Tarkan Ors (a.k.a. DJ Tarkan) doesn’t need to be introduced! He is the best dj in Turkey and also has been voted Number 78 in the world last year, according to the most respected DJ Magazine poll for dance music. The name of DJ Tarkan and his amazing sets are known all around the world and wherever he travels and plays his music, the crowd goes crazy!

Hello, there! A curious fact about you is that you have some experience on the football field. Would you mind telling us a little more about that? – Is there some connection between football and music? Or you are that link? ;)

HahahaJ Yes, I liked playing and watching football a lot when I was a child and my dream was being a football player. I played many years in Germany and Turkey but I had to quit in 1995 (if I don’t’ remember wrong) because of some injury problems and after that my professional dj-career began. Music was also another dream of mine, better to say dj’ing which I started at home while I was very young. When I was 10 years old I had two turntables and one mixer in my house so I was mixing and recording many tapes with my vinyls which I was buying from record shops in Frankfurt (Germany).

Wow, you are mixing from the age of 10!! So you have been dealing with music for quite some time now. And what do you think, is it normal for a producer to follow strictly the changes and the fashion of the house music scene? Don’t you think that in this way he/she may lose his/her own unique style?

There is no need to change totally the sound and lose his/her own main sound. Of course the producers, dj’s and the crowd especially have to be open to all kinds of music but this doesn’t mean that they have to change their genre or forget totally the music what they liked before.

Adding sound is every time ok but this doesn’t mean that the producer or dj should throw his / her old sound into the garbage. Making and playing different sounds is every time ok as long as the producer or dj keeps the quality and the flow.

You collaborate with Vasilis Sagonas (a.k.a. V-Sag) for many of your tracks. How do you divide the roles?

While we are producing with V-Sag we are laughing so much to each other. Now you will ask, why are you laughing, but this is really hard to explain; you have to live the momentsJ

Till today we produced all our tracks in Istanbul, in my house but in 2008 I promise, I will also fly to Greece, just waiting for the first booking request from Greece so I can do both togetherJ

About the roles, there is really nothing to divide.J Our minds are fitting very well and the original track or the remix is finishing from itself very fast. Of course sometimes there are small discussions between us about some small details in the track but even in that period we are laughing while shouting to each other and finding the best solution for the productionJ

Hahah, you two really are a perfect team! So can you share the projects that you are working on at the moment?

I just finished a remix to V-Sag’s excellent vocal track ‘Feather’ and this track will come out soon with other remixes as well. Besides this, we started to work on a remix for Tone Depth and I hope this will be finished soon. Also what important for us is, that we signed 2 tracks to Armada and one to TUSOM and these ones will also come out soon.

How did you and V-Sag agree to call your label “No Smoking Recordings” – does this title aim at conveying a special message?

Yes it does, please check www.nosmokingrecordings.com J

Ok, ok, I will explain also here to youJ

We both are against any drugs and we wanted to explain that everybody can listen to electronic music (to all kinds of music is better) without taking any drug. There is no need as we know and say. The people just have to concentrate to the music and to the dj, they can also close their eyes while listening but the most important thing is focusing on the music of the dj, nothing else. Then people will see that the music will take them to the places where they have never been before and that music is the only and best drug, which they can use to go anywhere they wantJ

You were born and spent your childhood in Frankfurt, Germany, then you moved to Istanbul, Turkey and, still, I remember you saying that you felt Bulgaria as a home country! :) What do you like about it?

I like the crowd in the club. I am enjoying this country so much because so many people are dancing like crazy till the morning and also this country, better to say your country has so many beautiful girls in the clubs. This country makes you really feel a dj and every time I come to Bulgaria I am getting excited and wanna start to play as soon as I get into the clubJ

I love Bulgaria!! :)

Indeed, you have so many fans here in Bulgaria. Why do you think that more and more people here want you coming back again and again?

As I said, I love every city of your country and what I see is that Bulgarian people likes my music also a lot; otherwise Bulgaria wouldn’t be so interested in booking me so many times in a yearJ I really don’t remember anymore how many times I came in 2006 and in how many places I played… thanks to all my fans in Bulgaria and they will never be disappointed of my music, because I really know how good how to let them move their bodies and shake their asses! :)

Talking about your gigs in Bulgaria, when will we have the chance to see you here?

Anytime you will have the chance as I said before, as long as the people in Bulgaria don’t get tired of meJ

December 7 I will be in Kardzhali and the day after in Pamporovo, so this means I will be there very sooooonnnnnnJ

Thank you so much for that interview! As always, it’s been a pleasure talking to you :)

We are waiting for you on the 7^th and 8^th of December to make us live “in a dream” once more!

Thank you very much as well for these nice questions and we will see each other soon hopefullyJ

Don’t touch that dial because you are locked into DJ Tarkan J

Interviewer: Miroslava Mihova

Bulgaria, December 2007