ILUKA The Limit

ILUKA is an artist who has something to say and isn't afraid to say it. From her early singles and EP releases, the Sydney based / Blue Mountains raised singer / songwriter understood the power of a song and how it can affect the state of mind of the listener as much as the writer who created it.

'Queen of Turbulent Hearts', ILUKA's debut album, to be released 8^th April 2022 on BMG, is brimming with emotive songs that not only show ILUKA's talent as a songwriter, but also as a world class vocalist who sweeps you up and takes you into the song to feel what she feels. Her songs can be euphoric ('Higher Love'), painfully raw ('Hercules'), honest ('A Beautiful Undone') and defiant ('Willing to Break'). But most often ILUKA's songs contain optimism and hope.

New single 'The Limit', is one such song. A powerful call to arms for women to "take it to the limit baby" despite the roadblocks that seem to be constantly put in front of you.

ILUKA was inspired by the "rebels who came before" when writing 'The Limit'. "This song is my ode to all the women who came before me who paved the way, no doubt having to wade through a barrage of BS to get where they got to," she explains. "Amelia Earhart, Maya Angelou, Jane Fonda, Cleopatra, Nina Simone… It's about acknowledging how far we've come but also realising how far we still have to go – we just have to look back on the last year in the Australian music industry and in parliament (sigh) to realise how deep this shit goes. We're really just at the tip of the iceberg and I think we're finally realising that it's a whole culture that needs to change, not a few 'bad eggs'…. but, it's happening, slowly!" 

The creation of 'Queen of Turbulent Hearts' started back in 2019 when ILUKA headed to the US for creative inspiration. Landing in Los Angeles ILUKA quickly made connections and started collaborating. Next stop was Nashville where she teamed up with writers including Trent Dabbs (Kacey Musgraves) and Gabe Simon (Lana Del Ray) and performed a show at famous local venue The Basement. Before too long she signed a global publishing deal with BMG.

It was a chance meeting with US songwriter / producer Aron Forbes (Billie Eilish, Halsey, BANKS) where ILUKA's hard work all clicked together. "We wrote this song together and from that session onwards, I knew he was the one to bring the whole album together with me. He just got it," ILUKA said on working with Forbes. "I still can't believe he ended up coming on board and I couldn't be prouder of the album we made." 

The result is 'Queen of Turbulent Hearts'. Ten songs that document a moment of time for ILUKA which has seen her experience life's highs and lows, personally and creatively.

"This record is a culmination of the messy, strange, turbulent but beautiful journey I've been on as an artist," ILUKA said on creating the album. "It's about coming to terms with the unconventional and the elusive. It's about throwing yourself into the dizzying wave of life even when you get burned and spat back out, time and time again. It's about falling out of love only to fall back into it. It's about the brokenness and the heartache and the longing and the fragility of it all. When everything around us these past few years has felt so suffocating and hopeless, I think this record is my attempt of slicing a knife through the numbness. It's about finding the pulse again. It's a celebration of the wondrous peculiarity of it all, and always leaning towards hope," she concluded. 

On collaborating with ILUKA, Aron Forbes said, "It is crazy to think ILUKA and I made this entire album over zoom and to this day have NEVER been in the same room together! From the day we met I felt an instant connection to ILUKA's voice. We would just hang out on zoom for hours and throw ideas back and forth via email. It was the closest thing I felt to true collaboration during the height of the pandemic, and I feel the work we did was almost therapeutic to my creative mind. I can't wait for everyone to hear what we created."

To celebrate the release of 'Queen of Turbulent Hearts' ILUKA's mates Lime Cordiale have invited her to be their guest on their national tour with shows in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle in April. ILUKA will also perform as part of Party In The Apocalypse in Hobart on 25 March. Full tour dates below.

Growing up in the Blue Mountains, ILUKA felt an undeniable pull to songwriting and alongside her father she spent years channeling her artistic energies inside her into music. Skip forward to now with the creation of 'Queen of Turbulent Hearts', ILUKA has transcended the traditional confinements of pop music to form her own variation. She tells universal tales of hope and love, struggle and sacrifice through a meticulously modern lens - pop music with a soul and purpose.