AJDA STINA TUREK Artist on the Rise How long have you been singing and doing jazz and blues? Everything started in 2010, when I enrolled in a Conservatory of music and ballet in Ljubljana, Slovenia. I was studying Jazz singing for four years. At that time, I started exploring a lot of jazz and blues music. In the beginning, I listened, of course, to a lot of Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Kurt Elling, Betty Carter, Bill Evans, and Chet Baker. One of my favourite singers/artists then and now are still Eva Cassidy and Ray Charles because of the soul in their singing. You can feel every single note they sing. What got you to write songs? (childhood trauma, happiness, money? Rarely happiness got me to write the songs. When I moved to America to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2014, it was the first time I was alone somewhere and far away from home. I was 20 years old and everything was so new to me. I needed to become an adult from overnight. I missed home and I felt lonely, though I had friends there. It was also very hard financially since I did not get the job for at least a year. Because of the way I felt, I started writing lyrics and then full songs. It helped me to feel better.
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Later, I also got inspired by the different life stories that people I met told me or by the current events like the start of a Black Lives Matter movement and the European Immigration Crisis.
Well, your positive mindset and voice shine brighter than the sun in my eyes! Another single I was curious about was “Sonder,” where did you come up with that name. Thank you so much! In 2018, I released my debut EP “Sonder”, a set of original compositions featuring 30 musicians from all over the world. This EP describes the 4 years of my life in Boston. It was a rollercoaster of emotions and I sometimes felt like I was the only person who had problems and was sad until I started to talk to my friends about it and I noticed we were all going through some issues in life and nobody’s life is perfect. The meaning of the word “Sonder” is “the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.” That just felt like a perfect title for my EP. Can you give a behind the scenes perspective on the overall experience of making the song? Sometimes it is hard to write, and then sometimes it feels so easy and natural. How I do it is I sit in a coffee shop with my computer and I start writing the lyrics. I sit there until I finish and that sometimes means a few hours. At least 3-5. Then I would go home and sit behind the piano and play different chords and try to sing the lyrics over, try to find the melody to the song. That would take a few days. I would get back to the song every few days to find fresh ideas or to play with something I am not satisfied with. It is a long process to get to the final version of the song, but when you do it is a good
