There were a number of people who had great impact on my life:
1-Isaac Asimov, the Jew
2-Arthur C Clarke
3-Jean Michel Jarre
4-Kurt Cobain
5-Steven Hawking
6-My mother
I remember on my birthday that I was in fifth grade a girl handed Spielberg’s ET book to me. It must’ve been around 1987. I read that book and immediately after that I became a hardcore fan of science-fiction books. I continued reading many more books; John Christopher’s Trilogy, Isaac Asimov’s books, Arthur C Clark etc. and almost there was no sci-fi writer in the world that I didn’t know, even HG Wells that I believe is the father of sci-fi stories, although Jules Verne was from the same era. I even remember there was this magazine called ‘The Scientist’ in my home country that published short sci-fi stories and I bought that expensive magazine just because of the sci-fi section….not long after that at another birthday my mother’s colleague gave me an Einstein tribute book written by an Australian scientist. I believe the same lady gave me Steven Hawking’s ‘a brief story of time’ more or less at the same time and I think she had no idea what she had bought for me, but I assume they knew that I was a sci-fi fan through my mother who was a librarian (not to mention that I broke her husband’s teeth in a fight many years later). I could easily understand the calculations in the two books and I was amazed how if an object reaches the speed of light it becomes light energy, all calculations looked completely accurate to me…I must’ve been in guidance school that time. still in my early teens and those books really drove me into science and specially Quantum Physics, although my favorite writer Isaac Asimov had PhD in Biochemistry but this didn’t affect my interest in Physics. So above my bed in the cupboard there were tons of sci-fi and physics books thanks to these people….all these people led me to become a scientist that I am now. However I became a genetic engineer but the same line of interest led me here….I remember I read in Arthur C Clark’s diary that many people told him he inspired them to become physics scientists, pilots or shuttle commanders….but I became a genetic engineer…that’s still ok I guess.
(Isaac Asimov)
I so much wanted to meet with Arthur C Clark, but he was living in Sri Lanka…before his death and in the same year I had feelings that it was going to be his last year of life and I told about it to my ex-gf…something told me I needed to go there sooner but when I read the news about his death I was shattered….I missed having a chance to meet with Isaac Asimov and never managed to see him also, but I remember I was very young when Isaac passed away. So I wanted to make sure this time I could reach Arthur C Clark before anything happens, ….but I was late sadly !
(Arthur C Clarke)
recently I made posters of both of them and hung upon my wall, along Isaac Newton and Darwin.
I liked comic books also, but never really became a hardcore fan of them because there was something mysterious about sci-fi books that entertained me more….comic books were a little childish to me. However I myself created a character called Madman, but later I realized Mike Allred had already created such character. But my Madman was way different from his, however I liked many phrases in his books which were similar to my Madman’s personality.
I remember going to book stores and ask about books that even the book sellers hadn’t heard about their writers. Professional Sci-fi (not alike childish sci-fi of Star Trek) books were very rare even in the US, let alone in a country that I come from. So for me it was hard to find things that I really liked, but I found my way to get hold of things I wanted.
I remember I was always different, almost in anything….always different from boys at my own age. Many of my friends were older than me. It was like my brain grew up sooner than my body.
I always had interest in music also, many people around the world have….but something about Jean Michel Jarre’s music was different. The melodies were breath taking. He was far more advance than his time. Nobody could be compared to him, Even Kitaro that I just went to one of his concerts last year….Jean Michel Jarre’s 1990 Paris open air live concert video blew my brain away….I don’t know how many times I saw that live concert on VHS. It was early 90′s but my uncle knew the guy long before even I was born….He told me about Jean Michel Jarre’s Equinox, but I think it was late 80′s and early 90′s that it was his peak success. After that he faded away dramatically….just because of him I bought a keyboard and asked a pianist to come and teach me how to play, but what he taught me was so low class that I fired him. As I said I was far beyond my country’s ordinary people. That country didn’t feed my demands….but I started composing music even long before I bought keyboard…I could compose songs in my brain like Jean Michel Jarre’s songs and I could hear any synthesizer in my brain separately like an orchestra. I was 12 yo that time. This even surprised myself and I decided to learn Keyboard.
(Jean Michel Jarre)
I remember I stopped reading sci-fi after I had appendix surgery and felt clinical depression for the first time at the age of 15. I believe something happened to me after that surgery. something went wrong. possibly the chemicals they used to make me unconscious didn’t work well on me and gave me side-effect. I wasn’t the happy smiling Aidin anymore. I changed since that day. I remember fainting many times after the surgery.
So the combination of Sci-fi books and electronic music made me so different from people of my age and in my home country. I don’t know anyone who was like me…I don’t recall….my mother’s way of living also made me a little different. I believe she is a true high class woman. If I have a little class it’s all because of her. She was even different from her other sisters…she was always into books, Tchaikovsky, Edgar Allen Poe, Chekhov etc. but she was also unlike her fellow librarians in that country. She is one of the most beautiful women I have seen in my life. Her nose is number nose on the planet to me. lol. She has black hair and dark eyes with white skin. a very Monica Belucci type of woman. the type that I think is the master of beauty in women, although many men prefer blonds, I think the true beauty is in dark hairs. My own current gf is very blond with Blue eyes and I believe she is one of the top 5 most beautiful women in my country. I truly love her, but there is something with dark hair I can’t resist.
(My mother)
Not that what I’m saying we are so high class, don’t get me wrong. It is just that I and my mother were different….I wish I wasn’t so high class that I could bind with the people of my country more and I could suffer less to achieve my goals. If I was like them and small minded, I could have enjoyed life more and expect less in life…but they say when you see heaven it is hard to go back and live on earth….when the door of science and music opened on me I could not resist. It was the worst addiction that I could imagine, and I still can’t stop myself !
Then came Kurt Cobain…before him Metal music didn’t attract me much. there was something missing in metal songs at pre-Nirvana era. Kurt’s screams brought a new soul to metal
) in a way he taught everyone how to scream…he really changed me. I felt so much energy after listening to his songs and after that I sold my keyboard to buy electric guitar. I got my first electric guitar at the age of 22. so late….I know….but I have talent and have made good music so far.
(Kurt Cobain)
once I was in studio recording for my own band that Barobax people came in and liked my voice and asked me to sing a song for them. The song became a hit song in my country and many people know me by that….but I play a totally different music now. I started making complicated riffs during post-Nirvana era. I actually came to know Kurt after his death. But Smashing Pumpkins, Type O Negative, Filter and many more filled Nirvana’s empty place for me. I basically made anything that sounded heavy to me. Even Techno songs with a mixture of electric guitar, something like the Prodigy stuff….and now I am into pure math metal like Sybreed and Meshuggah.