About this user
Murat was born in İzmir, in 1971. He was not older than around 3 years old when his family started to notice that Murat was singing all the songs in correct tones and rythms. It was kind of a major turning point in his life when his school teacher was changed in primary school and his new teacher, who was assigned in place of the former one, had a specialty in music branch. Owing to his new teacher, Şefik Şekeroğlu, Murat being introduced to his first instrument, the flute, also tasted his first chorus experiment at the same period of time.
With the guidance and support of his teacher and his family, Murat began taking his first singing and solmization lessons which would last for 4 years. In the meanwhile, he won the qualification examination for Karşıyaka Spor Kulübü swimming branch and was a professional swimmer for 8 years in this sports club.
In the years of the junior high school, he was enrolled to İzmir Fatih Koleji. There he attracted attention of the school's music teacher Ayşegül Sabuncu and thus he found himself attending to the high school chorus where all members were older than himself. It was there where he first achieved solo singing performances.
Afterwards, Murat was encouraged to enter the conservatory by his parents, who were interested in classical music. Thus he won the part-time programme in İzmir Devlet Konservatuarı. There, he was trained for 3 years in singing and solmization by his instructor, Adnan Polge. Later on, he had to move to Istanbul because of domestic reasons, and this decision would be another milestone in his musical career.
In İstanbul, he formed the progressive metal band Sawdust, which was to be his first band, and performed many times with them.
He finished his military service in 1991. On his return he established an acoustic cover band, which grew in short time and became known under the name Cherokee. On the other hand, he took special singing lessons from Belkıs Aran for a year. By the way, Cherokee's reputation spread in other cities as the band had quickly become one of the most popular club bands in İstanbul. In this manner, he gave many concerts in various cities with Cherokee.
It was in 1995 when Murat received a joining offer from Pentagram (Mezarkabul), one of Turkey's most renowned and earliest heavy metal bands, and started working with them being the lead singer. He appeared in the following albums of the band: 'Anatolia' (1997), 'Popçular Dışarı' (1998), 'Unspoken' (2001), 'One' (2002). He performed numerous times as the frontman, both in Turkey and abroad.
In 2004, upon Cem Köksal's call, he did the vocals in his album, 'Set Me Free'.
In 2007, he started touring with Pentagram in '20. Anniversary Tour'. They released an audio CD, '1987 (2008)', and a DVD which included recordings and footage from one of the concerts which took place in this tour.
In 2009, he set up a band with acoustic concept and performed in different cities in Turkey with this new band.
Murat is currently carrying on working with Pentagram and his personal acoustic band.
April 2010
Age
40
Country
Turkey
