Music has always been at the heart of everything we do. That's why we sought to create a soundtrack for this show. We wanted to create a sonic experience that could elevate and ground the collection.
About the Artist: VEyasin
VEYasin is one of Turkey’s most influential multi-genre producers, composers, and cultural figures. Beginning his career in the late 1990s as part of Ankara’s hip-hop underground, he co-founded the rap collective Mode XL and later established Basemode Records and Kamp Records under Universal Music Turkey. His range spans from pioneering Turkish hip-hop to crafting advertising soundtracks for global brands like Nike, producing TV scores, and earning an MPSE Award in Hollywood for his work on the Searching for Sound documentary.
Under his acclaimed alter ego Hey! Douglas, VEYasin reimagines 1970s Anatolian funk and psychedelic soul for contemporary audiences, a project that has made him a fixture of Turkey’s electronic scene and earned him the Best DJ Award at the Golden Butterfly Awards in 2020. His solo catalogue, including tracks like Faded Love and Sardığımdan, reveals a seamless blend of electronic production with deep cultural references and emotional storytelling.
With El Gringo, VEYasin has composed a soundtrack that mirrors the collection’s cross-cultural journey. His music becomes a vessel for identity, memory, and transformation.
In Conversation
Q: How did your collaboration with Les Benjamins on El Gringo come about?
VEYasin: I was drawn to the collection’s story right away. El Gringo is about cultural crossings, identity, and fusion, and themes resonate deeply with me as an artist. The idea was to create a soundscape that could walk alongside the clothes and the models and amplify their journey.
Q: You have a long career spanning hip-hop, Anatolian funk, and electronic music. How did that background influence your work here?
VEYasin: My journey started with Mode XL and later Hey! Douglas, where I fused 1970s Anatolian psychedelic funk with modern production. That experience gave me a palette for bridging cultures. For El Gringo, I leaned into that instinct to blend the familiar with the unexpected, rooting the music in tradition while pushing it toward something new.
Q: What was your approach to composing the soundtrack for El Gringo?
VEYasin: For El Gringo, I composed music as a mirror of its cross-cultural journey. The pulse of Mexican instruments anchors the soundscape, while psychedelic rhythms carry the sense of motion and transformation.
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Q: How did you translate the themes of diaspora and cultural blending into music?
VEYasin: The melodies drift across borders, echoing the spirit of fusion and diaspora. They summon a collective memory where many roots meet, dissolving the boundaries between past and present, local and global.
Q: What kind of emotional or physical response do you hope the music creates for the listener?
VEYasin: The rhythms invite the body into trance, while the melodies awaken a belonging beyond geography. I wanted to create something cinematic yet intimate.
Q: How did the visual world of the collection influence your sound choices?
VEYasin: The textures, the colors, the silhouettes of the designs sort of revealed the sound of this journey.
Q: Looking back, what do you think this project says about the relationship between music and fashion?
VEYasin: Both are languages of identity. Together, they can carry memory, culture, and transformation into the present moment in ways that are felt beyond words.
Track List
VeYasin