After doing the Wisteriax & Ajda the Turkish queen review I got in touch with Ajda and found out she is a very vivid musician. She plays many different instruments and being involved with many musical projects from different genres from singer songwriter to rock or ambient, like she did with Wisteriax. To get to know more about Ajda the Turkish queen I decided to ask her for an interview.  

Ajda the Turkish Queen is a mysterious name. How did you come to a name like this?

“My Mother is Turkish so I am half Turkish myself. My Father is American. And being half Turkish I take inspiration from the lonesome Turkish muezzins apart from artists such as Elizabeth fraser, Nico, PJ Harvey, Siouxie Sioux and Kirsten Hersh.”

You play many different instruments. You must have started to play instruments at very young age? What instruments do you play?
 
“I started playing the flute when I was about 11/12, in school. I am classically trained on flute, piano, and harpsichord. I also play guitar, tenor banjo, mandolin, zither, accordion, melodica, percussion and vocals. But I didn't really start writing songs until I was a few years out of college.”
 
What music did you like at that time when you did start learning to play an instrument? How did develop your musical interests after that?

“When I was a child, my earliest exposure to music primarily included songs learned in school, coupled with the Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen my father would put on the stereo.  I began formally learning to read and play music in middle school.  Flute being my first instrument, I thought of myself only as a classical player for quite some time.  I began accumulating instruments (guitar/banjo) in high school, and experimenting with them.  And as a teenager I got really into more obscure music and began listening to college radio.

” What music do you like now?
 
“So much and many different types - everything from classical to very heavy, dirgy rock, to goth, cabaret, French chanson, electronic, old country, yodelling.”  

You are from Houston originally, what age did you go to Boston?

 “I moved to Boston at age 19, to study music business, which is what I obtained a college degree in, from Berklee College of Music.  I went to the University of Houston for one year before transferring to Berklee.

” Moving so far away, did this have a great impact on your live and your music? Did it change much?

“I was young and open to learning about things.  I started playing in bands in Boston that weren't all schoolmates, and that helped me truly enter the scene here, instead of being coddled by school.  Berklee is a cozy place for kids going there, but I wanted to break out and be part of something real.  I led a very sheltered life in Houston in some ways.  But when I moved, I could reinvent myself.

” When taking a look at your web side and visiting some links to bands you made a contribution in I heard many bands are somehow influenced by Psychedelic music also the music of your own. Is there a psychedelic scene in Boston?

 “Yes there is a psyche scene here, and over the past few years I've started playing with more people who have been directly involved in it for some time.”

Did you quit the Turkisch queen or is Narcoterror just a new project?

 “I didn't quit Turkish Queen. We are on hiatus, as my main partner in that band moved away.  We're still in touch, and there is a possibility of playing together again, but right now I have a new main project featuring my song writing - picking up where Turkish Queen left off.It's called Black Fortress of Opium. Narcoterror is a side project.”

Your new main project as well the side project has drugs related names ( narcotics, opium) Is this an influence to you?

" More so when I was younger.  I don't think I'd think the same way, as openly or as abstractly when I had never done LSD. And as a songwriter, I feel it's my duty to gain life knowledge and experience, and drugs can help you see things through different eyes. I guess it's a metaphor for searching for the elusive pleasure dome.”

In the Netherlands we have a pretty liberal drug policy. What do you think about that?

“I think that drugs in excess can be dangerous and lead to a waste of life, however, I think that, especially in America, there are bigger issues that get ignored while drugs are an easy scapegoat. For example, it's just as dangerous and unhealthy to eat fatty fast foods in excess. Also, as someone who has had firsthand experience dealing with an alcoholic, I truly don't understand why alcohol is not prohibited by law, but other drugs are.”  

How did you got involved with  Westeriax?
 
“Karen played cello with Turkish Queen at a number of shows. I have worked with her and her husband Twink on various musical endeavours."

Will that release ever be accessible for a bigger audience?

 “I'm not sure.  It's so beautiful, and precious - it may be hard to make something like that on a large scale. They're handmade...”  

What inspires you while writing songs? What I hear they seem pretty personal.

 “My songs are very personal, but also often autobiographical or biographical.  What inspires me?  Well I often have at least one muse.  Men inspire me.  Emotions...experiences, passion...intensities.”

What kind of music do you prefer to perform, because I hear you doing different styles and the live CD is more singer/songwriter music?

 “I like it all.  I really enjoy the solo performances because I can lean my rhythm any which way, slow down or speed up as much as I want or feel appropriate.  But performing with other people is just as rewarding because it's a challenge to make the sound live up to my vision.  And I am at home performing different styles such as torch songs and rockers equally."

What is your favourite instrument?

“It's hard to say just one because I like playing so many, but in terms of guttural response, I would say harpsichord, mandolin, and guitar.  My favorite changes by the hour, or minute, even...  "

You like to do different things is there something you wish to do in the future or do you like to enjoy the moment without making to much future plans?

 “I want to write songs, perform live, and record as much as possible.  I am usually thinking a few steps ahead though because I am highly lucid. I try to plan where I can, but I know one must be flexible.”