The Music Man

If you’re not in the music industry, you might not be aware of the unassuming Sinan Ufuk Nergis, the Turkish music producer and co-creator of the Harem series of albums that have sold over 1.6mn units (and counting) worldwide. triplew.me talks to the man about his music, the industry and his vision for the Middle East music scene.

Registering over 1.6mn sales from the successful Harem franchise is no mean feat and, in any business climate, puts Nergis in a league of his own. Not content with creating one of the most recognizable cross-over acts the Middle East has seen, he runs (along with his partners) Pasion Turca, a leading record label, events, management company based in Spain.

We caught up with Sinan, who was in Dubai to promote the latest Harem release, DJ Kaan Gokman presents Club Harem, and asked him what it is that makes Harem so successful, “What we are producing here is something new," adding "we come from Turkey, which is at the crossroads between East and West, and we believe that this enables us to produce a fresh sound that isn’t captured anywhere else.”

Giving us an insight to his success, it is clear that he understands the market better than anybody “At the end of the day, you’re living in a Middle East country, so we should be taking on the local influences into our music and into the broader music,” adding “the only artists I see coming here are Nelly Furtado, Prince, I find it quite weird.”

Perhaps it’s because of the audience? Nergis is dismissive, in his own pleasant way “Those people, expats, can watch those people in their home countries.”

“As an expat when I come here, I should be able to enjoy the music of Nancy Ajram or Amr Diab to really see the life of this beautiful culture,” likening it to the broader culture-shock and/or fear that we see travelling, “it’s like Italian people going to Japan and eating pizza, people are sometimes afraid to embrace new opportunities.”

So what is it that makes the music sell so many copies? Negis explains that “our music mixes the two parts – east and west and I think that’s the base of our success,” and that “the sales prove the acceptance of the music around the Middle East.”

Perhaps tellingly he adds “where you come from is what you understand” and nothing truer than music.

One would imagine that after such success within the crossover genre, it would be difficult to stand out from the pack, but Nergis sees rest and time away as the key to staying on top of things “sometimes I need to switch off,” adding “you make yourself freak-out” [by working hard].

So what’s next for the man behind some of the most successful compilations around the world? Well, staying ahead of the music industry is one, “music is no longer a product that people desire to buy,” adding “Lady GaGa gives us hope, no matter what you might say about the product, that music can still sell in the market.”

Asking how that might happen, he adds some telling advice “it will open the door for others,” candidly adding “music got in bad shape because of our [the music industry’s] bad work, we didn’t do a good job” with Nergis further adding “we copy; when there’s a Take That style group we just make another boy band, when Beyonce comes along we make another one.”

“I think in the Western World, in the 2 big markets, people are bored of their music, they need the new stuff,” saying the answer might be under our noses “the ingredients in music are changing, using ‘foreign’ music in the newer big hits shows us there’s an appetite for something different.”

“5 years ago we were talking about hundreds of thousands of units being sold, now we’re in tens of thousands, in 5 years time it might be thousands,” but it’s not all doom and gloom “but the model has shifted and we just can’t be a record label only anymore.”

He leaves me with something telling, perhaps, for the local musicians wanting to make it in the world of music: “You create your future and you enjoy your future,” and adding “there is opportunity for everybody in this new music world.”

DJ Kaan Gokman presents Club Harem is out now via EMI Music Arabia at all good retailers.