- 11 months ago
Cil joins us at the Hard Rock Hotel New York to talk new music, touring with Dua Lipa, and more during an Audacy Check In.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00this is your odyssey check-in at the hard rock hotel new york our sound space and we are here
00:08with sil we have so many exciting things to uh to talk about i'm going to start things off with
00:13giving you a compliment though i was uh stalking you online and you have an amazing laugh your laugh
00:21is so good it's like really yes it's like genuine and i feel like it's one of those laughs that
00:27draws people to you you know what that is the most unique that's the first time that i've ever
00:32been complimented on my lap really i love it it's like from the gut and it's like it's unique it's
00:38so good thank you so much i really appreciate that so that's the highlight of this interview
00:43um you know that's that's the you know but there's there's so much to talk about and another thing
00:48that's crazy is you and i are both albanian um yeah amazing so i i love that you did sunny hill
00:55and that you're touring with dua now did they actually seek you out because of that or was it
01:01a like aha moment nobody knows that i did i it was it was really just um off of you know
01:09dua obviously incredible but no had no correlation have you brought it up yet i haven't told her yet
01:16oh my gosh you're about to be a lifelong like you're about to be a family member you know how it goes
01:21yes that's that's yeah i mean it's it's cool like i you know growing up in the united states
01:26obviously and like having your family be in the united states obviously for a couple generations
01:31it's like sometimes those things can get you know lost and i never really got to have like a huge
01:40education on you know being albanian um but as i got older i was really i got really curious and
01:47and so i've been able to like take the time as like being an adult to really educate myself on
01:52you know what it means to be albanian so did your parents come out to kosovo with you or no they
01:57didn't they didn't oh you got to bring them back over there i know i gotta bring my mom i'll have to
02:02i'll have to have her come out with me yeah you'll have to go do a whole thing kosovo is beautiful
02:06so what what have you learned from that experience and maybe from from dua or her father i mean um
02:14directly or indirectly what have you learned from them at this point i mean dua is so she's such a
02:21dedicated artist she really is dedicated to her craft and she's dedicated to um really putting on
02:29a an amazing show yeah and when i watched her the first time i was really able to watch her
02:36and have the full experience was in kosovo and she just inspired me so much and i had like my set
02:46right like i had my whole show planned out and everything i was like fully ready and i changed
02:51it all out before a tour because i was like i gotta i want to show up you know the way that she shows up
02:56and so yes i mean i've i'm learning so much and just just watching her just being in the proximity
03:01she's she's a force yeah and you know i feel like sometimes people don't give her the the vocal
03:07credit and now i've seen more she's uh incorporating some like covers in her shows and i'm like yes girl
03:14like you could she could sing her butt off and it's like you know and live too yeah i mean this woman
03:20sings yes like she sings yeah yeah and i think that people don't realize how i mean they do obviously i
03:28mean it's doa you know she's iconic but she's really a generational like once in a lifetime you
03:35go to that show and you're just like oh wow so what's been the the the biggest difference or you
03:41know you've seen with with the stevie nick support and then the do a support like learning curve wise
03:47they i mean learning curve wise stevie was stevie was like you know my first introduction to yeah
03:54arenas yeah and um so there was a huge learning curve for me with that but with do a i get the
04:02opportunity to focus on my show focus on my performance cool not just focusing on like oh
04:09my gosh don't be nervous don't be nervous don't be nervous you know how do i how do i make my way in
04:14a brown backstage of an arena it's so big back there and um yeah but like with this i've really been
04:21able to focus and stevie i'm forever grateful for yeah because she you know she took a chance on me
04:28really early really early and i don't think that you know i mean that's just like she's stevie is
04:37somebody who she loves music she loves good music she loves talent and she loves she really gets she
04:44gets it you know you love good music and it's crazy to me because like you cite like phil collins
04:51baby face anita baker these people as your influences and i'm like who put you on to these people
04:59it was a vinyl store it was a thrift store about five minutes from my house growing up okay the
05:07basement had 99 cent vinyl bins and i would just go in there and pick them out and i really i got
05:13obsessed with like the idea of like old things yeah i really liked vintage stuff yeah yeah i was
05:18younger and um i really found my love for music through etta james who i have tattooed right here
05:28on my on my on my arm oh this one kind of looks like a freshie huh is that which one yeah well i got
05:35it like uh i got it this summer i think oh okay you just put the sunscreen on there very good that's
05:41thank you this one's new ish yeah i mean i haven't gotten a tattoo in a while i need to go
05:46i want to get one while i'm here we're what are we talking about we're like we're veering so far
05:52away but yeah i know i always get the itch for tattoos too like i feel like it's just it's this
05:57thing enough time goes past and you're like something's wrong what is oh oh yeah i need a
06:01new tattoo right so what do you what what are you gonna you're gonna get do his face on your
06:05arm i mean i would i'm not saying i wouldn't i absolutely would um i just need to you know
06:12kind of fill up my arm i just want something the last time i was in new york for tour i got this one
06:16this was for the stevie tour got you cool and um now we got to get one for to commemorate this time
06:22yeah yeah but um yeah it's new york is so cool and i think like i've i've had so much fun being here and
06:28um with the music what we were talking about earlier um oh good i wasn't even gonna go back
06:33oh i got it because i need to hang on i got a thought no and um i what really inspired me was
06:42soul music and it was it was singers real singers you know and stevie necks was one of my huge she
06:49was one of my biggest inspirations as well and um being able to go you know as a kid to hear
06:57these people sing and make you really feel something to then being able to try to execute
07:04it it was like an addiction for me and i'm still still right there you have a a very um distinct
07:13voice when did you and it's a beautiful voice when did you first know that you could like sing sing
07:18i mean i guess i didn't really it wasn't until people told me yeah that i could i was like oh
07:25were you just like messing around though yeah i was just i just taught myself how to sing i don't
07:31know i've always sang like my whole life you know i i love to sing was it church chorus like how did
07:36people know though um i learned you were just on bleacher somewhere singing and they're like hey
07:42shut up i'm trying to watch this football game i mean it was kind of like i i think the moment that
07:49my parents were like oh she kind of has a good voice was they bought me a piano okay it was like
07:55this like it was like this like really like cheap little piano stand-up and i had gotten a keyboard
08:03for like my family member that i didn't know distant family member sent us a keyboard when i was like
08:10eight and so i was really into it and then my parents bought me a piano and i just started singing
08:15on it and um my you know it was my mom she used to sit with me in the living room and we i would just
08:24play for her and sing for her and she just loved it you know and my mom really like my mom's an artist
08:32you know she she's a writer and i think that you know when you like my mom really wanted to um
08:43help me you know and she saw that i had something that i loved and she really like gave me the space
08:49yeah yeah yeah to sing and to to have it and she encouraged me we gotta get mom on the album
08:55like featuring mom oh my gosh i have this video and it makes me cry every time it's me
09:00sitting at that piano and she's sitting in the on like the couch and she's harmonizing with me
09:07so cute oh my gosh oh it makes me cry yeah but she yeah my mom was just always you know
09:13so she was great and so encouraging with it i uh i love something like this it is i feel like it
09:20compliments your voice so so well um how did it all come about well something like this um
09:29is actually a record that i fell in love with um and it was mike sabbath actually he's an incredible
09:36producer songwriter um we got in the studio together and um i ended up cutting like this
09:42song something like this and then um we like rewrote like a second verse together but i fell
09:48in love with the song before and i never ever ever take any sort of like outside songs i always write
09:57my own stuff yeah that's who i am you know i'm like a writer but it was one of those songs that feels
10:02like your song though yeah i mean it became it it i think songs find you yeah you don't you know
10:08like especially even when you write them i never really give myself full credit ever i always think
10:14that i'm just a vessel for something to come out and i think that every artist is you know like you
10:20think about etta james i mean she didn't write like those records that made her so iconic but she
10:28did though she made them what they were even michael jackson didn't write some of his stuff
10:33and like yeah i mean that was a michael jackson record though but you know it is and you know
10:38that those they were the only person right right that could put it yeah yeah and make it their own
10:45and and so i ended up rewriting some things on something like this but it just became this really
10:51beautiful record and i fell in love with it and and um put it like i was like this has to be
10:57a part of it and it also the thing about that record i'm so thankful about for is it really
11:03unlocked a a lot of inspiration yeah for me yeah you know um so yeah it's it's an incredible song and
11:12i'm i'm just so thankful that i get to perform it and play it and i'm so thankful that it's
11:16you know it's mine that's awesome yeah uh before we wrap i i was curious when you when you go back and
11:23listen to some of your older songs are you uh are you like immediately transported back to the
11:30the moment when you wrote them and maybe the pain that you were feeling or do you does your
11:35relationship with them change over time my relationship with my music always ends up growing
11:41fonder okay i got this really wonderful advice when i was first starting out i was having a lot of
11:47anxiety and i got this wonderful advice from this wonderful very smart man and he said this is you
11:53right here right this is my thumb is me and this is your taste and you're always going to be going
11:59like this yeah like you're always going to be chasing your taste you're never going to actually
12:03catch up to it you know you're you'll always be aspiring to do it which is what makes it so
12:08magical you know but at first when i would put out records and i would write them i mean i loved
12:16them at first and then i hated them and then i loved them again and it just it's always been
12:22like that you know like i you always have a complex relationship with it because when you put it out
12:27nine times out of ten you grow out of it yeah and then you grow back into it because it's part of
12:33accepting yourself it's self-acceptance and it's self-love music is simply a vessel it is an artistic
12:40explanation of the human experience and it's never perfect and it shouldn't be perfect right
12:45it shouldn't be at all yeah i think that's why i fell in love with etta james so much her voice
12:50is perfectly imperfect and it's something that has been told to me many times is like your voice is
12:56like you're i'm kind of messy you know like in my songwriting and my vocal and the way i dress and
13:03the way i talk and whatever like there's something really beautiful about just allowing yourself to be
13:08a mess totally and you know that sometimes i i have a hard time with how refined uh you know
13:16studio wise pop music has become versus what it used to be i used to love when you would hear that
13:21that voice crack or like a little something off key a slight bit i i feel like the that human element
13:30it meant so much that's that's the art yeah yeah yeah yeah it's not the um and yeah it's something
13:37that i've grown to learn is like i remember you know it would be like it was like a couple years
13:43ago i was really obsessed with this idea of everything being perfect yeah you know i really
13:47wanted to make like really just pure music you know but it just wouldn't ever you know it was like
13:56i was fighting against like when you try to put two ends of the same magnet of the magnet together
14:00and it's just kind of it'll never you know fit for me what i fell in love with about old music about
14:08classic old stuff was that it was imperfect there's a song i have a tattooed on me called angel baby
14:15um and angel baby was a record that um was recorded by rosie in the originals and it's
14:22the song is like the guitar is out of the key it's like not yeah yeah yeah yeah it's like they're
14:27messing up the drums the whole time it's a disaster yeah one of the most iconic records probably of all
14:34time yeah yeah yeah you know yeah and so when you when you really go back and you listen and you
14:39and you think about music what makes it so beautiful is that it really is the same as looking at people's
14:46faces yeah you know everybody has like a musical fingerprint totally get rid of the fingerprint
14:52what is there what are we looking at yeah you know what i mean well so you probably never heard
14:56the uh the laugh compliment but you definitely heard your old soul before right i'm sure yeah
15:01definitely heard that one yeah yeah well we're so excited for you uh thank you so much for stopping
15:06by we appreciate it thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:09we appreciate it thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:11thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:12thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:13thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:14thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:15thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:16thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:17thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:18thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:19thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:20thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:21thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:22thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:23thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:24thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:25thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:26thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:27thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:29thank you for having me this has been awesome
Comments