Meet Leyan Senay

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Leyan Senay a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Leyan , really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

It was the hardest step to find out the reason of your existence. In my teenage years like everyone I was asking myself ‘who am I’ ‘why I’ m alive?’,’what am I doing with my life’… At university years, I realised that I’m alive with only ‘creating’. I need arts & music to survive. I fed up with playing drums, learning more, writing song and lyrics, painting, listening music, being on the stage… My reason, my biggest purpose in this life was this! To play, to create to believe the rhythm within my soul!

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I’m a Belgian independent drummer, drum educator, songwriter & Turkish ambassador of Hit Like A Girl. I studied piano at highschool and my major was English Literature at the university. Then I discovered my passion for drums and began my drum journey at 2016. I toured with famous bands & orchestras throughout Turkey which is like a big dream for me. Then finally I began to follow my own path as an independent drummer and begin giving drum workshops and making performances worldwide by representing odd time Turkish traditional grooves to the whole world! This point is where I found my true self & purpose in my career! Discovering the beauties of the world as playing drums, isn’t it insane?!

One of my biggest aim became giving inspiration and encouragement to women for following their dreams then I became Ted X speaker two times and gained a reward for ‘2022’s most inspirational woman of the year’. Lego Turkey has created a huge statue and put it in the center of Istanbul to create awareness of gender inequality in male dominated music industry, I still can’t believe all these happened. I played lots of albums till that time, but the most special moment was to create my own songs! My first single ‘Bluetiful’ with representing East – West synthesis combining gothic rock style with ethnical atmosphere became the winner of the week in famous metal magazine ‘Metal Hammer’s music list!

All of my life was about taking risks, getting out from my safe zone and follow my instincts… Then my soul bloomed!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Three things… First to know and to believe yourself and you’ve to have the courage to follow the music playing in your heart. Secondly, taking risks. There’s nothing new if you can’t get out from your safe zone, you should discover your world and the world outside you. Third one is never give up! You’ll face lots of obstacles, I know. Sometimes you can lost your faith for yourself but please don’t forget why you began this journey!

Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?

The answer is; me. Don’t forget you’re alone in your journeys. Yes, sometimes some people come and touch our lives and makes them more beautiful but at the end, we’re all alone for to overcome obstacles, to calm down our anxieties, to improve our skills and qualities, to develop our character for our better versions. Just believe yourself and do it, success will follow you!

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Image Credits

Arda Aytan
Sevil Uygun
Ilker Uzunalan
Yigit Bum
Rob Van Dalen

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