Zafer Atabey is one of the stalwart DJs of Turkey. He is based in Istanbul and holds out his passion for music production including many releases on his own label MyPrimus Records.

We have an exclusive premiere of his new release “Connected” and caught up with him to find out more about his new EP…

https://soundcloud.com/change-underground/cupremiere-zafer-atabey-connected-original-mix-myprimus-records

Hi Zafer, can you start by telling us about yourself, and how you first got into electronic music?

First of all, I have to admit that I am at the age of 50 and I got into electronic music in the last 5-6 years only. I am currently the CEO of a big industrial company of 1 bio $ turnover. We are based in Turkey but we have facilities in Europe and in the USA too. My interest in electronic music started as a hobby but turned into a strong passion very fast. I started my own podcast channel in Soundcloud and my sets have a very good number of streams with a strong fan base. 3 years ago, I did my first DJ performance in a big company event. Later, I began to play in several events in several clubs. I also play in the biggest local electronic music festival of Turkey; Magic Break. Coming to my production career; My first own production was a progressive track “Touch My Senses” that was released in 2017 from a label under Abstract Space Group. Then I started to focus more on the production side of Electronic Music and many tracks followed each other.

Could you talk us through your new track “Connected”, and the EP that it features on?

It is a single, actually. Whenever I feel that the headline track is powerful enough, I prefer to release as a single because the other tracks lose the interest of the listeners.
“Connected” is honestly my best piece of work until now and I am happy to say that I got the chance to play it a few times in my gigs and had impressive feedbacks from the clubbers. This is a very strong melodic techno track with a cinematic breakdown and banging drop. It is a simple but very effective killer track for the club audience.

I understand you are releasing the track on your own label MyPrimus Records, could you tell us a bit about the label?

After working with many international labels, I realized that to look for a proper label for each release was even more difficult than producing the track itself. There are thousands of labels and unfortunately, the top labels do not pay any interest to the new names if you do not have a special connection with the label boss. Many talents become very upset due to the low or no interest of top brands. So, I decided to kick-start my own label a year ago to release my own tracks as well as to support some young artists.

Which other labels have you worked with, and what’s been your proudest moment to date?

I worked with many international labels like Abstract Space, OLD SQL, Nightshift Records, Hexagon Recordings, Sonusfield Records, Superordinate Music etc. Honestly, the day I saw my track “Dark Pines of Your Mind” [OLD SQL Records] on Beatport charts was one of the happiest days in my life.

Have there been any big-name DJ’s supporting your music, and who is the DJ/producer that inspires you the most?

I can mention Sezer Uysal here since he is the most famous Turkish producer internationally. He is a good friend of mine and he supports my music. About the inspiration, I can mention two names; Boris Brejcha and Joris Voorn. Of course, there are many other producers I respect in the electronic music industry.

What’s next in your schedule after Connected hits stores ‪on the 7th of February?
I spent a lot of time to finish an Afro-Techno track as a collab with a young Turkish producer; Deniz Karadag. We will release several weeks after “Connected”. It is a quite unique track. Although everyone is very familiar with Afro House tracks with melodic and progressive elements, an Afro track with more techno background is not that much available. We are also planning to make a special label night in famous RX Club in Istanbul soon.

What’s been the gig you are most proud of?

A few years ago when I was an Executive VP,  we completed a very successful year financially. The company boss asked me what I wanted as a special gift. I asked him to set up a boiler room inside the company. So we set up a 100 m2 company club equipped with high-end soundsystem (Void Acoustics). We call the boiler room as B-Play and since then we have organized many gigs hosting company employees or university students. I play there together with guest DJ’s. I guess this might be the best boiler room worldwide in a corporate company that operates totally out of the music industry.

Is there anything else you would like to tell our readers about?

I do like electronic music and I will keep promoting it to increase the fan base in Turkey. To that extent, three years ago, my company became the main sponsor for a DJ’ing contest in the top university of Istanbul (Bosphorus University where I was graduated ages ago). To give inspiration to young DJ’, we have brought many respected names to the contest as guest DJ’s like Marc Romboy, Kaiserdisco, Teenage Mutants. We now signed with Anfisa Letyago for the upcoming contest in the summer of 2020.

You can pick up a copy of Zafer Atabey’s new release on MyPrimus Records from HERE