8:07 pm - October 24, 2025
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Inci Gürün was expected to be a lender.
Born and raised in Turkey, Gürün pertained to the U.S. in 2018 to study financing at UPenn. “My entire character was that I used sports jackets,” she states. “I went to organization classes, and I ended up being president of the clubs.”
However simply as it had for the majority of her life, music was bubbling in the background. In Turkey, Gürün had actually finished a 10-year program that she ‘d begun at age 7 to end up being a performance pianist, then transferred to London at age 17 to pursue classical singing.
Her moms and dads motivated her to pursue a more safe and secure profession. Still, while she was soaked in finance-related academic community by day at UPenn, in the evening she was singing with a jazz band that carried out at frat celebrations around school. It never ever struck her to pursue any other kind of singing design till her junior year, when allure band’s backup drummer delicately discussed that he made beats. Intrigued, Gürün met him to deal with music, laying her vocals over his home production.
This session would assist open a brand-new musical world, viral popularity, a fresh category and eventually a profession well beyond financing for the artist who had actually happened referred to as Inji. 3 years after finishing from UPenn, she is today (Oct. 24) launching her most extensive job to date, Superlame, a 12-track mixtape that leaks with mindset and self-aware enjoyable while pulsing with club-ready productions.
This course started unfolding back at UPenn, when Inji brought your home production she had actually dealt with to another UPenn trainee who was likewise a rap artist, asking him to assist her compose a tune. In 2022, they made a catchy, saucy house-infused dance pop track called “Gaslight,” put a 15-second bit of it TikTok, then enjoyed it go viral. (Since publication date, there are 4.7 million videos on the platform utilizing the tune.) All of a sudden, an increase of labels and supervisors were connecting and inquiring about who Inji was.
” I resembled, ‘Oh, my God, could I be an artist? Is this prohibited dream now coming true?” Inji states with a laugh while speaking to Signboard over Zoom from her location in New york city.
This viral minute took place throughout the summer season before her senior year, when she was interning at international consulting company Bain & & Business in New York City City. “I ‘d actually exist in a match going to take secret call from my attorney, like,’ Arista is stating they’ll offer me this much for the single! They wish to do a 5 tune offer!’ before relaxing down at her desk to read spreadsheets.
However the virality of “Gaslight,” which she eventually chose to launch individually, was tough to conceal– and quickly she was contacted for a conference with personnels.
” I was truly frightened that they were gon na resemble, ‘You can’t be publishing TikToks while you’re working here,” Inji states. Rather, they asked her how to grow the business’s following on the platform.
Her senior year was invested browsing classes while outlining her next profession relocation, identified to end up being more than simply another flash in the pan viral star. Inji didn’t sign with any of the labels that had actually connected however was taking profession suggestions with the legal representatives these labels had actually linked her with. Her group broadened once again after a 2022 singing gig at New york city’s Webster Hall was participated in by somebody from Variety Media Partners, who linked her with the individual who had actually become her supervisor.
These connections were particularly immediate considered that Inji’s trainee visa was set to end after graduation. In addition to acing tests, her objective was to protect the visa that would permit her to remain in the U.S. as an artist. “All of my senior year resembled, ‘Let’s construct something huge enough so that we can get a visa rolling,'” she states.
As such, she hustled, periodically “dropping like, 5 days of school to fly to L.A., do 5 sessions and after that launch all of those tunes.” Partners motivated her to likewise ditch allure singing and attempt rapping and pop vocals. She ‘d never ever seriously thought about seriously making electronic music, however she enjoyed the category and enjoyed to celebration, so “it felt extremely natural” when her work diverted into the electronic lane.
By the time she finished, she ‘d launched her 2nd tune through Polydor, which then launched her launching EP LFG in July of 2023. Rather of submitting financing task applications, she went on trip in New york city, Los Angeles and London. “It was among the most blissful times of my life,” she states, even if she didn’t yet have a lots of initial music to carry out.
” At my very first programs, I had perhaps 25 minutes of initial music, so I would play the chorus 7 times. I would simply loop it and loop it … I keep in mind playing a three-minute tune for seven-and-a-half minutes, with breakdowns and drum solos and another chorus simply to make the program enough time.”
However while she didn’t yet have a lots of product, she had skill, design and a transmittable charm and self-confidence, coming off like the down-for-anything buddy you’re ensured to enjoy with when you head out clubbing. This ambiance assisted draw what she calls “a truly adorable, truly enjoyable fan base. They enjoyed it. No one cared [that the shows were long].”
And yet for all the dance music she enjoyed (” Mau P and Fisher and Dom Dolla, I resemble a substantial fan of all these DJs,” she states, “I go see them all the time”), she was still encouraged that she was attempting to end up being a pop star, not seeing a bridge in between the 2 worlds. Then, Charli xcx’s Brat came out.
” Before Brat, I didn’t see a pop star making dance music like Charli, so I had this mistaken belief of, like, ‘No, I should not be at a dance label. I need to go make popular song since no one listens to dance.’ I was incorrect.”
None of the popular song she had actually been making ever came out (” it wound up being incredibly uninteresting,” she states) and she discovered that audiences on her very first trip had much better response to her electronic work anyways. “Individuals can be found in sunglasses, they pertained to rave, they came intoxicated. They wished to leap and zest and do the dance thing,” she states. She returned to L.A. and informed her partners they were certainly making a dance album, with this statement occurring in the exact same minute Brat was apparently taking control of the world– assisting Inji see, she states, “that you can be a pop star through any category. You simply need to do it well.”.
It assisted that she had an all-star team of partners, dealing with manufacturers and songwriters like Zone, Vatican and Alex Chapman, who had actually simply dealt with Troye Sivan’s Grammy-nominated 2023 smash “Rush.” These sessions all developed to Inji’s Superlame, a 12-track mixtape out today (Oct. 24) by means of AWAL Recordings. Including 3 formerly launched songs that together have more than 3 millions streams on Spotify alone, the job provides sharp, innovative dance productions and lyrics both rapped and sung that traverse such relatable subjects as connections, hangovers (” to the sofa!” she yells on the celebration anthem “Bodega”), heading out, having a good time and after that doing it all over once again.
As simple as she is lovely, Inji states she currently understands she can make something that tops it. “Among my factors for calling it a ‘mixtape’ is since I desire my launching album to be even much better,” she states. “I like the mixtape, and believe it brings a lot to my job.”
However she likewise sees a long runway to keep growing. While she’s formerly gotten annoyed when her tunes didn’t explode more than they did, today she confesses that “I’m so thankful they didn’t. Now I see how artistry takes a long period of time, and it would have been bad if something grew than what I was all set for.”
This knowledge likewise uses to her live efficiencies, which this year have actually consisted of the Berlin and Paris editions of Lollapalooza, Osheaga and San Francisco’s Outdoors Lands. Returning to examine video of these efficiencies like an expert athlete, Inji sees how she could, and will, be much better, and how that will serve her as she works towards her objectives. “If in 2015 I was unfortunate that didn’t get Coachella, now I’m thankful we didn’t,” she states, “since I wish to be a much better vocalist, dancer and an entertainer with much better tunes at Coachella.”.
Beyond simply putting in the hours, she understands how she’s going to attain it. While dance music singers frequently reside in the shadows of the scene, her objective is to put herself, her voice, her character and her stories at the fore. “A couple of years back, I believe there was such little dance music that had the pop storytelling and lyricism and artistry around it,” she states. “The lyrics, for me to like it, need to be a little insane and amusing. When I’m composing, I wish to either make individuals gasp or laugh. I constantly desire them to state, ‘Who is the lady that simply stated that in my ears? I should understand who she is.'”
While her vision is clear, her moms and dads back in Turkey are still offering her due dates to “make it” before she draws on her financing degree, together with feedback that highlights her raw aspiration.
” At Lollapalooza Paris my mama enjoyed me on the mainstage and resembled, ‘Excellent.’ Then she enjoyed Olivia Rodrigo and she was, ‘Well, Olivia was a lot much better than you.’ I resembled, ‘Yeah, duh!’ I’ll arrive. Provide me 6 months.”
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