We played in Ride For Dime, in Arlington. And then, at the after party in Hot Rods , and finally at Tomcats in Dallas. We got very good responses there. We loved the people of Texas so much. Hospitality really impressed us. Actually we did not expect that much attention when we were going to US. That was 9 nine days. But we suck whole days with those kick ass people there. When we got back to Turkey, we had chance to edit some video footage (like 15 mins) and put that video on our website ( www.blacktoothmusic.com ) and myspace page (www.myspace.com/blacktoothmusictr). That video summurizes the whole journey and joy. We would like to thank Barbi, our manager, and her family. She and her family were so helpful for us in every aspect.
MUEN: TELL US A STORY ABOUT THE CRAZIEST SHOW YOU'VE EVER DONE.
BLACK TOOTH: All of them had its own crazy story. Its hard to tell which one. It's really hard to choose.
MUEN: WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR SPARE TIME WHEN YOU ARE NOT WORKING OR PLAYING MUSIC?
BLACK TOOTH: We drink man. He he .Ok, we have our families and Tuna, Deniz and Orcan also has their jobs. We love to meet at weekends and go out and drink with our fans besides shows.
MUEN: DO YOU HAVE ANY MESSAGES FOR YOUR FANS OR ANYTHING YOU'D LIKE PEOPLE TO KNOW?
BLACK TOOTH: Stay Southern!! Getcha pull
MUEN: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE INTERVIEW. WE AT MUEN WISH YOU THE VERY BEST.
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