Some people know what they want to be when they grow up from an early age. Often the desire of a career as a child is unimaginable, like being an Astronaut or a Superhero. For some the dream is to just be a fashion designer, a painter or overall: an artist. That’s how and when Birce Kirkova’s career started: the age of 5.

“I started drawing at the walls at home when I was five years old. From that, I never stopped”, she tells The Dank Project. Birce is a multi-tasking artist that lives to and for creating.

Illustration, punch needle, tattoo, graffiti and now music are a few of the many productions that come from her mind. Focusing more on her career as a musician at the moment, the multi-tasking creator is also dividing her time as Creative Director for the Istanbul based brand Occleus at the moment.

Believing that everyone “who does creative work is an artist”, Birce is an impatient mind in a constant search to produce art. “I don’t stress my mind off on the whole working just for money. This is not how I would like to live my life. I work for Occleus and I love it. I don’t tattoo anymore because I wanted to stop. What I like is to make art.”

With the need of quarantining and having to be stuck with her own mind, Birce decided to explore another territory and start making music.

“I was in the house playing around with Garageband [app] on my phone. At the time my computer wasn’t able to run programs, so I couldn’t do much on that. A lot was going on at the time, and I moved out of my house and shared an apartment with a good friend at the time. That was also when I met the wonderful and talented wonderful Music Producer Arda Genç (AKA Agency666). I listened to his music and I was totally amazed when I heard the meticulous and delicate pieces he made. I made him listen to what I made on Garageband and told him I wanted to learn how to work Ableton. So he started teaching me.”

That is how her artistic name was released: Penny Darko. “I love Donnie Darko, so it came from that.”

Her interest in producing tunes grew more while she was introduced to different productions and started to learn more about how to make tracks. “I told myself that I found the mentors that I was looking for. Then one day I made Psychotable, my first single. I had found the name Penny Darko a while ago. I said "I want to make an EP”, and I started working on it. Arda did the mix mastering of all my songs. He taught me how to mix too. I sent the songs to my friends as I made them, and they all supported me to keep going.”

“One of the most important things in life is to have trusting friends who believe in whatever you’re doing. I am so happy and lucky!”

“The Room” and snakes

Her first EP “The Room” was released in early April and contains four tracks: the first single "Psychotable", "Basstable", "Don't You Dare" & "Who Are You" and can be found on Spotify.

“Creativity is a big part of my life. I love learning new things, and therefore producing new things. I think that is where my big passion for life comes from. As I keep learning new stuff, I combine them with my art, bringing it to a touch of my reality. Combining music and painting was always a dream, and I did so.”

“The room is my room. And in that room are all my dear ones and this bittersweet year I've had. This project is a very special start for me. I dedicate this EP, and all my future songs which will be released later, to my mother”, completed.

Another curious fact about Birce’s art is the constant presence of little snakes. She explained to The Dank Project the reason: art helped her overcome her horrible fear of snakes. At the age of six, Birce had a dream with a giant snake and since then she developed a phobia where it wasn’t even possible to look at the animal on photos or videos.

She decided then to start drawing snakes to overcome such fear, which worked. “I then realized what a beautiful animal it is.”

At this very moment, her only expectation is to eventually dance with everyone all together and celebrate her songs. Find Penny Darko on Spotify or get to know her a little better on her Instagram.