Hayko Cepkin

Hayko Cepkin is an educated musician, despite his rebel image in the Turkish heavy music scene. Born in Istanbul in 1978, Cepkin studied singing at Mimar Sinan University and later attended Timur Selcuk Contemporary Music Center for singing and music theory. After piano studies at the Akademi Istanbul, he finally launched his professional musical career in 1997. As a keyboardist, composer, and arranger, Cepkin has participated in numerous albums and worked with many musicians -- the list includes Koray Candemir, Demir Demirkan, Aylin Aslim, and Ogun Sanlisoy.

After gathering experience for many years, Cepkin decided to release his own music, and wrote, performed, and produced his debut -- Sakin Olmam Lazim (I Need to Stay Calm), released in 2005 by EMI Turkey -- entirely by himself. The songs were mainly, and naturally, based on keyboards, and presented a wide mix of cultural influences. Combining rock, electronic, and Arabesque (a subgenre of Turkish folk that is mainly a musical style of the working class), Cepkin's first album was met with positive reviews. When compared with his subsequent music, the debut was like the silence before the storm. However, he didn't wait long, and collected his thoughts for presentation in both music videos and live performances. Playing throughout Turkey in the following years, Cepkin was also named Best Rock Male Singer in the Kral TV Music Awards, one of the most important music award events in Turkey.

Cepkin's second effort, Tanisma Bitti (Introduction Is Over), arrived in 2007. The name of the album was the initial indication of what people should expect from it. Heavier and more brutal on one hand, atmospheric and epic on the other, almost every song had an orchestral introduction that went well with the main theme: "horror." Singles "Yalniz Kalsin," "Bertaraf Et," and "Melekler" -- and their videos -- made him one of the main attractions on the Turkish rock scene. More gigs followed the release of the album. Cepkin also wrote music for the horror feature film Araf and acted in the children's film Çocuk. ~ Vefik Karaege, Rovi