Hello everyone, it’s your host Oliver from DULAXI, and today I’m delighted to be joined by songwriter and lyricist Ersin Secrin, based in Neuwied, Germany, to discuss his original single “Replay,” released on May 7, 2026. Working across different musical directions, Secrin focuses primarily on songwriting, lyrics, emotional concepts, and story-driven ideas, using AI as a tool to transform his written material into listenable musical demos.
“Replay” enters that catalogue as an energetic modern summer pop song built around positivity, movement, memorable hooks, and the simple desire to experience a beautiful moment again. Before we begin our conversation with Ersin Secrin, here’s what you need to know about today’s featured project.
About Ersin Secrin
Ersin Secrin approaches songwriting from a perspective that places the written idea at the centre of the creative process. Based in Neuwied, Germany, he describes himself primarily as a songwriter and lyricist rather than an artist or music producer. His work begins with lyrics, memories, stories, emotions, observations, and concepts that he develops independently before considering how they might take musical form.
His path into songwriting was not the result of a carefully planned decision to pursue music. His first song was written for his children as a way of preserving memories, emotions, and shared experiences. That project became an important personal exercise, taking more than a year to develop. He later created a Twitch intro song for his brother, who streams retro games, with the intention of capturing the atmosphere of a 1990s anime opening. These experiences encouraged him to continue writing, leading him to explore an increasingly broad range of subjects and musical ideas.
That variety remains important to Secrin’s approach. Rather than beginning with a fixed genre and searching for a subject to match it, he generally allows the subject or emotion to determine the musical direction. His writing has explored love, family, nightlife, parties, difficult personal experiences, war, politics, justice, and other subjects, with emotional ballads holding a particular place in his creative interests. At the same time, he is comfortable moving toward more energetic and accessible ideas when the subject calls for it.
“Replay” emerged from one of those lighter moments. The idea began with a conversation with Secrin’s daughter about the old practice of rewinding tapes to hear or watch something again. His response, that he would rewind every beautiful moment with her and experience it again, remained with him and eventually became the emotional starting point for the song.
The finished concept moved beyond that original father-daughter moment into something broader and more universal. Secrin began imagining summer holidays, beaches, hotel pools, convertibles, music, flirting, beach volleyball, surfing, parties, and warm evenings. The result is a modern summer pop and dance-oriented song designed around immediate energy and a memorable central hook. While the pitch describes the track in connection with Balkan holiday music and commercial pop, Secrin explains that he did not consciously begin with Balkan music. He instead imagined a modern oriental influence within a summer-pop setting, using that element to give the song additional character without allowing it to dominate the overall direction.
The recording accompanying “Replay” also reflects Secrin’s particular role in the creative process. He is clear that the submitted recording is an AI-assisted demo rather than a final artist production. His lyrics, stories, emotional concepts, and core creative ideas are his own. AI is used as a presentation tool, allowing him to turn those written ideas into something audible that can communicate the potential musical direction, energy, rhythm, vocal approach, and arrangement to artists, producers, labels, and music agencies.
For Secrin, the ultimate goal extends beyond creating demos. He hopes that suitable artists, producers, labels, or music projects will recognise the potential within his songwriting and eventually develop his work into professionally produced releases. “Replay” therefore represents both a song in its own right and an example of the songwriting ideas he hopes to place in the hands of performers who can give them a new professional life.
Having this brief introduction to today’s featured project, I’m sure both new listeners and longtime fans are excited to hear directly from Ersin. So, without further ado, let’s begin today’s interview.
INTERVIEW SESSION
Oliver:
Your work begins from a very specific place: you identify yourself primarily as a songwriter and lyricist rather than an artist or music producer, with your main focus being stories, lyrics, emotional concepts, and creative ideas. What first drew you toward songwriting as your primary form of creative expression, and what do you find most rewarding about building a song from an idea on the page?
Ersin Secrin:
I never really started because I consciously decided, “I want to become a songwriter.”
The first song I ever wrote was for my children. I wanted to preserve memories, emotions and things we had experienced together. That song was very important to me, and I worked on it for more than a year because I kept wanting to improve it.
After that, I wrote a Twitch intro song for my brother. He streams retro games, and I wanted to create something that felt like a real 90s anime opening. I had a lot of fun doing that.
From there, I started writing down more and more memories, personal experiences, thoughts, feelings and subjects that stayed on my mind.
At some point, I realized that this was exactly what I enjoyed: taking something that initially only exists in my head or in my life and turning it into a song.
For me, the most rewarding moment is when an idea, a memory or an emotion eventually becomes something you can actually listen to.
Oliver:
You have chosen to develop your songs across different genres rather than restricting yourself to one particular musical identity. How do you determine what genre, atmosphere, or musical direction best serves a story you have written, and how much does the original emotional idea influence those decisions?
Ersin Secrin:
For me, the subject or the feeling usually comes first, not the genre.
I do not decide, “Today I am going to write a rock song,” and then search for something to write about. It normally works the other way around.
Once I know what I want to write about, I usually develop a feeling for how the song should sound.
Some stories need a ballad because they need space for emotion. Other songs need energy, guitars or a big build.
And sometimes I simply want to write something positive.
That was the case with “Replay.” After a conversation with my daughter, I suddenly had this very warm, positive feeling and started thinking about summer, the beach, flirting, music, beach volleyball, surfing and holidays.
At that point, it was obvious to me that this should not become a sad ballad. It had to become a song that immediately puts you in a good mood.
I also like adding different musical elements if they work for my ear. For example, in the retro-anime intro I wrote for my brother, I deliberately added violin because it instantly created a different feeling.
With “Replay,” I did not consciously think in terms of Balkan music. For me, it was more of a modern oriental influence inside a summer-pop setting.
Oliver:
Your approach places the written song at the center, with the music functioning as a way of helping other people hear and understand the potential of the idea. How has thinking like a songwriter and lyricist rather than a recording artist changed the way you judge whether a song is strong, memorable, and capable of connecting with someone else?
Ersin Secrin:
I rely very strongly on my own feeling.
I am not a musician and I am not a singer, and I say that very openly. But I have listened to a huge amount of music for decades, and over time I think you develop a strong instinct for when something hits emotionally or when a hook stays in your head.
For me, a song has to create some kind of reaction.
With a ballad, I need to feel something. With a summer song, I should want to turn it up. With a rock song, I need to feel energy.
So I do not ask myself only whether something is technically perfect. I ask myself: Would I listen to this again? Does a line stay in my head? Can I imagine other people feeling something from it?
If, after many versions, I notice that I keep pressing play myself, that is usually a good sign.
Oliver:
“Replay” takes a deliberately uncomplicated approach to emotion, choosing sunshine, freedom, nightlife, holidays, and having a good time rather than a heavy narrative. Where did the idea for such an openly positive song come from, and what did you want to capture about those moments when people simply want to forget everything and enjoy themselves?
Ersin Secrin:
The idea actually came from a very small and funny moment with my daughter.
She was talking about how, years ago, we had to rewind tapes if we wanted to watch or hear something again.
She said it in such a sweet way that I told her, “I would rewind every beautiful moment with you and live it all over again.”
That thought stayed with me.
And eventually it became “Replay.”
Of course, the song itself did not become a father-daughter song. But the feeling stayed: enjoying a moment so much that you wish you could go back and live it again.
After that, I had nothing but positive images in my head: holidays, beaches, hotel pools, convertibles, music, flirting, beach volleyball, surfing, summer evenings.
I wanted to write a song that lets people switch off for a few minutes and simply feel good.
Oliver:
The title “Replay” immediately connects with the central idea of wanting to experience a great moment again, while also reflecting the song’s intention to make listeners want to hear it repeatedly. What does “Replay” represent to you beyond its role as a catchy title, and how did that idea influence the way you approached the song’s overall concept?
Ersin Secrin:
That double meaning is exactly what I like about the title.
On one level, it is about those moments in life where you think: If I could, I would experience this exact moment again.
That could be a holiday, a flirt, a night with friends, a summer drive or a very personal memory.
Everyone can place their own experience into that idea.
At the same time, if a song is called “Replay,” it should also create that feeling itself. At the end, you should think: Come on, one more time.
So I wanted something simple, positive and immediate, something that does not need five listens before you understand what it is trying to do.
Oliver:
You have imagined the song in settings ranging from beaches and hotel pools to convertible drives, festivals, parties, and nightlife. When you were developing the lyrics and concept, how did you build that sense of movement and freedom into the writing so that listeners could place themselves inside those environments?
Ersin Secrin:
When I write, I actually try to see those scenes in my head.
I do not only think in words. I imagine situations.
With “Replay,” I see people on holiday, loud music, a convertible in summer, people at the beach, flirting, beach volleyball, surfing or a party in the evening.
Then I try to keep the lyrics light enough so that I do not over-explain those images.
The listener does not have to see exactly the same scene I see.
They should be able to create their own version.
For one person, “Replay” might feel like Ibiza. For someone else it might be Turkey, Greece, Italy or simply a warm evening with friends.
The feeling behind it matters more than the exact location.
Oliver:
A major part of “Replay” is its emphasis on immediate appeal, particularly the idea that the listener should be caught from the very first seconds and quickly remember the chorus. What is your approach to writing a hook that feels simple enough to sing along with but still distinctive enough to stay in someone’s head?
Ersin Secrin:
I first write down everything that comes to mind about a subject.
Really everything.
Then I read through all of it and ask myself: What is the main idea behind all of this? What is the one term or thought that summarizes everything?
Sometimes the hook comes very quickly.
Sometimes it comes much later.
I do not try to force a complicated or overly clever hook.
Especially with a song like “Replay,” it has to be easy to understand and easy to sing along with.
If someone already has a feeling for what is coming the second or third time they hear the chorus, I actually see that as a strength for this kind of song.
Oliver:
The song combines modern summer pop and dance elements with a Balkan holiday influence, while also aiming for an international pop sound. What characteristics of Balkan music or holiday culture were you particularly interested in bringing into the concept, and how did you balance those elements with the broader commercial pop direction?
Ersin Secrin:
To be honest, Balkan music was not consciously the starting point for me.
I actually find it interesting that the song is being perceived that way.
In my head, it was more of a modern oriental influence inside that summer-pop feeling.
In general, I like combining different musical elements as long as they work together for my ear.
I do not like a song to feel exactly the same from beginning to end.
A certain instrument or a small stylistic change can suddenly create a completely different feeling.
With “Replay,” I still wanted the overall result to remain light, modern and international.
So the oriental influence was never supposed to dominate the song. It was more about giving it a little extra character.
Oliver:
Because your songs begin with lyrics, stories, and creative concepts that you develop yourself, the eventual musical presentation has to communicate something that originally existed in written form. When you are creating a song like “Replay,” how do you imagine its rhythm, vocal delivery, energy, and arrangement before the demo ever exists?
Ersin Secrin:
I first try to imagine the lyrics inside a certain rhythm.
I do not necessarily hear a complete finished melody in my head like a trained musician would.
But I usually know very clearly what kind of feeling I want.
Then I give the AI very specific instructions: which instruments I want, what kind of singer, what tempo, what style, where the song should become bigger, where it should pull back, and so on.
Then I get a first musical direction.
From that point, the real work actually begins.
I keep making small adjustments.
Sometimes I like the melody, but then I realize that the lyrics I wrote are not really singable over it.
Then I change the rhymes, the syllables, the wording or even complete lines until the music and lyrics fit together.
It goes back and forth like that until my ear tells me that it works.
Oliver:
You use artificial intelligence to transform your written material into listenable demos, but you are very clear that these recordings are samples rather than finished artist productions. What has this process allowed you to demonstrate about your songwriting, and how do you make sure the technology remains a presentation tool rather than replacing the creative decisions behind the song?
Ersin Secrin:
For me, AI is a tool.
It allows someone who is neither a singer nor a professional musician to make what is in his head audible.
But the process begins long before the AI creates any music.
I first speak my thoughts into a voice recorder. That becomes text. Then I sort those thoughts and turn them into lines, verses and a story.
After that, I work on rhyme, rhythm and repetition.
I may also use AI to point out where a line is too long, where something repeats itself too much or where the flow may not work.
Only after that do I start creating the musical demo.
At that stage, I give very detailed instructions about how something should be sung, which instruments should be used, what the tempo should be, where the song should become louder or softer and many other details.
I often create a large number of versions and keep adjusting small things.
For one of my songs, “Aşkım İçimde Kaldı,” I went through more than 1,100 versions and adjustments before I was satisfied.
That is why the idea that AI music means pressing one button and being finished is very far away from the way I work.
The technology can create sound.
But why the song exists, what it says and how it should feel are still my decisions.
Oliver:
There is an interesting creative challenge in presenting a song to artists, producers, labels, or agencies when the recording they initially hear is intentionally not the final version. How do you decide which elements of a demo need to be strong enough to communicate the song’s potential while still leaving room for another artist or producer to reinterpret and professionally develop it?
Ersin Secrin:
For me, the demo has to show why I believe in the song.
The hook has to work, the emotion has to be there, and people should understand roughly what direction I imagined.
That is why I try to get my demos as close as possible to what I personally hear in my head.
Of course, on a personal level, I would love a later professional production to keep as much of that as possible.
But I also know that this is partly an ego thing.
I am new to this world.
If a professional producer or artist ever chooses one of my songs, I cannot seriously stand there and tell people with years of experience how they should do their job.
What I would really appreciate is being included in the conversation and understanding why certain things are changed.
That is how I can learn.
Oliver:
“Replay” is designed around a feel-good beat, uplifting rhythm, memorable hook, and radio and streaming-friendly structure rather than complex storytelling. How did you approach simplicity as a songwriting choice, and what did you learn about creating emotional impact through energy and atmosphere instead of a detailed narrative?
Ersin Secrin:
I do not think every song needs a complicated story.
If I write a ballad, I might want to tell a story that makes someone listen closely and maybe even gives them a lump in their throat.
With “Replay,” I wanted something completely different.
The song is supposed to be fun.
If someone is lying by a hotel pool on holiday and the song comes on, they should not have to analyze what I meant with the third line.
Maybe they tap their foot, sing along or turn the music up.
That is emotion too.
It is just not sad or heavy emotion. It is joy, freedom and lightness.
For that kind of song, simplicity can actually be a strength.
Oliver:
You are ultimately hoping to connect your songs with artists and creative teams who can take the underlying ideas into professionally produced releases. What qualities do you look for in an artist or producer when imagining them bringing one of your songs to life, and what would make you feel that someone truly understands the original intention behind your writing?
Ersin Secrin:
The most important thing for me would be that someone really listens to the song and does not just treat it as material.
With “Replay,” for example, I could imagine artists like Mustafa Sandal, Tarkan, Murat Boz or İlyas Yalçıntaş.
But that does not mean that only those artists would work.
There are probably many voices and artists I would never think of myself.
I would just want someone to understand what feeling is behind the song and why certain things were written in a certain way.
If a producer then told me, “We actually see this song with this artist because his voice could bring something special to it,” I would find that very interesting.
I want to learn how professionals judge those things.
Oliver:
As a songwriter working independently, there is a particular kind of achievement in knowing that the final performer may be someone completely different from the person who wrote the words and concept. How do you feel about giving another artist the opportunity to make a song like “Replay” their own, and what parts of your original vision would you most want them to preserve?
Ersin Secrin:
If anyone ever wanted to take one of my songs and professionally release it, that alone would be a huge honour for me.
Of course I am attached to my versions.
Some of them have taken me months to develop, and I keep changing them until they feel right to me.
So naturally, I would be happy if a later version preserved as much as possible of what I originally wanted to express.
But I also do not want to be arrogant about it.
Professional singers and producers have much more experience than I do.
If they want to change something and explain why, I am open to that.
I would only be honest if I genuinely felt that a change was destroying something essential in the song.
I do not need to control everything.
What would matter to me is dialogue.
Oliver:
The international potential of “Replay” is closely connected to its universal themes of summer, celebration, freedom, and good times. When you think about listeners in different countries experiencing the song without knowing anything about the person who wrote it, what do you believe makes the emotional idea accessible across different cultures?
Ersin Secrin:
Because that feeling does not really need a language.
Almost everyone knows beautiful summer moments.
A holiday, music, a flirt, friends, an evening outside, driving in warm weather or simply wishing you could experience a great moment again.
Of course, those situations may look different in every country.
But the feeling behind them is very universal.
That is also why I do not want to define every detail inside the song.
If someone in Germany hears “Replay” and thinks of a summer evening by the Rhine, while someone in Turkey thinks of a holiday by the sea, both are right.
The listener should be allowed to create their own memory from it.
Oliver:
Looking at your development as a songwriter, what have you learned from creating songs that are built around very different emotional and musical concepts, and how has that process sharpened your understanding of your own strengths as a lyricist and storyteller?
Ersin Secrin:
I am not even sure I would say that there was one moment where I consciously “learned” how to do this.
I think you develop and mature without always noticing it.
Many of my songs come from things I have experienced myself, thoughts I have carried around, memories or difficult situations.
When I write those things down and turn them into songs, I am also processing some of them at the same time.
Later, you sometimes look back differently and understand your own mistakes or certain situations better.
So I think songwriting does not only change me as a songwriter.
Sometimes it also changes me as a person.
And of course, technically, you learn more over time.
You get a better feeling for which words are singable, when a line is too long, how to build a story or when saying less can actually say more.
But I do not think that process is ever really finished.
Oliver:
“Replay” represents one particular side of your songwriting, focused on instant energy, optimism, and commercial appeal. As you continue developing your catalogue, what other kinds of stories, emotions, and musical worlds do you want to explore, and what would you ultimately like to build through your work as a songwriter and lyricist?
Ersin Secrin:
I actually do not want to limit myself to one genre.
So far, I have written about love, family, ingratitude, nightlife, parties, war, politics and justice.
And I like that variety.
Emotional ballads are especially close to me, particularly that classic boyband or pop-ballad style, because those songs often contain a lot of my own feelings and personal experiences.
But I also want to write more songs about social and political themes.
Songs like “Open Your Eyes” or “Gerechtigkeit” are important to me because they allow me to express things that I might otherwise only discuss with someone in a conversation.
I want to make people think without telling them what they are supposed to think.
And my biggest dream is actually surprisingly simple:
I would like to experience one song I wrote being professionally released by a real artist.
The money would not even be the most important thing to me.
I would simply like to be able to say: There is a song out there that once started as a thought in my head, and now it really exists.
Maybe one day it plays on the radio, on a stage, at a party or somewhere on holiday, and people know the song without even knowing who I am.
That would be an incredible validation for me.
I know how crazy that dream probably sounds. I simply started writing lyrics one day, and now I hope that one of them will eventually be professionally released.
It is a huge hurdle.
But that is exactly what I am working toward.
And if one day I can say that I left even one song behind in the world that continues to live on, that would probably mean more to me than anything else.
“‘Replay’ reveals the most compelling part of Ersin Secrin’s songwriting journey: the transformation of an ordinary thought into a musical world that other people can eventually inhabit, reinterpret, and carry somewhere beyond its original creator.”
~ Oliver (DULAXI Team)
EDITORIAL PERSPECTIVE
What stays with me about “Replay” is the clarity of its creative intention. Secrin begins with an emotional idea and builds outward, allowing the rhythm, hook, imagery, and musical direction to support the feeling rather than complicate it. His approach to songwriting is equally revealing: patient, experimental, and willing to revise an idea repeatedly until it feels right. More than anything, the conversation shows a writer interested in what happens when a personal thought becomes something that can belong to someone else.
~ Oliver (DULAXI Team)
CLOSING
Our conversation with Ersin Secrin offers a thoughtful look at what it means to approach music from the perspective of a songwriter and lyricist. “Replay” may be built around summer energy, freedom, good times, and the desire to relive a beautiful moment, but the story behind it reveals a much broader creative process rooted in memories, observation, emotion, experimentation, and persistence.
Thank you to Ersin for taking the time to share the story behind “Replay,” his approach to songwriting, his thoughts on AI-assisted demos, and his hopes for the future of his work. We hope this conversation encourages listeners to experience the song not only as a summer-pop idea, but also as part of a developing songwriting journey.
For readers discovering Ersin Secrin for the first time, we encourage you to spend some time with “Replay” and continue following where his writing takes him next. His catalogue is clearly not limited to one mood or musical world, and his ambition remains refreshingly simple: to see a song that began as an idea in his mind eventually become something that lives in the world.
Thank you for spending time with DULAXI. We look forward to bringing you more conversations with artists, songwriters, producers, and creative voices from around the world.