Hailing from the southern Balkans, Efe Yılmaz grew up within a culture that cherishes music as its most valued possession. Learning to play local percussion instruments (e.g. darbuka) from the day he has memory, as he grew older he slowly opted out for the western counterpart for his percussion instruments, that is the drums. Imbuing his style of traditional odd rhythmic grooves with western-style progressive beats; Efe, being completely self-taught, created his peculiar style of highly technical, but equally harsh, raw, and dirty sound that reflected his cultural roots along with what he had learned over the years from the legendary figures who inspired him. Echoes of great drummers such as Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree), Danny Carey (Tool), and Neil Peart (Rush) can still be heard within his drumming technique as well as the energetic, messy feeling that drummers like Dave Grohl (Nirvana) was ever so fond of. 

 

After numerous gigs with various bands throughout the underground venues of Istanbul, Turkey, spanning genres from progressive metal to fusion, Efe came to the Netherlands to finally realize his true potential as a drummer, and his dream to be one of the greats.