Altin Gun on Why 'It's A Good Sign If You’re Hard to Classify'

“We have a lot of fun playing together onstage, and that translates to the crowd,” she says. “All the boundaries — cultural and language — disappear.” That inclusive mentality has earned Altin Gün slots at jazz, pop, rock, folk and dance festivals. “Maybe they have to have a certain amount of world music artists on every festival [bill],” wonders Verhulst. “It’s usually a good sign if you’re hard to classify.”

With the new album approaching, Verhulst and Dasdemir anticipate when they will again have a full performance schedule. Until then, says Verhulst, “The only thing you can do is start working on the next project” — which he has. “I still want to have the feeling that I’m a full-time musician.” Working remotely led to experimentation, with Dasdemir improvising and Ecevit contributing more synth than usual, giving Yol a stronger ’80s sound. (They are the band’s only Turkish members, having grown up on national folk icons Neset Ertas and Barıs Manço, among others.)

Verhulst says the shift in process benefited the album in another way, too: “It made it less traditional and less Turkish,” he says, “and, in a way, more Altin Gün.”

This article originally appeared in the Jan. 16, 2021, issue of Billboard.