MERTDER On the Making Of “Glass”
Punk Head: “Glass” is gritty, hypnotic, and intentionally repetitive. What made you want the structure itself to feel like a system looping in on itself?
MERTDER: It never stops! They keep repeating, so we have to. The repetition is there to wear us down, so we get tired and start looking away, that’s exactly why it becomes a retaliation and a reminder. They’re not stopping, so we won’t. We can’t. We have to keep pushing back. They repeat, we repeat!
Punk Head: You describe “Glass” as a protest anthem. Who or what were you seeing through when you wrote, “I can see through you like glass”?
MERTDER: It’s not one thing, it’s multiple things, and a lot of them are connected. We all see it in biased media and in systems designed to make us fight over ridiculous stuff, keep us busy in conflict, just so more barriers can be put between us and them. That tension fuels the money making machine, and I’m just so sick of the current climate, like millions of others. It’s calling out the bullshit we can all see through.
Punk Head: Your sound pulls from London’s underground and Turkish sonic heritage. How do those two worlds coexist inside you — and inside your music?
MERTDER: I think London brings the edge, the aggression comes from here, while the Turkish influence brings a feeling, a kind of yearning. In “Glass,” it’s that echoing falsetto in the back. It’s romantic! They balance each other out.
Punk Head: “Glass” calls out the illusion of transparency between governments and citizens. Is anger your fuel as an artist, or is it something else?
MERTDER: Initially, perhaps. But there’s something more important. You don’t fight fire with fire. My real fuel is the pleasure of ironically igniting something in the listener, inspiration? desire?
Punk Head: You channel influences like Massive Attack, The Prodigy, Rage Against the Machine, and Die Antwoord. What do you think ties all those artists together in your mind?
MERTDER: Clear vision and drive. Their music just gets something going in you. I grew up hypnotised by them, and they sparked this rebelliousness in me, helped me see the system for what it is. I hope the people who find my music feel that too, whether lyrically, sonically, or in the energy.
