OZAN ALPARSLAN

Ozan Alparslan is a keyboard player who worked with Dreamtone in the past, both for their Sojourn album as well as on their tours. He was also the keyboard player for several other local projects such as Ominous Grief (2002 mp3.com’s black metal top list band, placed as nr.1).

Ozan worked on additional orchestral arrangements, together with Iris and Dreamtone as well as writing some cool piano partitions and playing the synths for “Reversing Time”.

What was the most fun and horrible things you faced while recording “Reversing Time”? How was it to work with an orchestra?
Since I record at home and do it a lot, I usually find no obstacles in recording the keyboard parts. The hardest thing about the recording session this time was the time restriction that I had to face caused by some very unlucky events. That meant so many sleepless nights, a real concentrate hard work leaving no space for fun, so the only fun moment I remember was the relief at the end of the recording session.

In the absence of an orchestra, it’s me who plays both the orchestral parts and the synthesizers most of the time. That was the first time I have played on a real full orchestra, so I had some concerns about the sound in non-“rock band” sections, but things ran smoothly and the result was better than I expected. That was a great experience.

You also worked with Dreamtone before, both on live events and studio recordings. From your perspective, what differs “Reversing Time”?
Dreamtone guys have a talent on constructing orchestral arrangements. I think the most important thing that seperates this album from others is that the larger space they found in creating such parts. Also, the power of a live orchestra blended up with the familiar voices of guests we all like makes the difference in Reversing Time.

You have been playing “Reversing Time” tunes on stage and you played keyboards, piano parts and worked on additional orchestrations in the album. Which song would you pick from “Reversing Time” as a favorite and why?
It’s really difficult to pick one single piece, that was kind of an album I enjoyed every single note playing, but since it sucks to play political on such issues I am picking “Transcending Miracle” out. That piece has some melodies that sound magical to me, and it also captured the biggest portion in terms of effort in my parts. Also writing the piano solo in Black Water gave me a great satisfaction since I found the opportunity to use my style to spice things up a little. Live on stage, Reversing Time, the title track of the album is a really fun thing to play for a keyboard player.

If it was possible to reverse the time, what would you change regarding “Reversing Time” recordings?
I am not a man of regrets, and taught myself long ago even if you made real big mistakes losing the opportunities for changing your life, you can not fully apprehend them without seeing the consequences, so you should use your past only to learn, and live today. So could I have made something better in this album? Probably, there is no perfection and a better way of doing things always exist but looking at the past, taking the time restrictions given, I believe that we have made the best choices and the overall work sounds great. So even if I could reverse the time, I would keep the work as it is now.

Neverland is a place that children do not grow up and a magical happiness surrounds the world. Can you please describe us your own Neverland?
My Neverland actually exists, it is my studio. The problem is, I can not spend as much hours as I want in my Neverland. Everybody has some Neverland but the silly thing they call “reality” takes that from us.

Other Interviews
w/ Hansi Kürsch
w/ Tom Englund
w/ Gary Wehrkamp
w/ Erim Arkman
w/ Evren Yazgan