- 1 year 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!
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00:00and then my parents bought me a piano and i just started singing on it and um my you know it was
00:07my mom she used to sit with me in the living room and we i would just play for her and sing for her
00:15and she just loved it this is your odyssey check-in at the hard rock hotel new york our sound space
00:25and we are here with sil we have so many exciting things to uh to talk about i'm going to start
00:30things off with giving you a compliment though i was uh stalking you online and you have an amazing
00:36laugh your laugh is so good it's like yes it's like genuine and i feel like it's one of those
00:45laughs that draws people to you you know what that is the most unique that's the first time that i've
00:50ever been complimented on my lap really thank you i love it it's like from the gut and it's like
00:55it's unique it's so good thank you so much i really appreciate that so that's the highlight of this
01:01interview um you know that's that's no but there's so much to talk and another thing that's crazy is
01:07you and i are both albanian um yeah amazing so i i love that you did sunny hill and that you're
01:15touring with dua now did they actually seek you out because of that or was it a like aha moment
01:20nobody knows that i did i it was they was really just um off of you know dua obviously incredible
01:30but no had no correlation have you brought it up yet i haven't told her yet oh my gosh you're about
01:35to be a lifelong like you're about to be a family member you know how it goes yes that's that's yeah
01:41i mean it's it's cool like i you know growing up in the united states obviously and like having your
01:47family be in the united states obviously for a couple generations it's like sometimes those
01:51things can get you know lost and i never really got to have like a huge education on you know being
02:00albanian um but as i got older i was really i got really curious in it and so i've been able to like
02:07take the time as like being an adult to really educate myself on you know what it means to be
02:12albanian so did your parents come out to kosovo with you or no they didn't they didn't oh you
02:17gotta bring them back over there i know i gotta bring my mom i'll have to i'll have to have her
02:21come out with me yeah i'll have to go do a whole thing because it was beautiful so really is what what
02:26have you learned from that experience and maybe from from dua or her father i mean um directly or
02:33indirectly what have you learned from them at this point i mean dua is so she's such a dedicated
02:40artist she really is dedicated to her craft and she's dedicated to um really putting on a an amazing
02:48show yeah and when i watched her the first time i was really able to watch her and have the full
02:56experience was in kosovo and she just inspired me so much and i had like my set right like i had my
03:05whole show planned out and everything i was like fully ready and i changed it all out before a tour
03:10because i was like i gotta i want to show up you know the way that she shows up and so yes i mean
03:15i'm learning so much and just just watching her just being in the proximity she's she's a force
03:21yeah and you know i feel like sometimes people don't give her the the vocal credit and now i've seen
03:27more she's uh incorporating some like covers in her shows and i'm like yes girl like you could she
03:33take a singer butt off and it's like you know and live too yeah i mean this woman sings yes like
03:40she's saying yeah yeah and i think that people don't realize how i mean they do obviously i mean
03:47it's dua you know she's iconic but she's really a generational like once in a lifetime you go to
03:54that show and you're just like oh wow so what's been the the biggest difference or you know you've
04:00seen with with the stevie nick support and then the dua support like learning curve wise they i mean
04:07learning curve wise stevie was stevie was like you know my first introduction to doing arenas yeah and
04:14um so there was a huge learning curve for me with that but with dua i get the opportunity to focus on
04:22my show focus on my performance cool not just focusing on like oh my gosh don't be nervous don't be
04:29nervous don't be nervous you know how do i how do i make my way in a brown backstage of an arena
04:34it's so big back there and um yeah but like with this i've really been able to focus and stevie i'm
04:41forever grateful for yeah because she you know she took a chance on me really early really early and
04:50i don't think that you know i mean that's just like she's stevie is somebody who she loves music she
04:58loves good music she loves talent and she loves she really gets she gets it you know you love good
05:05music and it's crazy to me because like you cite like phil collins baby face anita baker these people
05:12as your influences and i'm like who put you on to these people it was a vinyl store it was a thrift
05:20store about five minutes from my house growing up okay the basement had 99 cent vinyl bins and i
05:28would just go in there and pick them out and i really got i got obsessed with like the idea of
05:33like old things yeah i really liked vintage stuff yeah yeah i was younger and um i really found my
05:41love for music through etta james who i have tattooed right here on my on my on my arm oh this one kind of
05:50looks like a freshie huh is that which one yeah well i got it like uh i got it this summer i think
05:56oh okay you just put the sunscreen on there very good that's thank you this one's new
06:01ish yeah i mean i haven't gotten a tattoo in a while i need to go i want to get one while i'm here
06:05we're what were we talking about we're like we're veering so far away but yeah i know i always get the
06:11itch for tattoos too like i feel like it's just it's this thing enough time goes past and you're like
06:17something's wrong what is oh oh yeah i need a new tattoo right so what do you what what are you
06:22gonna you're gonna get do his face on your arm i mean i would i'm not saying i wouldn't i absolutely
06:28would um i just need to you know gotta fill up my arm i just want something the last time i was in
06:33new york for tour i got this one this was for the stevie tour got you cool and um now we got to get
06:38one for to commemorate this time yeah yeah but um yeah it's new york is so cool and i think like i've
06:45i've had so much fun being here and um with the music what we were talking about earlier
06:50oh good i wasn't even i got you don't worry oh i got it because i need to hang on i got a thought
06:55no and um i what really inspired me was soul music and it was it was singers real singers you know
07:04and stevie necks was one of my huge she was one of my biggest inspirations as well and um being able
07:12to go you know as a kid to hear these people sing and make you really feel something to then
07:20being able to try to execute it it was like an addiction for me and i'm still still right there
07:29you have a very um distinct voice when did you and it's a beautiful voice when did you
07:34first know that you could like sing sing i mean i guess i didn't really it wasn't until people told
07:42me yeah that i could i was like oh we're just like messing around though yeah i was just i just taught
07:47myself how to sing i don't know i've always sang like my whole life you know i i love to sing was
07:53it church chorus like how did people know though um i learned you were just on bleacher somewhere
07:59singing and they're like hey shut up i'm trying to watch this football game i mean it was kind of
08:03like i i think the moment that my parents were like oh she kind of has a good voice was they bought
08:12me a piano okay it was like this like it was like this like really like cheap little piano stand-up and
08:20i had gotten a keyboard for like my family member that i didn't know distant family member sent us a
08:28keyboard when i was like eight and so i was really into it and then my parents bought me a piano
08:31and i just started singing on it and um my you know it was my mom she used to sit with me
08:39in the living room and we i would just play for her and sing for her and she just loved it
08:47you know and my mom really like my mom's an artist you know she she's a writer and i think that you
08:54know when you like my mom really wanted to um help me you know and she saw that i had something that i
09:05loved and she really like gave me the space yeah yeah yeah to sing and to to have it and she encouraged
09:11me we gotta get mom on the album like featuring mom oh my gosh i have this video and it makes me cry
09:17every time it's me sitting at that piano and she's sitting in the on like the couch and she's
09:24harmonizing with me so cute and it's the cutest oh it makes me cry yeah she yeah my mom was just
09:30always you know so she was great and so encouraging with it i uh i love something like this it is i feel
09:38like it complements your voice so so well um how did it all come about well something like this
09:46um is actually a record that i fell in love with um and it was mike sabbath actually he's an
09:53incredible producer songwriter um we got in the studio together and um i ended up cutting
09:59like this song something like this and then um we like rewrote like a second verse together but i
10:06fell in love with the song before and i never ever ever take any sort of like outside songs i always
10:15write my own stuff yeah that's who i am you know i'm like a writer but it was one of those songs
10:19that feels like your song though yeah i mean it became it it i think songs find you yeah you don't
10:25you know like especially even when you write them i never really give myself full credit ever i always
10:32think that i'm just a vessel for something to come out and i think that every artist is you know
10:38like you think about etta james i mean she didn't write it like those records that made her so iconic
10:46but she did though she made them what they were even michael jackson didn't write some of his stuff
10:51and like yeah i mean that was a michael jackson record though but you know it is and you know that
10:56those they were the only person right right that could put it yeah yeah and make it their own and and
11:04so i ended up rewriting some things on something like this but it just became this really beautiful
11:10record and i fell in love with it and and um put it like i was like this has to be a part of it and
11:17it also the thing about that record i'm so thankful about for is it really unlocked a a lot of inspiration
11:25yeah yeah for me yeah you know um so yeah it's it's an incredible song and i'm i'm just so thankful
11:31that i get to perform it and play it and i'm so thankful that it's you know it's mine that's
11:36awesome yeah uh before we wrap i i was curious when you when you go back and listen to some of
11:42your older songs are you uh are you like immediately transported back to the the moment when you wrote
11:50them and maybe the pain that you were feeling or do you does your relationship with them change
11:55you over time my relationship with my music always ends up growing fonder okay i got this really
12:02wonderful advice when i was first starting out i was having a lot of anxiety and i got this wonderful
12:07advice from this wonderful very smart man and he said this is you right here right this is my thumb is
12:14me and this is your taste and you're always going to be going like this yeah like you're always going
12:20to be chasing your taste you're never going to actually catch up to it you know you're you'll always
12:24be aspiring to do it which is what makes it so magical you know but at first when i would put
12:31out records and i would write them i mean i loved them at first and then i hated them and then i loved
12:38them again and it just it's always been like that you know like i you always have a complex relationship
12:43with it because when you put it out nine times out of ten you grow out of it yeah and then you grow
12:49back into it because it's part of accepting yourself it's self-acceptance and it's self-love
12:54music is simply a vessel it is an artistic explanation of the human experience and it's
13:01never perfect and it shouldn't be perfect right it shouldn't be at all yeah i think that's why i fell
13:06in love with etta james so much her voice is perfectly imperfect and it's something that has been told to
13:11me many times is like your voice is like you're i'm kind of messy you know yeah like in my songwriting
13:18and my vocal and the way i dress and the way i talk and whatever like there's something really
13:24beautiful about just allowing yourself to be a mess so totally and uh you know that sometimes i i have a
13:30hard time with how refined uh you know studio wise pop music has become versus what it used to be i used
13:38to love when you would hear that that voice crack or like a little something off key a slight bit i i
13:45feel like the that human element it meant so much that's the art yeah yeah yeah yeah it's not the um
13:54and yeah it's something that i've grown to learn is like i remember you know it would be like it was
14:00like a couple years ago i was really obsessed with this idea of everything being perfect yeah you know i
14:05really wanted to make like really just pure music you know but it just wouldn't ever you know it was
14:14like i was fighting against like when you try to put two ends of the same magnet of the magnet together
14:18it's just kind of it'll never you know fit for me what i fell in love with about old music about
14:27classic old stuff was that it was imperfect there's a song i have a tattooed on me called angel baby
14:33um and angel baby was a record that um was recorded by rosie in the originals and it's
14:40the song is like the guitar is out of the key it's like not yeah yeah yeah it's like they're
14:45messing up the drums the whole time it's a disaster yeah one of the most iconic records probably of all
14:52time yeah yeah yeah you know yeah and so when you when you really go back and you listen and you
14:58and you think about music what makes it so beautiful is that it really is the same as
15:04looking at people's faces yeah you know everybody has like a musical fingerprint totally get rid of
15:09the fingerprint what is there what are we looking at yeah you know what i mean well so you probably
15:14never heard the uh the laugh compliment but you definitely heard your old soul before right
15:18i'm sure yeah definitely heard that one yeah yeah well we're so excited for you uh thank you so much
15:24for stopping by we appreciate it thank you for having me this has been awesome
15:27you