Batu Akdeniz

Batu Akdeniz is a Turkish rock musician with 100 million streams on Spotify who is still not a millionaire.

He was five days into his first stretch in the States, on his way to New York for work around his music, when he came into the studio for the SALTYmf GOAT Podcast. He played two songs live, one in Turkish and one in English, and before anything else he turned to the camera and spoke to his fans back home. What kept surprising him about America was that strangers smile and say hello. He started trying to catch people's eyes on the street just so he could wave back.

He found classic rock at 14, in a country where it has never been popular, and taught himself English because neither of his parents spoke it. The musicians he was listening to became, in his words, his older brothers. He played his first live gigs about twelve years ago and has been a recording and touring artist in Turkey since. His band have played together seven or eight years and are his closest friends, with a bass player from Russia and a guitar player from London. During the pandemic Lucy Peeler, who knows the Bad Company men, asked whether he would like to play with Simon Kirke. He wrote two songs in two weeks with his bandmates, sent Kirke the stems, and got a message back saying great singing.

The 100 million streams have not made him rich, and he says so without dressing it up. Rock is a small scene in Turkey and he is one of the few younger artists in it. Inflation keeps people at home, so the crowds are smaller than the venues and festivals could hold. He gets anxiety about money, about politics, about whatever else is going on, and there are stretches where he says he feels like he is losing faith in humanity. What he does about it is go back to his roots and pick the guitar up. The Kirke record still does not feel real to him either. He had a poster on his wall in Ankara, and he has not met the man face to face yet. He will point out, though, that Ahmet Ertegun founded Atlantic Records and signed Ray Charles, and that Ertegun was Turkish.

Partway through the show he asked to say something again in Turkish, so the kids at home would hear it in their own language. There are great talents there, and he wants them to know they can do it, and do it better than he has. His girlfriend Daphne, who is half Turkish and half American, travelled over with him. She is a tattoo artist who also paints, writes, sings and dances. His first English single was due out on October 4.