About Us
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.
Whitewash
The Debut Full Length Studio Album
First gig at Moran High School '75-'76 | Sinan Kurtul(left), Murad Dunbay(right)
How did the name White Cheese come about?
An American friend, Erik Malmberg was living in our neighborhood during mid 70's. He had a nice stereo system and LP's Jethro Tull, Alice Cooper, Eddie Money etc. that was hard to find, he would invite us to his place to listen to his records. We asked him what could we do for him because he was very generous, Erik said to get hime some white cheese which he said he loved.
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!
Line up Support
Original Line up:
1975/1977:
Murad Dunbay: Bass + Vocals, Sinan Kurtul: Lead Vocals + Gtr, Selami Sevinc: Drums + Vocals
1977-1978:
Sinan Kurtul: Lead Vocals + Gtr, Derya Bozkurt: Drums, Seref Gokhan Pekkaya: Bass, Barbaros Torlak: Vocal + Guitar
1979/1980:
Cihangir Akkuzu: Drums, Haluk Ozden: Lead Guitar, Sinan Kurtul: Lead Vocals + Gtr, Murad Dunbay: Bass
1981 / 1984:
Gur Akad: Guitar & Vocals, Derya Bozkurt: Drums & Vocals, Murad Dunbay: Bass, Ilkin Deniz: Bass, Orhan Erisir: Keyboard, Sinan Kurtul: Lead Vocals + Gtr
Present Line up:
Gur Akad: Lead Guitar + Vocals, Derya Bozkurt: Drums + vocals, Cihangir Akkuzu: Drums, Duygu Demir: Cello, Tunc Volkan Konya: Bass, Sinan Kurtul: Guitar + Lead vocals.
Guests:
Volkan Basaran: Guitar, Tarkan Karakaya: Guitar, Orhan Erisir: Keyboard
June 15 2016 - Debut, Drom, NY / Lou Reed Group Convention
Gur Akad: Lead Guitar + Vocals, Serdar Cokuslu: Bass, P.J Ducker: Sax, Sinan Kurtul: Guitar + Lead Vocals, Rich Kulsar: Drums
November 9, 2022, Drom, NY
Volkan Basaran: Lead Guitar, Rich Kulsar: Drums, Sinan Kurtul: Guitar + Lead Vocals, Atakan Oguz: Bass