Born in Istanbul and currently living in New York City, SIRMA is a singer/songwriter/producer who blends Alternative Pop with Electronica. She is known for her collaborations with Illenium and Said The Sky, titled “Drop Our Hearts (feat. SIRMA)” and “Drop Our Hearts, Pt. 2 (feat. SIRMA)”, which launched both of the acclaimed producers’ individual careers. SIRMA spent the following two years after these collaborations working on developing her own sound, by writing, recording and producing at her home studio in Brooklyn. The first product of this seclusion and self-discovery, titled “To Love” EP, was released in July 2017. After following this release with the “To Love (Remixes)” EP, SIRMA also put out the live versions of her songs titled “Eclipse”, “Love In The Dark” and “Free Fall” under “To Love (Live)”.
“Belki Bir Gün” landed on 4 Spotify-curated playlists, 4 Apple Music-curated playlists as well as entering the Spotify Viral 50 Turkey chart from #3 within a week after its release. “I always write alone, but producing alone was a completely different ball game for me,” says SIRMA and adds: “I guess I never felt quite confident enough to make a track alone, but that’s exactly why I had to do it: I just knew I wanted to feel like I was capable of doing it.”
Now feeling more in control than ever, SIRMA is back 3 months after the release of “Belki Bir Gün” with her new English single, “Coming Undone”.
Hear “Coming Undone” below:
A song about SIRMA’s own inner struggles with being unsure and moody as a creative being, “Coming Undone” was the product of SIRMA’s first co-write session as an artist. SIRMA explains: “I think it’s fitting how “Coming Undone” is a song about stepping out of my comfort zone, because that’s exactly how I felt when I walked into the writing session that created it. My good friend from Berklee, Megan Dervin-Ackerman, who is a brilliant pop writer, introduced me to this incredible producer who apparently lived a 10-minute walk away from me: Myles Avery. I brought some Turkish instruments samples into the session that I recorded over the years with different musicians; I have my custom library of samples of instruments like Ney, Kanun, Yaylı Tanbur etc.. I use them all the time in my tracks- sometimes they’re obviously there, and sometimes you can barely hear what they are. I just enjoy designing unique sounds by using these samples because it’s the most fun way to produce and the possibilities are endless. As soon as Myles heard the Ney, he felt the same way and wanted to build the whole track around it. Megan and I were at his studio in Brooklyn for two days, talking about our struggles as musicians, how our lifestyles and being creative types affected our mood swings… I was already in that head space and hearing them talk about it, too, inspired me to write about it. After those two sessions, I got the rough stems from Myles, re-wrote some of the parts, recorded all the vocals and finished the production. I like working in this manner when I work with other producers- this is how I made “To Love” as well. It just feels better to finish the production by myself, because I’m so detail-oriented. Just like every song I made before it, I listened to “Coming Undone” hundreds of times before I finally printed the stems and sent them to my mix & mastering engineer, Mike Tuccillo. And now, months after its inception, the time has come for me to part with “Coming Undone”- which is both nerve racking and liberating.”