MUEN: I READ WHERE YOU ACTUALLY FORMED A BAND FROM THE INTERNET... TELL ME ABOUT THAT..

ZOIDIVA: It is difficult to find the perfect people to work with.. since it�s a team effort, it�s not easy to find the right people for the projects. (I joined a few bands here, with one of them we worked every single week and even made gigs) and none of them could satisfy my needs for making world music. And the professional ones I met were never so helpful until I met Jose Barbosa (a private guitar-teacher from Mexico), he gave me that power which someone near to me couldn�t give. He made it from thousands of miles away, also Tony Hunt (from Australia - Melbourne) and Snr Paul (from Spain) and a few others. I wish I could live close to these guys. The first band I formed was called 'Heartmasterz' which mentions the true music from the heart ..Jose helped me to believe in myself, my voice and strength and I started writing my own stuff with his help. He made the music and we created about 8 songs in very poor conditions,.. sending files to each other back and forth, (for one file transfer we had to wait 20 minutes), which happened in 1 year and we published them on some music sites. I pressed them on CDs and all my workmates bought it! It was a nice memory:), and they were melodically really nice songs according to demo format but need more professional recording studio and sound.. but with those opportunities in 2002, we were still good.. after that we took different paths, he published his guitar, bass and drum teaching (DVD's) and doing quite good - while I took a break.. But we are still very good friends and I always take his opinions on the new songs I make.

MUEN: WHAT IS THE MEANING IN THE NAME "ZOI?" AND HOW LONG HAVE YOU USED THAT NAME FOR?

ZOIDIVA: Zoi means 'life' in old Greek. My grandfather came from Greece, and I always loved Greece and have many friends from Greece over myspace despite the political debate between our countries. I started using this name since I opened my myspace music account more than 1 year ago. Actually Zoidiva is my artist name since I registered myself and my songs in "musicians association" as a professional singer and songwriter under this name.

MUEN: HAVE YOU HAD VOCAL LESSONS?

ZOIDIVA: Yes, a few years ago I had taken private vocal lessons from an opera teacher for about 6 months, and then took a break and concentrated on song production but I still consider to start again these lessons to improve my technique.

MUEN: TELL US ABOUT YOUR LATEST RECORDINGS, DID YOU WRITE YOUR OWN SONGS FOR THIS ONE? AND WHERE CAN PEOPLE BUY OR DOWNLOAD YOUR MUSIC OTHER THAN MYSPACE?

ZOIDIVA: I wrote all the songs on My EP and myspace except "In The Sun," it�s my English producer Paul Rawson's (snr Paul) song, he�s also a very talented electronica /dance hits producer living in Spain. For the song, "who I Am" my main producer and label owner Tony Hunt helped me for the verses. Since English is not my native language, they advised me as I wrote the songs and they try to help without destroying what I want to say in the songs.. We released the EP from IODA so now, it will be available in many digital stores soon, but for now it is available on www.mtraks.com - http://www.mtraks.com/artist/zoidiva/release/57077-who_i_am ( for USA and CANADA only), and also available on i-tunes.

MUEN: WHAT SONGS ARE YOU THE MOST PROUD AND SATISFIED WITH, AND WHY?

ZOIDIVA: Frankly speaking I am not full satisfied with none of the songs I did, they are good songs but we should always force the boundaries, that�s my musical working philosophy, all songs are my children, my pieces which I cannot discriminate from each other, each has its own success story.. The first song I wrote is called 'Destiny' with my Mexican friend Jose, it took a few months to make it sound perfect according to the conditions we had.. Most people were impressed by that song when they heard how I made it with someone thousands of miles away over internet without seeing each other in real life, it wasn�t common to work like that in those years (5 years ago). So it s the most special song for me.. I consider to re-produce that song when the time comes. There is also a song called 'Holyworld' that I made with a professional dj/musician Joey Skye from England, that song was in playlists in Radio Milano-Italy on March and April 2007. I had written and sang its chorus parts and it was the first time my name appeared on a playlist of a radio in Europe. 'Who I am' is a very special song because it�s our first song with Tony: reflects what kind of personality and soul I have, general attitude in life .. most people loved it at first listening since it has a catchy melody. I worked with Tony very detailed to produce it (it took more than 1 month) we never passed each second of the song since it was our first trial and somehow we did know it has the potential to be a nice hit, when he first sent me a simple track of it he said 'I hope it will be a start of amazing things' and so far things really developed amazingly. 'White' is also a nice slow pop rock hit with a strong chorus which got the attention of people and band promoters from usa.

MUEN: TELL US ABOUT BANDPROMOTERS.COM.. WHAT IS THAT ALL ABOUT, AND HOW HAVE THEY HELPED YOU?

ZOIDIVA: Band Promote, a subsidiary of Indy Hits.com, is a music company geared at promoting top unsigned bands and artists to the music industry abroad.They offer various services from promotion to tour booking and even weekly tips on films and TV shows seeking songs. I found them over myspace. The founder Mike Galaxy emailed me saying he really loved my song �white� and definetly want to place it on their October CD sampler and told that they only select best musicians, each month 18 bands are being promoted to more than 1000 music executives. In the past they helped some bands to get signed in like Linkin Park, we will see what happens after October.

MUEN: DO YOU KNOW OF MANY ARTISTS LIKE YOURSELF IN TURKEY? ARE THERE ALOT, OR VERY FEW?

ZOIDIVA: As myself I didn't see any. As I said before, my situation is quite different than other artists. They are first getting known in Turkey to expose their music worldwide. Mine is the opposite, I started directly from the world lol.

MUEN: WHAT IS YOUR MOST IMPORTANT GOAL RIGHT NOW, FOR MUSIC? WHAT IS IT YOU ARE REALLY SETTING OUT TO ACCOMPLISH?

ZOIDIVA: For me the most important goal in life is just music itself, and I want to reach a Nirvana with it, the peak of my best as far as I can. So far I made nice songs with good musicians, but it is stil not adequate for the point I want to reach.. I want to do more songs which thrill me as much as others, amazing songs and performances that the whole world could enjoy before I pass away..if that ever happens, it will be a true success for me and a gift for others.

MUEN: BESIDES PAST INFLUENCES, WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITE NEW ARTISTS THAT YOU HAVE HEARD RECENTLY? EITHER FROM THE U.S. OR ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD...

ZOIDIVA: Lately I discovered a new singer called Sara Bareilles and her one song called �Gravity� affected me a lot. It made me cry 2 days...it�s a slow touching piano song and it takes me somewhere else each time I listen to it.. her voice is angelic and her performance is great to me.. People who know her think the same as me.. She is already a big artist in the USA. I�m sure she will do great worldwide in the future, which I wish from the heart.

MUEN: WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO BESIDES MUSIC? HOW DO YOU SPEND YOUR FREE TIME? AND WHAT ELSE DO YOU DO FOR A LIVING

ZOIDIVA: I work full time in a stock Exchange company in foreign institutional sales department , it�s really a stressful job and doesn�t leave me a lot of space to breath and to check what's going on life. Thank God I don�t work on weekends, and I try to rest as much as I can, hang out with my close friends and family. if I have spare time I like watching nice movies, shopping and aside from that, some of my time for personal beauty care. Since I released my first EP, most of my time�s spent for promotional work and artist management.

MUEN: WHO DO YOU FEEL HAS HELPED YOU IN YOUR MUSIC CAREER THE MOST?

ZOIDIVA: The first musician who believed in me truly was Jose Barbosa who I mentioned before, from the first day we met his support and belief in me cannot be explained with simple words. I will always thank him for the courage he gave me, on the other hand Tony Hunt (my current producer) is one of the nicest people on earth, he is always so positive and patient to me. I work so easily with him, Paul Rawson (my electronica /dance producer)- he is one of the most talented producers and he helped me a lot on this path too, besides I have many friends and friend-fans in real life and over myspace (I dont want to call them as only fans) they are always there whenever I need support..I feel really lucky to have met these people ..

MUEN: ANY LAST WORDS?

ZOIDIVA: Never give up, never give up, one day you will see the light ( from the lyrics of the first song I wrote 'Destiny'):)

Many thanks.. ZOidiva

Interview by G. Cataline

www.myspace.com/zeyneperol
www.myspace.com/zoidiva