An interview with Hêja Netirk, a Kurdish multidisciplinary artist, singer, songwriter, actress and producer who both harbors the Dengbêj culture (a traditional form of oral literature) and tells stories about today in her songs.
A Kurdish multidisciplinary artist, singer, songwriter, actress and producer, Hêja Netirk released her second album Pistepistek Bilind following her first maxi single, Stranên Neşuşti. Netirk composed the poems of Roşeng Rojbîr, Gulîzer and Şokrî Şahbaz û Şêrko Bêkes for the album, which includes eight tracks. There are three songs in the album whose lyrics and music belong to Netirk.
Living in exile in Germany, Netirk summarizes the stories she shares in her album as follows:
“We can say that the album is a storytelling with songs. For example, in the piece Masiye Biçûk / Little Fish, I tell the story of a small fish lost in the ocean in search for a good life. This song refers to the Iranian writer Samed Behrengi. In the track named Pistepistek Bilind, which gives the album its name, we see the story of the little painter Hemo, like a movie. In the piece called Sobe, the song becomes the mouth of a pair of eyes sitting by a river in Hasankeyf and looking at a lost country with love and anger. In the song called Xwelî, we listen to a woman’s inability to contain her broken pride.”
“I think it is politically wrong to write songs in Turkish”
Netirk, who writes her songs in Kurdish, English, Spanish and German, says, “Sometimes I sing the songs I like from Turkish songs. But I don’t write Turkish songs. Because there is no need. I think it is politically wrong to write songs in Turkish at a time when assimilation is at its peak.”
Netirk’s music bends the traditional into something modern. She has the capacity to rap and sing a dêngbej kilam in the same song. Her desire to create modern Kurdish music stems from a love for the language and “to make Kurdish live.”
Netirk defines her musical style as follows: “Modern and modernity are very broad concepts. Moreover, there are many different modernisms. Which one of them I am living is a long story, but it is certain that I do not make traditional music. I also sing traditional songs if the atmosphere arises, but I can say that I haven’t recorded traditional songs professionally yet.”
Netirk states that she has received very good feedback from the audience and says, “There is a group of people waiting for the music I create, I try to find them and reach them. And we are minority. Kurdish popular music is traditional. Innovators love my music. I love them too.”
Source: Medyascope