Emir Taha - Off Days (Colors Session)

Brixton based Turkish artist Emir Taha shares brand new single “Off Days”. He also releases the song as a Colors Session.

"'Off Days' is about that someone who loves you and supports you through your lowest, toughest times, even when you don’t have the energy to show them how much you love and appreciate them,” says Taha.

Whilst November’s single “Uzak Dur” was completely in Turkish, “Off Days” continues the trend of other recent singles combining Taha’s native tongue with English. “Off Days” is another great example of his music paying homage to home with subtly undulated vocals and the understated traditional Turkish guitars interspersed alongside a prominent, R&B-styled bedroom beat. 2022 has seen Emir Taha continue to make strides towards becoming a household name in global music. His mission is to bring the sounds of his homeland bang up to date with alt R&B and leftfield electronica. “There are loads of barriers for Turkish artists to make it globally – language, culture,” he says. “I want to take it as far as it can go”.

Emir Taha was born in the coastal city of Antalya, grew up in Ankara and moved around Turkey with his family, rarely settling in any one place. “I never felt like I belonged to a city,” he says. There was a constant, however, in classical guitar. He picked it up at a young age and was particularly inspired by Anatolian psych-rock legend Barış Manço. (Put on the guitarist’s track ‘Hal Hal’ at house parties anywhere and, he insists, “it always goes off”). He taught himself to use production software and started putting songs on Soundcloud, which pricked the ear of Turkish pop megastar Kenan Dogulu, who invited Taha to support him on tour and welcomed him into his studio. On the live front this year Taha supported Priya Ragu at Brixton Electric and played a sold out show at The Waiting Room in May. Dua Lipa selected him to play her Sunny Hill festival in Kosovo this summer.

“Off Days” is out now with a bigger body of work to follow in the New Year.