Hayko Cepkin

Hayko Cepkin (born 11 March 1978, Istanbul) is a Turkish musician of Armenian descent. After graduating from high school in Getronagan, Cepkin studied music at Mimar Sinan University for two years and took courses in solfège and harmony at the Timur Selçuk Modern Music Center. After one more year at İstanbul Academy, he began performing with several famous Turkish artists such as Ogün Sanlısoy, Aylin Aslım, Koray Candemir and Demir Demirkan and collaborated on albums of several artists. Picking up knowledge as being composer along the way, he contributed to the works of the artists listed above in contributing to the albums such as Murathan Mungan's "Söz Vermiş Şarkılar" which Aylin Aslım sang with Murathan as a duet. In 2005, Cepkin founded his own band whose members included Umut Töre (guitarist), Onur Şengül (bass) and Murat Cem Ergül (drummer) and Hayko as lead singer. Onur eventually left the band shortly before the second album was released and was replaced by Sedat Oğuzsoy (bass). Many of the songs Cepkin had composed throughout his life appeared in his first album Sakin Olmam Lazım released in 2005. It included range of music from hints of classic Turkish blends to raw angst present in his rock tracks. Some of the singles released from this album include "Yarası Saklı", "Görmüyorsun", "Fırtınam", "Son Kez" and the infamous "Zaman Geçti". The album received lots of airplay, support for the unique style. In June 2007, Cepkin released his follow-up second album titled Tanışma Bitti. The first single "Yalnız Kalsın" was successful in Turkey. He performed at the annual Turkish rock music festival "Rock'n Coke Festival" and sang at sold-out concerts throughout Turkey. In March 2010, he released his third album named Sandık. The single "Yol Gözümü Dağlıyor" was made into a music video and released a few days before the album's release. He subsequently made two more music videos, "Doymadınız" and "Balık Olsaydım". A few months later, Cepkin was invited to Cologne, Germany to perform at that city's Bootshaus Night Club on 18 June that year.