How, when and why did you decide to form a band like Sakatat? What has driven you to discover this very special type of music and start playing it as well? What is your objective with this band? What's been the band's main influence?
Honestly, in the beginning (around very early 2005) it was probably boredom as we had no agenda whatsoever before we recorded the first demo tape. However, afterwards we kind of realized that we have actually become a band and as of 2008, we have been in it full-time, have released about seven split 7”s in total and toured 2 to 5 weeks every year and all that. Music-wise our influences in the beginning were AGATHOCLES and early NAPALM DEATH however I think it is safe to say that our style has evolved drastically ever since and have kept getting faster and tighter towards fiercer form of grindcore.

The band is strictly a guitar/drum line-up, right? Has it always been this way? Do you ever use a bass on your recordings? It seems more and more bands are doing this sort of simple line-up... Do you guys have a reason for it? Is it that bass doesn't really make a difference in sound for fast grind? Simplifying rehearsals?
We started as a two-piece and had this three-piece line-up since late 2008 but never had a bass player although we use bass guitar on recordings. I think being a three-piece makes pretty much everything work easier and faster whether it be touring or recording or sharing the free beer tickets, haha! Although it might seem like a restriction when it comes to song-writing (what!?#!!), it is also a challange to come up with fresh ideas without one of the three basic instruments played in grindcore which is, at least for me a lot more fun.

How do you compose your noise? Is it mostly the work of one song-writer or a group effort? Where is your rehearsal place located? How often do you usually get together? Do you usually go to a studio in particular to record your stuff?
We live far from eachother, two of us in Ankara and the other in Istanbul, so each of usually have some new tunes with him when we meet up for an occasional rehearsal or drinking session which is not more often than a few times a year. I mostly get sick of something either at school or work, come home and some new tune or lyrics (or sometimes both) appears in my head, Onur does his part too and eventually we share the songs we’ve come up with and pick up the ones that would go on well together for a new recording. Recordings had always been quite a pain in the ass for us because of travelling to another city or the person behind the deck who had no idea what we needed until we’ve started recording at a humble studio with a friendly atmosphere here in Ankara since the split 7” with DISPEPSIAA.

Among your releases, is there one in particular you're most satisfied with how it came out? Material-wise, sound-wise, artwork-wise or otherwise-wise?
I’ve thought each new release was our tightest by the time it got out so I will stick to that and will say our split 7”s with MESRINE and DISPEPSIAA are the ones I dig most. That being said, I like the first 7” for its lyrics and somehow cool sloppiness, the ones with ARCHAGATHUS, SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS and CUT YOUR THROAT because they have those bands on the flipsides and finally the brand new split 7” with MATKA TERESA because we’ve finally recorded the long-planned “police brutality”-theme single-song record and the fact that our comrades MATKA TERESA ended up sharing it with us and a lot of friends helped us release made it even a more special release for us!

You're preparing a full length album. Is it gonna be completely new material or still some re-recorded tracks already on your past releases? How many songs do you plan to cram on it? Do you wish to put this out on CD or LP or maybe both?
We’ve thought of our latest three 7”s as, for a lack of a better word, “single”s for our future full-lenght for both sound and theme-wise so a fair dose of older songs will be on the album in addition to some new tunes that will help complete the puzzle. There will be about 20 songs and hopefully both CD & LP versions will be released by the time we hit the road in summer 2012.

You often use drawn artwork as cover and art genius Putrid Matt even did your logo! Although the split with Dispepsiaa is just a (terrifying) picture. Is artwork usually something you prefer to use? Do you have some ideas yet on what could be the artwork for the Full Length?
By the time we were putting together our split 7”s with AGATHOCLES and DISPEPSIAA we’ve actually tried a couple of drawings but none seemed to fit better than those photos that, in a way, were connected to the lyrics hence no original artworks but b/w photos on those. However, being hardcore music fans, we’ve always thought artwork was a crucial part of a record so if we happen to come up with an idea for artwork that would represent and reflect the theme of the record, we go for it. So far we’ve been lucky enough to have some badass art by Irwan Ironworx and our old buddy Putrid (and not only) who are definitely two of the raddest artists in the underground scene and cool people as well!
We have two different ideas for the full-lenght: one with a lot of details and a rather simple one of which both would cover the topics and images we had on our recordings so far on a single piece of artwork.

Your lyrics are a complete mystery to me, being written in turkish and all... What kind of issues are you dealing with in your songs? Why did you chose to keep turkish as language? And are translated lyrics really available?
Our lyrics are in Turkish for two main reasons: firstly there is no better way to stand against cultural-imperialism than resist singing in whatever language is being considered “the universal language”; secondly grindcore is supposed to be non-commercial so why bother trying to make our noise any more marketable by playing with their rules? I am surprised that majority of grindcore bands don’t even try singing in their native language.  I mean, if spreading the message is the concern, then translations would do the trick even better!
As for the content of our lyrics, so far we covered issues like borders, ignorance, direct action and pretty much all the grindcore cliches, though not for the sake of doing so but because those are real issues. At least here. In fact, it is safe to say 50% of the times, lyrics are the driving force for new releases if the other half is the music itself. Our early 7”s had original and translated lyrics, I am not sure why we stopped doing that but we still include translations in multiple languages on tour-only releases.

By the way, what does the name SAKATAT means? Does it have any meaning in regards to the band? Also did you have any alternate ideas when coming up with the name? (if so, I would really, really love to hear them! with an english translation if possible!)
It means “offal” in English and “abats” in French, I guess and has no meaning whatsoever to us other than the fact that we like it because it is in Turkish and anyone can pronounce it correctly no matter what his/her native language is. We have made a short list of possible band names with relatively shittier options when we needed a moniker for the demo tape and if I remember correctly the other options included “Gırtlak” (throat) and “Yontulmamış Gürültü” (something like coarse noise) which appear to be equally nonsense, haha!

How does one go about doing a split with Agathocles? Did you get in touch Jan AG? Are you happy with it & what do you think of the Agathocles side? And by the way what do you think is the best Agathocles split EP ever?
Haha! In our case it was Marc from B.O.G.’s idea but I assume the band itself wouldn’t mind doing so if we’d offered since I know Jan and co. are eager to release their music wherever and on whatever format it is possible. Appearently Marc and Jan were friends and he was looking for new bands to release on vinyl. We were in touch as we both used to do ‘zines so I must have sent him a copy of our demo and eventually he came up with the idea that really surprised us! In fact we probably wouldn’t bother recording anything at all if that hadn’t happened!
So, for the obvious reason, my favourite AGATHOCLES material should be that record, haha! The second one would probably be the split 7” with PUNISHER because it was one of the very first AGATHOCLES records I’ve ever had and I guess the song “Is It Really Mine?” must have appealed to me by the time I listened to it for the first time.

How do you usually decide on which bands to do a split with? Only friends you're in touch with? What are some of the bands you'd really wish to do splits with in the future? And do you have any more Split releases actually underway right now?  Is there any format you'd like to try, like a 10", a full Sakatat EP or maybe a particular color of vinyl, haha?
I think split 7” is the ultimate format for fast and filthy music as ours! I personally like 7”s more than anything, 10”s are cool as well but somehow split LPs and even sometimes full-LPs seem a bit pointless to me. Needless to say I wouldn’t care less about color variations. I mean I would never ever go for the color version while I could buy the classic black wax version for 2 bucks cheaper. Most of the bands we’d shared a 7” with were already our friends or at least people we knew for a while with the exception of SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS; it was Michele from Angernoise Records’ idea and we had no other option than to agree since the band was tight! There are really a lot of bands we know who would make a good couple for a split record however we try not to rush things but record new material when we feel like doing so. We are planning to record another split 7” and possibly a split 5” in 2012 in addition to the full-lenght. Those will definitely be shared with bands we are into and personally know, so there is a long list of bands to chose from since old school grindcore seems to be at its peak these days!

You've already toured in Europe and are preparing another one for 2012... Will you try to visit different places than before? What's your impression of the first tour? Was it all fun or actually alot of hard work to organize? What places did you get the best reception in? Do you have any favorite memories from touring?
Our first tour was quite surreal; Karel from ONANIZER has handled pretty much everything so all we had to do was enjoy the trip. Moveover we got to play our last show was at Obscene Extreme which turned out to be a rad experience for a young and inexperienced band. We don’t have an established DIY culture here in Turkey so that first tour taught us how things work and it was amazing to see how the DIY touring culture in Europe was well organized with many squats, venues, people and all that. So, we took it from there and booked the next tour ourselves (of course with a lot of people helping out) and played more than 20 shows in fuck knows how many countries which was even more mind-opening! It sure is a lot of work and in a way stress to book a 1-month tour but if people you are dealing with are cool, it eventually pays back in form of a lot of great memories and friendships that no other feeling can beat and I am glad to say 98 percent of people we got to know on tours were all great and some of them are close friends of ours on personal level.
I personally had some of my best moments when on tour, whether it be a chat with some nice person or playing some badass show! In fact, just sitting on a bar in some city of which name you can’t even pronounce and talking to a friend over a nice beer is a feeling you can’t top for me, so it is hard to pick up a certain memory. Our 1-week tour in Greece was something special: Mitsos who drove us and Pavlos from SLAVEBREED who booked the tour were two most dedicated people I’ve ever met and we were amazed by the way we were threated on that tour. Seriously, Greece crowd is totally underrated! Also DEATH TOLL 80K and ONANIZER were great people to tour with!
If you ask me, touring and playing live are big part of what makes playing in a band fun! I mean, it doesn’t take longer than a day to record a 7” but you get to play those songs for 20 days in a row! I think we’ve been on four tours abroad: once in Eastern Europe in 2008 with ONANIZER, then an extended European tour in 2009 with DEATH TOLL 80K, Greece tour in early 2010 and finally Western Europe in fall 2010 however there are still some places that we haven’t played like Spain, Russia, pretty much the entire Northeast Europe and Northern Europe so those are the places we hope to play in 2012.

You seem to be including alot cover versions in alot of your split Ep's... What bands and songs have you been covering so far? Who usually choses which cover to make? Are there any other band covers you're planning for or just wish to do next?
Yeah, I guess it’s become kind of a tradition. We did ROT, AGATHOCLES (twice?), DROPDEAD, ASSÜCK, SORE THROAT and I guess that is all so far. Oh, we did S.O.B. too and even played the tune live many times! I guess we have a non-written list of bands that we respect for their influence on us and the next bands would be WARSORE, EXCRUCIATING TERROR and I am hoping that the world will collapse before we run out of bands to steal songs from.

And since you did a Sore Throat cover, I'd like to ask you what's your favorite Sore Throat recording? I just listened to  the mindfuck that is Side A from Disgrace to the Corpse of Sid again recently and to me this is their peak (although probably difficult to cover)! But what do you think? And what's your impression of this band?
Again, the same case as AGATHOCLES, the first SORE THROAT record I’ve ever had was the bootleg version of their first 7”, so I must have listened to that one more than the rest however, we picked up a tune from the “Unhindered...” LP, so it goes without saying that it’s my favourite LP by SORE THROAT.
I have to admit that I am not the biggest expert when it comes to noisecore however I’ve always appreciated the attitude and in a way, that helped me built my attitude towards music. I hate the so-called “artistic” side of “music” and even “art” and noisecore and even most old-grindcore seem to me like the reflection of that feeling. So it goes without saying that I can’t decide whether I should laugh or hit my head against the wall when I see all those hipsters doing noise!

Can you speak about Turkey, the country for a bit? What sucks about it and maybe what you actually like about it? One of my first pen (or email) pal while doing this website was a guy from Turkey, he even used to help with reviews and interviews! So there seems to be a lot of grind fans in Turkey... What's your impression of the turkish scene and of the turkish grind crowd? How often do you usually play live gigs on your own grounds? Has there been new bands appearing in recent years? Any cool ones?
People here tend to be oppressed and manipulated so easily that they end up being not able to speak out loud, not only politically but in social life as well. Moreover, it is really rare occasion to see people unite even when there is a mutual interest (i.e. high taxes, layoffs, social insecurity etc.) which, in my opinion is the reason everything keeps getting worse. I really think the potential here is really huge and people are not as spoiled as in most of the more developed countries which makes it exciting to live here; the problem occurs when I realise most of this potential is being wasted, if you know what I mean.
As for the grind scene, it barely exists. So, we haven’t played more than a single local show each year which should give you an idea about the non-mainstream extreme music scene here. However, I think the interest and number of the people showing up at our shows and DIY shows in general are growing. Last year we had THE ARSON PROJECT here for to shows and they said those were some of the best shows they’ve ever played. Hopefully we will keep doing some DIY yet decent tours for foreign bands this season as well.

Turkey also has a wonderful history of totally fucking weird cinema! For example I absolutely love the Kilink movies! And there's a movie called "Thirsty for Love, Sex and Murder" (1972) (Aska susayanlar seks ve cinayet) which is an insane remake of Sergio Martino's "Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh" (one of my favorite movies, the Martino one I mean)! These movies often ripped off italian or even Hollywood soundtracks, etc... Do you know anything about this type of turkish B movies and cult rip-off cinema? Are you into them at all? How are they considered back in your homeland?
I have to admit I am not the biggest fan or the expert of weird/bad Turkish movies however it is amazing how something that has started as a rip-off has gained kind of a cult status, like all those super-hero rip-offs, “Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam” and all that. As far as my taste goes, “Tatar Ramazan Sürgünde” which is the sequal to the original “Tatar Ramazan” is my all-time favourite, though it is not a trash movie or anything like that.

Is there any musical styles outside of grind you're into as well? Is there a different genre of music you would have liked to try out as a band maybe?
For sure! I have been buying music even before I learned how to read so listening music has been about 50% of my life and there is no way it is only grindcore! I listen to a lot of slow stuff as well, you know from classic doom/stoner to bands like VITUS, SLEEP, SOLSTICE as well as bands like WINTER and CORRUPTED, old school death metal, then a lot of melodic punkrock mostly with female singers (recent favourites include THE ASSASSINATORS, LA FRACTION, TERRIBLE FEELINGS, WHITE LUNG, KALASHNIKOV COLLECTIVE), ever-inspiring PROPAGANDHI, bands like SACRILIGE, a LOT of traditional Turkish music like this amazing band called INCESAZ, some singer/songwriter and fuck knows whatelse! Onur had a doom/death metal band a few years ago however hasn’t gone any further than a single demo on which I played the drums and he recently started a new crust band called ANARRES with a couple of veterans in Istanbul with whom we played a show last weekend and I can’t recommend them enough for fans of bands like EKKAIA, ICTUS and Portland crust bands! Kaya used to be in a Swedish death metal band called NETTLETHRONE and probably a few others as well. Moreover, since we built a rehearsal studio together, I was supposed to start a classic doom/stoner band with the lads from BURIAL INVOCATION but we never seemed to have enough time for more than a few rehearsals.

But back to grind... What are some of your current favorite bands and records? Any current playlist or recommendation? Maybe best of 2011 so far? Or just the last band to really blow you away, live or otherwise...
As far as grindcore goes, I think the last few years were great! I loved the debut LYCANTHROPHY LP and our tour-mates DEATH TOLL 80K have released a rad LP as well! The HAEMOPHAGUS album turned out to be a lot varied yet still brutal than I’d expected and it had quite a lot spins as well; I am not sure when they actually came out but the latest stuff from PARLAMENTARISK SODOMI, THE KILL and HATRED SURGE were as refreshing as it could get, WOJTYLA (R.I.P.) is yet another band that took me way too long to check out but turned out to be awesome; I’ve managed to see STOMA and PULMONARY FIBROSIS live on our latest tour and both killed; it was no surprise that the recent ARCHAGATHUS records were tight and I should mention newer bands like TERROR FIRMER, DISPEPSIAA (called it quits way too soon: RIP) and SKRUTA as well and the list would go on if I had a better memory! Moveover, I was also excited to see classic albums from EDGE OF SANITY, WINTER, EXCRUCIATING TERROR, DEAD INFECTION and a lot more finally getting re-pressed this year!

Alright! Thanks alot for your time... And congrats if you made it through all these boring questions alive!
Are we done already? Haha! Thank you Pierre for the opportunity to say what we had to say! I am glad Braindead is back in track; I already got to know a couple of new bands through your recent updates! Having said that, isn’t it really weird how things have changed in last few years as far as zines are concerned? I mean, I personally wouldn’t read anything that wasn’t on paper until very recently and nowadays even a decent website seems to be very rare! Are we so spoiled already that it is no more exciting to read about the music we like while even multinational corporations (which everyone once hated) seem to be interested in backing it these days?
Anyway, thank you again and hope to see you on tour in 2012! Keep an eye on our website for updates on tour dates and our full-lenght!
(Semih & SAKATAT, October 2011)
sakatatgrindcore.com