When Yana Kedrina was 14 years old, she fell in love with a boy at summer camp. Completely consumed by the expectation of a love unrequited, she did the only thing she knew how, and set those burgeoning emotions to music. “I was able to fully express, in the best, way what was inexpressible in words,” she tells me, recalling the moment with a tinge of nostalgia. The music acted as an emotional outlet, not just for Kedrina, but for the people around her too. “When I wrote the song, all the children and counsellors memorised it, and it became the anthem of our summer,” she adds. “It was often sung in the evenings with a guitar.”

Even at a young age, the musician’s ability to bewitch her audience was abundantly clear. Now, Kedrina releases music under the moniker Kedr Livanskiy, which means “Lebanese Cedar” in Russian. For Livanskiy, the association with an evergreen tree acts metaphorically (“through identifying ourselves with something, we appropriate the properties of it”), and it’s no coincidence that the video for her latest single “With Love K…” is set in a sprawling landscape of country fields.

“With Love K..” is taken from Livanskiy’s newest EP, a five-track journey into the musician’s current state of being. The angelic, Elysian vocal of title track “K-Notes” glides across Levianskiy’s production with breathless precision, while, later on, the relentless synths of “Stop This Way” play havoc with the listener’s heartbeat. Sonically, Livanskiy was influenced by early 2000s UK electro music, particularly affected by the British music’s ability to infiltrate Russian airwaves of the time. Today, however, she is so much more than the sum of her influences, incorporating an abundance of different electronic styles, but producing a record that’s entirely her own.

In the conversation below, we chat to the musician about the meaning behind her new music, the contemporary artists that inspire her, and the one Evanesence song that got her through her teenage years.

Hi Kedr! Congratulations on the release of K-Notes. Can you guide us through some of your inspirations when making the EP?

Kedr Livanskiy: Thank you! The times in which we live are extremely difficult. In part, I wanted to create a safe place to hide. The first two songs are light and bright, and about the importance of not locking up pain, and being open. The third song ‘K-Notes’ is also generally light, [but] not without a sadness. Sadness for the times when everything was fine and full of hope. ‘Reflex People’ is about distrust in people, the pain of being a human, and disappointment in humanity. The last song is about fatigue from violence, but still full of the hope that life will win.

What’s the meaning behind the name of the EP?

Kedr Livanskiy: There are two meanings. ‘K’ is an abbreviation for Kedr, so we get Kedr’s Notes, like pages from my diary. We can also read K like ‘key’ here, meaning something significant, as in the word ‘keyn’. I like to turn to the form of a diary – this is the key to a person’s heart. The format of the diary is something personal, but not an ideal form. Like this EP, I didn’t want to make a perfect production but to save life as it is, with all the bumps and roughness. Plus, this is a diary in the literal sense of my thoughts at that time – chaotic, mixed, impulsive.

How would you describe the progression of your sound from your very first release until now?

Kedr Livanskiy: My first solo works, EP January Sun and LP Ariadna, in my opinion, are very cool in mood – I loved them so much. But from the point of view of production, they are very uneven in places, crooked, not ideal at all. Because then I was just starting my development as a producer. Then there was the album Your Need. I worked on it in co-production with Flaty, and you can hear a clear, strong leap in production compared to the Ariadna album. This difference was because of Flaty. In a sense, he set a new bar.

When I started my 2021 LP Liminal Soul, I tried very hard to catch up with the level that was in Your Need. I wanted to do some composer things, not standard in structure and sound design. As a result the album turned out to be very stuffy in places, because I thought too much about the form and it lost its essence. The experience was devastating but important for development. In the end I came to the conclusion that my strongest side is in simplicity and melody. I shouldn’t be embarrassed that my music sounds more pop and simple than any kind of intellectual or IDM stuff – after all, they are just labels. I feel like in this EP, I went back in time to my first releases, but with a more improved production and natural experience.

You’ve played in punk and metal bands, but how does that compare to the music that you make now? What made you decide to switch genres?

Kedr Livanskiy: When I started making electronic music in 2013, I began to completely oppose myself to punk music. It was the very strong difference that attracted me [to electronic music]. I kind of disowned my punk, hardcore past and entered a completely different world – reassembled reality. Punk music began to seem very monotonous and banal to me, although now I don’t think so.

Punk is not only about music, it is the principle of life. Having lived for 32 years, I realise that I am internally punk anyway, and all my work is still DIY. Despite the fact that I make electronic music, I can call myself a punk. As a child, it seemed you had to be either a punk, a rapper or an electronics engineer. Thank God now many stereotypes have been washed away. I am a music lover, in the big sense of the word. I just love music in all its manifestations, in a variety of genres, from black metal and dungeon synth to spiritual jazz and gabber.

Are there any contemporary artists that you’re inspired by?

Kedr Livanskiy: Flaty, Arca, Rosalía, Dean Blunt, Ushko, Yung Lean, Apheх Twin, Elysia Crampton, Erykah Badu. Musically, I am inspired by many, many artists, but these people touch me personally. I always enjoy listening to them, thinking about them, watching their development – and certainly I learn different things from them.

When did you first become aware of the power of good music? What song could you not stop playing growing up?

Kedr Livanskiy: I was a goth at the age of 13 and then I realised that only music can be with you at any moment of life, any pain and sadness. I was very lonely at that age and listened to the Evanescence song ‘My Immortal’ about a million times on repeat, and hid in it from the world. 

The worst advice you’ve ever been given?    

Kedr Livanskiy: My dad, when I was 25 years old, advised me to stop making music and, I quote, ‘go to work at a normal job.’ Good thing I didn’t listen to him.

Pettiest thing you’ve ever done?

Kedr Livanskiy: Stole a roll of toilet paper from a café.

What’s your love language?

Kedr Livanskiy: Spanish. As a child, I watched the series Muñeca Brava [an Argentinian telenovela] with Natalia Oreiro, and the language captivated me forever.

Let your predictive text finish this sentence: I am a musician because I love___ but people don’t know that I am actually___

Kedr Livanskiy: I am a musician because I love to sing but people don’t know that I am actually Kedruel, the daughter of an elf and a man, arrived by time machine from Middle Earth, time of the second age of the sun of Arda.

What would be your funeral song? 

Kedr Livanskiy: ‘Eyes Without a Face’ by Billy Idol.

Who is your nemesis?

Kedr Livanskiy: Me, myself and I after alcohol.

The most recent picture on your camera roll?

What’s your star sign and are you a typical one of that star sign?

Kedr Livanskiy: My sun sign is Libra and Aries in the ascendant and in the moon. I still can’t decide which is more in me.

What do you put on your rider?

Kedr Livanskiy: Non-alcoholic beer.

K-Notes is out now on 2M Records.

Join Dazed Club and be part of our world! You get exclusive access to events, parties, festivals and our editors, as well as a free subscription to Dazed for a year. Join for £5/month today.