What happens when a musician turns to a soldering iron and curiosity, rather than money, to achieve the sound they want? We spoke with Sonic Torture about sustainable music-making, his DIY gear, and how the art of ‘making it yourself’ defies the norms of consumption.
Hi! We see you across different projects under various aliases. Can you tell us about yourself? Who is the person behind these names?
I’m Deniz. Some people know me as Buhran or by other names I use when creating cartoons or music. I also produce some equipment under the name Sonic Torture. I’m from Izmir, and I was active on the scene for a few years with my old bands. Since I live abroad now, it’s difficult to arrange shows in Türkiye.
With Sonic Torture, we see you transforming from someone who plays instruments into someone who also produces them. How did you start making your own music equipment? What is the origin of this interest?
Being poor. I’m very interested in electronic music and electronic instruments, but unfortunately, in my dear Türkiye even drinking a beer has become a luxury. In response to that, I’ve become pretty skilled at finding weird instruments on second-hand shopping sites and tracking down instrument plans and schematics online.
It’s clear that limited resources drive creativity. So, what was the first piece of music equipment you produced? What was that experience like, and how did the process evolve after your first attempt?
The first pieces of equipment I built and “boxed” were an Arduino-based synth and a simple fuzz pedal. It was a disgusting experience—turns out, if you start this with no electric components at all, the things you need to buy aren’t actually that cheap. As I had money, I’d go to the passage in Çankaya where the electronics shops are and slowly buy what I needed. Since I had zero electronic knowledge before and couldn’t afford tools that would make my life easier, nothing I made worked properly for a very long time. But in the long run, some things become money-saving and comforting (like making your own cables).
The first and most important factors are my almost nonexistent electronics knowledge and whether I can achieve the result I want on a low budget.
How did that initial chaos eventually give way to order? When designing equipment today, what do you prioritize; how decisive are sound quality, aesthetics, and functionality for you?
The first and most important factors are my almost nonexistent electronics knowledge and whether I can achieve the result I want on a low budget. My usual approach is to find schematics of equipment I like online, and if it looks like something I can build, I give it a try. Later, I combine things I already know how to make to create new things. Sound quality is (usually) not a priority for me. Most of the things I love and make are far from “quality”—in fact, what I specifically look for is making the sound even worse. So I usually make disgusting-sounding (which to me is super) distortion and microphone-type things. As for aesthetics—I believe the better an instrument looks, the better it sounds. In my opinion, if someone truly wants to make music, they can do so with whatever they have, but if you have a good-looking instrument, you’re more eager to mess around with it and discover what it can do. Ease of use is also very important to me for that reason. Most people don’t look see it that way, so the pedals I make have knobs to adjust volume or other things; but if it were up to me, I wouldn’t put any controls or even a footswitch on my pedals. I don’t think there’s any reason to turn a distortion pedal off or adjust it—it should always be on, always at max distortion, and always at the loudest possible volume.
So, how do your material choices take shape during this production process? In your opinion, what impact do the materials you use have on the sound character you’re looking for and the performance?
I use whatever materials are easiest to access. I think looking at things you can’t get and constantly saying, “ugh, if only I had that I could make this, but since I don’t, I won’t make anything” is pretty lazy. If you really want to make something, you’ll constantly look for new ways to do it and figure out how you can create new things with the materials you already have. Sound quality, as I said, is not a priority for me, but performance is crucial; If something I made doesn’t work properly, I need to find the problem and build it right from the scratch. Fortunately, electronic components are usually cheap and durable, so even if I don’t have the part I need on hand, I can order a new one—or if I don’t want to wait, I can open up other devices in my house and salvage parts from them.
Taking action with what you have instead of waiting is truly valuable. So, what sources do you draw inspiration from in this creative process? How does producing your own equipment reflect on your music and other projects?
My biggest source of inspiration is punk and DIY principles, and the people who create great things using these principles. The person who influenced me the most in equipment-making is Oliver Ackermann from Death By Audio. But I can’t say I have single source of inspiration; especially in the DIY equipment community, people are very willing to share what they know. So a random YouTube channel with 30 subscribers that hasn’t been active for 10 years can sometimes both inspire me and teach me exactly what I need. As for how these principles affect other parts of my life: when something doesn’t work the way I want or breaks (like my guitar or cables), I try opening it up and repairing it. Even if I can’t always fix it, understanding how the things I use work allows me to learn both the limits of my equipment and how to get the results I want within those limits.
How does the process work on the technical side? What techniques do you use when designing equipment, and what kind of process do you go through to develop your methods?
Usually, I just copy things that have already been made and shared online. If what I works as intended, the next step is to change some parts, add or remove things. Since I don’t follow any specific standard, even if I make two of the same unit, there are usually small (or sometimes big) differences inside. Trying to reinvent the wheel is an understandable desire at first, but when you learn that almost all fuzz pedals on the market actually stem from just three different designs from the ‘60s, you realize that to create something new, you don’t need to come up with something no one has ever thought of before.
What do you think about the freedom and sense of creativity that DIY production offers? How does this independence open up space for your creativity?
I think the biggest impact is that it makes some things accessible. For example, when my guitar cable breaks while I’m recording, instead of wasting time and money by going out to buy a new one, I can open it up and and repair it.
Especially with music, I’m good at sitting down and doing something from start to finish. If I stop doing something and switch to something else, I can’t feel as connected to the original project when I return to it later. That’s why quickly solving problems and getting back to work immediately helps me a lot in the creative process.
Is there a specific point you want to reach in this process? What are your thoughts on future projects and the sustainability of this production?
There isn’t a specific point I want to reach. I’m someone who prefers being at a average at in 50 different things rather than being extremely good at one. That’s why I do a lot of things at the same time and don’t have enough time to fully focus on just one. I have a few projects in my mind—there’s a sweet amp project and a few pedals in my head. Hopefully, I’ll build them someday when I have the time and money, but they’re not my priority right now. As for sustainability, I’m not a big company, so I’m not going to “go bankrupt” or close up shop. As long as I keep making music, I think I’ll keep trying to build my own equipment. I honestly don’t think I’ll ever make a living doing this, but the main reason I got into it was to make inaccessible gear accessible to myself and to better understand the gear I use anyway.
Lastly, do you have anything to say to us, or to those who want to start but are waiting because they feel they 'lack the resources'?
If you want to make something but keep saying, “I don’t have this, I don’t have that, I can’t do it without them,” then either do it with what you have or move on to another project. If you’re not doing anything at all and only talking about the things you want to do, it’s good to ask yourself whether you actually want to do it. I’m saying this specifically regarding music, but it can apply to anything in life. It’s also completely normal for your desires to change**;** so if one day you suddenly have an epiphany like, “I don’t like making music and I don’t want to do it anymore”, there’s nothing to feel guilty about.
If you want to make something but keep saying, “I don’t have this, I don’t have that, I can’t do it without them,” then either do it with what you have or move on to another project.
