Şebnem Ferah

Early life and Volvox

Şebnem Ferah was born on 12 April 1972 in Yalova to ethnic Turkish immigrant parents from Skopje (now Republic of Macedonia). She first took solfeggio and instrument lessons from her father who was also a teacher. She grew up listening to her father's Rumelian folk songs played with bağlama, mandolin and piano.

She got her first guitar when she was in the first year in boarding at Namık Sözeri Lisesi of Bursa. She got acoustic lessons. During her second year, she hired a studio with her friends and formed the group Pegasus. The group had their first stage appearance during a rock festival in Bursa, in 1987. After a while, Pegasus disbanded. In 1988, Şebnem formed Volvox with four friends of her that they named after the microorganism known as volvox, which they encountered in a biology lesson. In 1989, she provided the voice of Ariel for The Little Mermaid. She also reprised the role in the redub.

After graduating from high school, she attended Middle East Technical University, studying economics, and moved to Ankara with her sister. During this time, she met Özlem Tekin, who has later become another recognized pop-rock musician in Turkey, and Özlem joined Volvox. Volvox could not practice for a year and a half because the members experienced a hardship with coming together, with the other members except Özlem and Şebnem living in Istanbul. In her second year at the university, Şebnem changed her mind about being an economist; instead she dropped out and moved back to Istanbul.

In Istanbul, she attended classes on English language and literature at the Istanbul University. For two years she performed in various bars with Volvox until dissolution of the band in 1994.

Solo career

Although short-lived, Volvox gave Ferah what she needed: attention from professionals. Turkish diva Sezen Aksu and Aksu's writing/recording partner Onno Tunç saw Volvox on television. In a short time, Ferah sang back vocals for Sezen Aksu.

In 1996 Ferah released her first album Kadın, which contained some of her best songs, Vazgeçtim Dünyadan, Yağmurlar, Bu Aşk Fazla Sana, and Fırtına to name a few. They featured a rather polished and clean production, possibly the effect of producer İskender Paydaş; these came off much differently from how she would later perform the songs live. Kadın was a huge hit and lots of club and arena gigs followed its release.

Three years later, Ferah came into the scene with her second album, Artık Kısa Cümleler Kuruyorum. She was working with the same production team of Paydaş and members of Pentagram, but she had mostly broken free of artificial synths that time. Being a decent rock album, it was more introverted due to death of Sebnem's sister prior to its release. With less catchy songs, Ferah also started to create a fan base who would sing and feel all her lyrics rather than a following who would only memorize the hits and ignore the rest.

In 2001, Ferah came up with a more acoustic third album, Perdeler, two years after her father died at 1999 İzmit earthquake. Apart from the lead single Sigara, Perdeler fell short of creating hits. She also collaborated with Finnish band Apocalyptica on the title track.

Her next step was the fourth album "Kelimeler Yetse (If Words Were Enough)", which was released in 2003. The album was a low point in her career although it included "Ben Şarkımı Söylerken" ("While I'm Singing My Song)" and "Mayın Tarlası" ("Minefield)".

In 2005, she released her fifth studio album Can Kırıkları, produced by Tarkan Gözübüyük. The album showcased her heavier side and was yet her most distortion-friendly outing. After her nationwide concert tour, a live CD/DVD 10 Mart 2007 Istanbul Konseri was released in 2007.

In December 2009, she released her sixth and recent studio album Benim Adım Orman, features slow rock song like Bazı Aşklar and Eski while there were hard rock song like, Merhaba and Mahalle. This album indicates her point of view for rock music.

Personal

Şebnem's current group consists of Buket Doran (bass guitar), Metin Türkcan (electric guitar), Aykan İlkan (drums), Ozan Tügen (keyboard) and Ceren Akyıldız (vocalist) who have been performing with her in studio and on stage since her 3rd album, Perdeler. Currently Serdar Barçın has joined the group as a flutist. In the 1999 Yalova earthquake she lost her father and after this incident she focused more on her music. Besides her music career, she frequently participates in anti-drug programs and is supporter of anti-violence towards women programs in Turkey.