music
Öykü Önal, who depicts her music as "what she can't talk about", is an İstanbul-based singer-songwriter, born in 1995. Inspired by folk and women singer-songwriters like Joan Baez, Laura Marling; she is after a vocal based, soothing, and experimental sound. The visual imagery in her lyrics is heavily influenced by her interest in cinema and literature. Besides "Seafoam" by Morrie Records, she has been self-producing her 'home-made' music since 2021. Channeling her deep-seated passion for music in the mid-2010’s she self-taught guitar and focused on her singing leading to a repertoire of covers and original songs, and finally live performances in 2022. Since then she performed in Table Records Singer-Songwriter Sessions II, Jam with Women and a local college art event. Her music aired on Radyo Eksen and Açık Radyo, and featured on curated Spotify playlists. In July 2023, she released "Rose, my name" with a stop-motion music video crafted from analogue collages by her friends.
07.2023
rose, my name
In July 2023, her latest release “Rose, my name” came to life as stop-motion animation with the visuals Yağmur Güzle created with analogue collage technique, and was edited by Barış İbin "Rose, my name" is about a love that has to be hidden and therefore cannot grow; also the effort to be itself. It tells a queer story by placing a very familiar yet ambiguous rose image in the underwater scene.
06.2022
seafoam
“seafoam” is a mellow-tuned song written, performed, and recorded by Öykü Önal. The concept came from the artist’s habit of gazing at the sea foam left by boat engines to calm her anxiety of rocking. The song tells the story of a woman who sings to the sea foam with the desire to leave behind her identity and transform into it.
The lyrics were inspired by Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, and the tale of a siren that turns into sea foam.
The song was mixed, mastered, and released by Morrie Records.
07.2021
portakalın ölümü
In summer 2021, Önal released “Portakalın Ölümü”(Death of the Orange) which explores disappointments of growing up, and is her only song written in Turkish. The artwork of the single was made by Sena Kuyucu.
01.2021
a break. silence.
This is an EP consists of two songs: "hope fools me, dear" and "a break. silence" which were written on guitar. The idea was to characterise the anxiety that artist feels sharply and creating a dialogue to leave it behind with a chilling musical attitude. It was as a hedgehog because of the spiky feeling and also being the artist's spirit animal. Instead of a standard chorus, Önal decides to build a tension that comes and goes and resolves to the line "a break, silence". The song was recorded and mixed by me in my room with an average equipment. I chose the release date as my birthday for a fresh start. The mastering was done by Deniz Perhan. The artworks were made by my close friend Barış İbin.
