‘Kurt Cobain helped shape me into the musician and person I am today’

Two years after they triumphed as one of the laureates of De Nieuwe Lichting, Ila – the rock trio around the Belgian-Turkish Ilayda Cicek – has completed their debut album, the musically and emotionally uninhibited Ayna.

Ayna is Turkish for ‘mirror’ and was written by the band – which, in addition to frontwoman Ilayda Cicek, also includes bassist Sam Smeets and drummer Cas Kinnaer – in the warehouse of father Cicek, who runs a wholesaler of Turkish food in Peer, Limburg.

Ilayda Cicek: A space at the back of the warehouse that we could completely furnish ourselves, to be precise. So not between the crates of baklava. (laughs) We took about three months to work on the album together undisturbed. Ila used to actually be a solo project, but we have grown so close as a live band in recent years that I thought it was important to also play out that chemistry in the songs.

There is one song in Turkish on the album: Ben Anlamam, written in response to the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey early last year.

Cicek: I have refused to sing in Turkish for a long time, something my family has been trying to do for a long time. But after that earthquake, which also largely destroyed my father’s hometown, those first sentences came out naturally. When I showed them to my father – who writes very beautiful poetry himself – he spontaneously wrote them added some verses, some of which I have kept. So we actually wrote that song together. And during the recording he kept an eye on things in the studio, to check whether my pronunciation and emphasis were correct. A very beautiful, emotional moment.

In the rough vocals of the song I can hear your admiration for Kurt Cobain. You are 27 and were therefore not yet born when Cobain died on April 5, 1994. How did you come to know his music?

Cicek: When I was a young teenager in Peer I didn’t go outside much and I watched a lot of TV with my mom. And one day – I was twelve, I think – Canvas aired a documentary about Nirvana. ‘Not an ugly boy’, I thought when I saw Cobain, but it wasn’t until I heard him scream that I was really sold. I immediately started doing research and ended up with their debut Bleach, an album that I played for months. To the despair of my family. (laughs) Also the UnpluggedNirvana session on MTV really impressed me. I had never heard anyone scream their feelings so intensely in their music. Kurt Cobain helped shape me into the musician and person I am today.