White Cheese's journey begins across the sea - the year is 1975 in Istanbul. Sinan Kurtul (guitar & vocals) and Murad Dunbay (bass) started the band in Moran High School with their class mate Selami Sevinç (drums). The band won first place at their alma matter's battle of the bands, debuting their first original song - Measuring Up The Time.
Post-college, the band performed throughout the country, including the famous night club Apple'in Turkey's capital city of Ankara. With the help of their manager Yesim Ekim, the group would eventually perform on the national television. The group debuted their track "Flash Back, the first reggae-rock song played on the televised airwaves in Turkey in 1979 in a program called Sihirli Lamba (Genie's Lamp) founded/produced by Izzet Oz.
Band would record singles & EPs in Serter Bagcan Studios in Beyoglu.
The group would eventually take a hiatus, forming other musical acts in Norway or the United States. Clips, a band featuring members Gur Akad and Derya Bozkurt, would make the final round of Eurovision in 1986. Sinan Kurtul spent his time focusing on his solo project and become a luthier for the brand Tube Guitar. Founding member, Dunbay, would pass away in 1998, which inspired the track "Joe".
The band would release their debut full length album, Whitewash, in 2015. The album release party was hosted at 60m2 in Taksim-Istanbul. Since then the band performed frequently at venues like, Barock, Sakman Bar, Dorock, The Wall, Ağaç Ev, İstanbul and DROM, Bowery Electric, SVA theatre in NYC, GoodWitch Coffee Bar, Westchester-NY.
First gig at Moran High School '75-'76 | Sinan Kurtul(left), Murad Dunbay(right)
An American kid called Erik Malmberg was in Istanbul living with his father during mid 70's. Erik had a great Stereo system and music LP's Jethro Tull, Alice Cooper, Eddie Money etc he would invite us to their posh rental villa by the Marmara sea. One time we asked him what could we do for him beacuse he was very generous inviting us all the time to listen to his records.
He said “ can you get hash?” and we're like “dude! it starts from seven years in prison here so forget it!” What else? He said he loved to eat white cheese we so we got him a huge can of white cheese.
Sometime later Murad (Joe) and I were in search of a band name for our high school band, we're like how about White Cheese ? and “white cheese” it was!
Original Line up:
Murad Dunbay: Bass + Vocals, Sinan Kurtul: Lead Vocals + Gtr, Selami Sevinc: Drums + Vocals
Sinan Kurtul: Lead Vocals + Gtr, Derya Bozkurt: Drums, Seref Gokhan Pekkaya: Bass, Barbaros Torlak: Vocal + Guitar
Cihangir Akkuzu: Drums, Haluk Ozden: Lead Guitar, Sinan Kurtul: Lead Vocals + Gtr, Murad Dunbay: Bass
Gur Akad: Guitar & Vocals, Derya Bozkurt: Drums & Vocals, Murad Dunbay: Bass, Ilkin Deniz: Bass, Orhan Erisir: Keyboard, Sinan Kurtul: Lead Vocals + Gtr
Gur Akad: Lead Guitar + Vocals, Derya Bozkurt: Drums + vocals, Cihangir Akkuzu: Drums, Duygu Demir: Cello, Tunc Volkan Konya: Bass, Sinan Kurtul: Guitar + Lead vocals.
Volkan Basaran: Guitar, Tarkan Karakaya: Guitar, Orhan Erisir: Keyboard
Gur Akad: Lead Guitar + Vocals, Serdar Cokuslu: Bass, P.J Ducker: Sax, Sinan Kurtul: Guitar + Lead Vocals, Rich Kulsar: Drums
Volkan Basaran: Lead Guitar, Rich Kulsar: Drums, Sinan Kurtul: Guitar + Lead Vocals, Atakan Oguz: Bass