Ilker Balic’s education history started with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics (English) at Istanbul University in 2005 and led to his Master’s degree in Banking at Marmara University in 2010.

He was born on the 22nd of May 1980 in Sakarya, Turkey. At the age of fifteen he started playing drums while studying at Kadikoy Anatolian High School. When he was sixteen he formed a band with his school friends and they started writing and composing their own songs while also performing many cover songs in order to establish their musical identity. With the school’s official band, he took part in many competitions in which they recieved many awards. In the school theatre he also composed music for various school plays, and won many awards for his efforts. Around the age of eighteen he started performing live at various rock bars in Istanbul with the band he formed with his highschool friends called ‘Kung Fu’. In 2001 he joined the band ‘Gripin’.

Gripin was formed in the year 2000 and has four band members. Birol Namoglu on vocals, Arda Inceoglu on bass and keyboards, Murat Basdogan on guitars and Ilker Balic on drums. They compose and write all of their own music which is in the pop-rock genre.

Gripin have performed at many festivals with internationally known musicians and bands like ‘Cake’, ‘Shed 7’, ‘Reamonn’, ‘Myslovitz’, ‘Placebo’, ‘Skin’, ‘Evanescence’, ‘Travis’, ‘Skunk Anansie’, ‘Franz Ferdinand’, ‘Manic Street Preachers’, ‘Within Temptation’, ‘Badly Drawn Boy’ and many more. They have also performed at rock bars and rock venues, including the most famous one in Istanbul ‘Bronx Bar’ every Saturday night for four years.