NYC Indie Artist Nakita Lev - Exclusive Interview

Indie Artist Nakita Lev

[Speaker 3]

In the electric haze of New York City, where dreams clash like subway cars at rush hour, Nikita Lev emerged, a force of indie rock grace wrapped in folk's raw whisper. Born and raised amid the skyscrapers, she was weaned on chamber strings and 90s band riffs, picking up flute and piano as a kid before trading them for a guitar at 10, scribbling her first songs under bedroom posters of icons who dared to bare their souls. Now at 21, this multi-instrumentalist channels haunting authenticity into anthems of fleeting youth and adult shadows.

Her 2023 debut, Elegance, pierced the veil, a Lana Dell rating lament for lost carelessness, followed by The Brooding, We All Die Anyway, a wry nod to life's chaos that's soundtracking hearts from Brooklyn lofts to Berlin nights. With her EP clearly misunderstood dropping soon and a European tour igniting this fall, Nikita's voice, rich, restless, unapologetic, reminds us, in a world that rushes to forget, she makes us feel it all, one lingering chord at a time. Now here's The Trot with Nikita, enjoy.

[Speaker 2]

When I get emails from people, like from your PR people, and I get them all the time from different people, first thing I do is listen to music, right? And it's a real very simple, if I don't like your music, I'm not going to interview them, right? Yeah.

So I put on No One's Gonna.

[Speaker 1]

Uh-huh.

[Speaker 2]

And immediately, it didn't take me about 15 to 20 seconds to say, that's a good tune.

[Speaker 1]

Thank you.

[Speaker 2]

Because I never know what to expect. I never know what to expect. I mean, I didn't know anything about you, you know, but, and I never know.

And then I started listening to it and I went, wow, this is completely different than I expected, which is great. Let me talk a little bit about that particular tune. Yeah, please.

First off, I know, I'm looking at your bio and all that stuff, when you record something like that tune, what do you play on it? What is your instrument? Do you play, I assume you play something.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah, I play, I mean, not always, but I play guitar. I play guitar on it. But also, I kind of, I work, I've been working with one person for this whole, for all these songs.

[Speaker 2]

Right.

[Speaker 1]

He's in my band. He is my guitarist. So he can play the parts better than I can.

So sometimes when I'm like, because, you know, it's different. It's different when, you know, it has the, when he, when I play it versus when he plays it, even if it's the same chords, even if it's the same strumming, it's like a different feeling. But sometimes it'll just be easier if I'm just like, just do it.

It's better because he's better at guitar than I am, obviously. But he, I think we started, I think he played, he played the piano on this one when we were working on it. And we kind of, because I had written it on guitar and we changed up the chords.

[Speaker 2]

So you wrote it on a guitar?

[Speaker 1]

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]

I didn't sit down and play with it. What key is it in?

[Speaker 1]

Oh my God.

[Speaker 2]

What's the first chord? Do you remember what chord you play in it?

[Speaker 1]

Well, no, no, actually. Hey, wait, let me, let me ask him quickly, Ritchie, what's the first chord of No One's Gonna?

[Speaker 2]

G. G. Okay.

All right. I like that. Because I write stuff all the time for music libraries and then people go, what key is it?

And I go, I don't know. I just finished it up. I have no idea what it is.

[Speaker 1]

Right. I mean, that's not what I'm thinking about when I'm, when I'm writing it, you know?

[Speaker 2]

So what you, okay, so let's get, I want, I'm more interested in this and we'll talk about you in a second. Because the layers in that, or did you have your input from other people that you kind of hear all that? Cause I'm a producer myself.

I understand one of the hardest things as a songwriter is to take what's here and tell people what it is you want to hear. Yeah. Now some people, when they work with them long enough, probably with like your guitarist you were just talking to, they probably kind of know.

But when I heard it and I heard all the, and I listened to another couple of tunes too. Did you come up with a lot of layering in it or did you, was that with the producer or with other people in the band? Because it's really good.

That's why I'm asking.

[Speaker 1]

Thanks. It was just, it was collaborative. It actually took, I mean, obviously it takes, it takes a while cause you start with the first thing.

It didn't have drums in it initially, initially, actually first it had like drum and bass, like breakbeat drums. And then we took them all out and then we like, you know, cause we're like, it doesn't need to be drivey. Does it need to be like, you know, exciting or does it because I kind of, I kind of, I go in there with like a certain image and it's cause, cause it's not always like a musical, a music instinct of like, I need, I need the saxophone here.

I need the keys here. I need the synth here. And sometimes like, I just want it to feel like, you know, walking down the street and the snow is falling and it's like, it, everything is peaceful and kind of golden hued.

And I'm like, how do you, how do you convey that in a, in a, in a song, you know, besides saying it, which is not, which is not always getting the point across that you want.

[Speaker 2]

But I think the other thing too is that what's, what's good about that song and is, is it's not normal. And I mean this in a positive way. In other words, you don't sit down and go, okay, let's bring in the drummer in, let's add the bass player.

[Speaker 1]

Okay.

[Speaker 2]

We need some keys. Like I was mentioning, like I feel like I need some keys here and all that stuff. And that's what gives it a different feel to it, which is really probably you in one aspect because you're the one who wrote the song.

And the other thing too is it just has a sense. That's what I liked about it immediately. And I liked all the other songs I listened to is it's kind of a, and that's what I like about you because you're not, at your age group, I wasn't expecting, I never know what people are going to do.

You know, you could have come out with, you know, Ariana Grande sound, you know, maybe a rap sound, whatever. But this is the one thing I always ask artists like you, you're kind of in your own group and you know, that's good and bad.

[Speaker 1]

Definitely. Yeah.

[Speaker 2]

So when you're trying to get gigs in NYC or any place, how do you, and I mean, you just mentioned a while ago, cause I was going to ask you to play back in the spring with the band. How do you get people to convey, all right, here's who's going to show up?

[Speaker 1]

Yeah. I mean, it is, it is so, it is, it is hard cause you, cause you want to be different and you want to, but you also want to, you want to be able to present yourself in a concise and kind of, you know, I kind of am wary of this word, but easily digestible way, you know?

[Speaker 2]

Yeah.

[Speaker 1]

Like it's the same with like getting on certain Spotify playlists or like, cause it's, it's like this, this, this genre, this art, this kind of artist, this kind of idea, this kind of feeling it's like, and also, you know, there's certain like artists that get, that are, that you think of them and they're like, oh, it's, they're obviously for this kind of venue or this kind of crowd. But honestly, I'm still figuring it out. I don't really have an answer for you.

[Speaker 2]

And you may never, you may never.

[Speaker 1]

There you go.

[Speaker 2]

As long as people, as long as people show up.

[Speaker 1]

I mean, that's all I can ask.

[Speaker 2]

And they come up to you afterwards and go, I really like that.

[Speaker 1]

Right. Exactly.

[Speaker 2]

That's all that matters.

[Speaker 1]

Right. That's all I'm, that's all I'm looking for.

[Speaker 2]

Do you, do you have a, and I looked at some, I looked at your modeling stuff and all this stuff that you've done. Do you want to convey a mysterious approach to life?

[Speaker 1]

Kind of. I mean, I think I'm good. I'm the thing is, I think that comes off just naturally because even though I'm good with people, I am shy sometimes.

So I, I kind of do, I do take a step back sometimes when maybe I should be more aggressive or more like forthcoming, but I don't know what makes you ask that?

[Speaker 2]

Well, it's just your kind of persona. Everybody has a persona when they go out and they perform or whatever their message is. You know, if I talked to you about a singer from the Midwest, you'll already put something in your brain.

Okay. This is what this person is going to sound like because you know that if I talk about, we're going to taste Southern rock, you'll know that's kind of what you already know. It's going to, okay.

It's going to sound like that. You convey not any of that. You just kind of have your own thing going on, which is different.

Everybody always has people that they sound like. That's just the way it is. I mean, at my age, you've had years of playing and people are like, Oh, you sound like this or something.

Of course you do.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]

Um, let's go back a little bit. You started, you started writing at how you were young, right?

[Speaker 1]

Yeah. I'm 21.

[Speaker 2]

Okay.

[Speaker 1]

Um, I started writing when I was 10 and writing is like a, like a stretch. Like I maybe wrote like two songs when I was 10 years old and like, they were like, one of them was, uh, for a class assignment. And then the other one was like, you know, the classic, like I'm walking down the street and I have big dreams kind of song.

Um, and yeah, and then I, I don't know, I, I think, I think for my parents, it was really interesting to see me like, be so adamant about this career path when I was that young and not have, not knowing anything about it, not having any kind of, you know, I was, I don't know, but it was, it was never, it was never going to be anything else, which I'm really lucky.

[Speaker 2]

Do you have something to say and you want people to hear it?

[Speaker 1]

Right. I mean, there's truly, I was talking to some friends recently and I was saying to them, I was like, there's truly nothing else that I could tolerate doing. And I can, I can tolerate being a musician, you know, cause sometimes that's how it feels.

Even though most, a lot of the time it's great and I'm really glad. And sometimes I'm like, it's sometimes it's the things that I'm doing are a means to an end. You know, sometimes it feels like that.

[Speaker 2]

As you go along with your career, you're young, you got, um, visions of what do you want to do? I mean, obviously you told me this, you want to do music. Are you, are you a person that sits around and goes, I want to do, uh, go on a tour.

I want to go play in front of thousands of people. I don't want to do that. I want to go into smaller clubs.

What do you kind of see what your career would you like it to be?

[Speaker 1]

Um, I would love to, I would love to be touring. I mean, I've been asked this question and it's so, it's hard for me to answer because I think as long as I'm making things that I'm proud of and I'm keep, and I keep getting better and I keep exploring new ideas and I, you know, and, and, and kind of validating that, like urge, I feel like, you know, I'll be satisfied if I keep doing that. If I keep having, if I keep having goals and more aspirations to, to do it on a, on a bigger scale or just better or with, with new collaborators or with new, I don't know.

It's also, I mean, for me, a good portion of the reason that I make music is to connect, And, and so you're, you're going to release the AP, how are you going to support it? Uh, what do you mean? Like shows or are we going to do shows or, or, or yeah, yeah, I'm, I have some, I've, I've been shooting a music video this past, last week I shot, and then this week I'm going, I'm going to Paris to do it like a showcase.

[Speaker 2]

Um, I was told that you spend some time in Paris.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah. I mean, more, more frequently now than I have ever. Um, because I love it there.

And I, I have, I do have a PR there and like some, and booking agents.

[Speaker 2]

You speak, I assume you speak French.

[Speaker 1]

A little, some French. I'm getting, I'm getting better. Cause I've been going more.

Um, but, and I'm shooting another music video while I'm there. It's, it's all very exciting. I've been stressed about it, but I keep telling my, myself, like, even like thinking about two years ago, if I had said, no, you're going to wish up to Paris to play a showcase for a bunch of, I think, journalists and industry people and friends and things to, you're going to Paris to do that.

I would have been like, that's so sick. Like, so it's sometimes you have to step back and be like, no, no. What I'm doing is, is eons past, like eons past what I was doing a year or two years ago.

You have to, cause sometimes it doesn't feel like you're doing enough or not. Yeah. Not getting better.

Or there's also, it does. I think, I think sometimes the better you get at your job, the harder it is.

[Speaker 2]

Sure it is.

[Speaker 1]

Well, the thing is, is that when you, it's hard to take breaks, it's hard to like hands off because it's not the kind of industry where you can take a break and someone will do it for you. And then you go back and all like, it's not like you work in, like in an office where if you take a two week vacation, somebody just fills in for you. So if you don't, if you don't work for two weeks, then you're two weeks behind, you know, and if you're not, and here's the other thing, you know, this too, there's no money in going on Spotify.

[Speaker 2]

Right now you have to get out and tour. You have to do something or whether it's touring or playing in clubs, whatever it is without that, you'll starve.

[Speaker 3]

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]

I mean, or you're going to, like a lot of people I talked to, especially in Nashville, they worked, used to work during the day and do the bars at night until they got well enough, famous enough, they could do that.

[Speaker 1]

Right.

[Speaker 2]

And you are right because it's like, it's constantly changing. Somebody asked you a question I thought was interesting because I know the industry fairly well. And it was your answer.

I don't remember what you said. They ask about, and I just saw it a while ago, I should remember, about TikTok artists. And and because I tell people, people that are in the industry, I always tell them what this is going on.

They go to TikTok, AR, there is no such thing, I think, as an A&R person anymore. I don't think they go to clubs. I think they just watch stuff on on social media and then they sign up.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]

But you had an answer to that. And you said, I think you said you don't think about it.

[Speaker 3]

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[Speaker 1]

I mean. Which is fine, I think, I think I recall, I think I recall the question. It was like, do you think about the like 15 second playing?

You know, is it is it playable on TikTok? Is it? And I think that was my answer as I try not to think about it.

Because when you're making something, all you can all you should be thinking about is. Do I like this? Is this how I'm is this is this inaccurate?

Right. Is this accurate to how I want to express myself? And and does this sound cool?

And and I think you get and that's when you start like you're working on it. And I think you do get to a stage towards the end of making something where you're like, how will this how this connect with people? But I I truly I don't.

I don't think about clips of of a song, because I think there there was this there was this he said, Mattie Healy from the 1975, he talked about this conversation that he had with one of like the son of a of a record label exec. And he was like, so what's your what do you like to listen to? Like, who do you like?

I don't know. What songs do you like? And he said, what?

Full songs. And and I like I can't like I can't play into that mindset because it just makes me depressed.

[Speaker 2]

So because the hardest thing to do as an artist is not start thinking, oh, I should sound like so and so.

[Speaker 1]

Right. It's it's hard. It's really hard because sometimes because sometimes you want to look to people that are saying you should you kind of sound like this person.

And you're like, oh, should I be is that what I should be doing? And then you see other people getting successful. And then you're like, is that should I be writing songs like that?

This is the pop. But then it's not it doesn't it doesn't work because it's not genuine. It's not actually who you are.

So it doesn't send people know that. So they know that you're pretending. And the only thing that works is when you're not pretending.

So you it's I truly also truly believe that the more the goal with making music is to just get that get that barrier slimmer and slimmer between like what you're making and what your soul is saying.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah.

[Speaker 1]

And, you know, and the more you do it, the better you get at it because you're just learning to listen to yourself better, because, I mean, I think it's not really about where you where you get or how much attention you have. It's like it's I think it's truly about how how it feels to make and play the art. The art, the songs, the albums, it's like it has to.

I don't know, is it does it does it feel true? Does it feel and also it's really hard because by the time a lot of the time, by the time a song comes out, you've been you've heard it like a million times. And so you're like, I don't have I don't have any perspective on what this sounds like anymore.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, that's that's 100 percent true.

[Speaker 1]

Like I heard Tom York saying that he he once they finished Hail to the Thief, he like could not listen to the album again forever. And he was like, it's really nice to play it live because it has a new feel to it. Sure.

And it has it. And we can and but I can't listen to the recorded versions. And and coming from coming from Radiohead zone, Tom York, I was like, thank God, like thank God he feels that way.

[Speaker 2]

Everybody goes through the same thing.

[Speaker 1]

I have, including me, there's four of there's four of us in the band, so it's it's me, guitar, bass and drums. And then we we've been using tracks.

[Speaker 2]

That's what's going to ask if you're using tracks.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah, because there's a lot of like synthy back like, you know, ethereal kind of sounds that we want. But I'm trying to I'm trying to fix the show now because the gigs that we've been playing a lot of the times the mix is wrong and the the tracks overpower and the vocal. It's just like it's a lot.

So I'm trying to make it more like the band is the core instead of it being on top of the tracks and on top of. So and for a minute there, I was like, do I get a do I get a saxophone? Do I get a cello player to come?

And it's just it's a it's a it's a lot sometimes. But then but then you kind of take a step back like, no, no, no, you don't it doesn't have to be like a like an orchestra. Just just just alter it for the live show doesn't have to sound exactly like the recording.

[Speaker 2]

Well, that'll and it'll probably come as you go, because a lot of people now use tracks. Yeah, which and I think the younger people are used to it now, because when I was listening to your songs, I thought, well, it's going to be a little hard to play this out out because you're going to have to use tracks. And as long as I think you're 100 percent right, as long as the core is the band carrying the tune and the backup is the eurytheal stuff.

Yeah, it's also an interesting thing that more than one person sound said that you sound angelica, angelic when you angelic.

[Speaker 1]

Oh, that's so nice.

[Speaker 2]

And I thought, well, yeah, when you kind of get into that, you're not a screamer. You're not one of these people. You know, I have a sense that and I tell people that I don't tell everybody this.

But first off, you got a cool name. Thanks. Thank your parents for that.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah, I wish I could take credit.

[Speaker 2]

You can't, unfortunately.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah.

[Speaker 2]

Are they are they French? Are they or are they from your parents?

[Speaker 1]

No, no. My my mom is part Ukrainian and my dad is like German. But they were both born in America.

[Speaker 2]

OK.

[Speaker 1]

And so is I.

[Speaker 2]

OK.

[Speaker 1]

And there's some French. There's some French a little distant ways, but but there's no like immediate like I didn't grow up going to France. I have French.

I have the thing is I have French cousins who they grew up in in France and like went to school in Paris. So I visited them like once or twice when I was young. But and I was around them speaking French.

But it wasn't until maybe a couple of years ago that I was like, I want to I want to move there on or go there. I want to be there. So, yeah, now I'm just also because I I've lived in New York from for most of my life.

I only went to L.A. after I graduated high school for a year to where you were you born in New York? Yeah.

[Speaker 2]

So you lived in the city your whole life. You used to being in being in a big city. Yeah.

[Speaker 1]

Oh, yeah. But I moved to L.A. because I was I didn't want to get because all my friends were going to college and I didn't want to just sit and stay in my parents house and get complacent. And also I wanted to experience a different life, a different kind of environment and idea.

So I it was in a way it was me trying to jumpstart something else, which it totally worked. And then but I hated L.A. So I I knew I wasn't going to stay forever, but I was there for a year and then I moved back. But this time I moved downtown because I grew up uptown Manhattan.

[Speaker 2]

And I've been there.

[Speaker 1]

Cool. And I think that the I also just wanted to I want to I want to explore different cities because also I know that New York is for me. I know that's it's where it's at.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah, sure.

[Speaker 1]

So I think that I could easily just just stay here my whole life if I wanted to and and be happy. But I really feel like I have to get a better sense of different people, different different different ideas. I can't I can't I can't just and there's there's a plethora of ideas and different kinds of people and varieties in New York.

But it's all New York.

[Speaker 2]

It's New York.

[Speaker 1]

So and to me, Paris is so beautiful and so and and and parallel to New York in a way that I can. Tolerate in a city where sometimes I can't tolerate a city, it's really interesting to have grown up in a city where everybody moves to because I never thought about that, that's true. Well, because like most of the people I know are from somewhere else.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah.

[Speaker 1]

And and I'm like, and they had a whole different life, a whole different, you know, feeling to where they grew up and then and then they moved here. And I'm like, I've had I've been in New York this entire time. I need to I need to I need to see more and then come back.

Like, I'll always come back.

[Speaker 2]

Yeah. Do you don't spend it looks to me like you don't spend a lot of time on social media.

[Speaker 1]

That's that's a nice perception. I think I I think I spend a lot of time on social media.

[Speaker 2]

Well, that's the hardest thing is trying to do that all the time and try to write everything else.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah. I mean, my I mean, it's mostly Instagram for me because it's that's kind of it's kind of turned into I mean, Instagram in general has kind of turned into like a resume or like a collection of of it's like it's like who you are as an artist and what you're doing. And and it's it is and people judge you for it.

People, industry people, you know, and I do I do pay attention to what happens on Instagram quite a lot more than I more than I would like. But I I'm working on it because I blocked I like blocked it from my phone for certain hours of the day. It's also how you frame it.

Like, I I think for a while when I was first starting out, people like like managers would be like, you have to be posting this this this this many times a week and this kind of thing. And I'm like, I don't for me, I think the difference for me is that I don't I don't like posting just to post just to like just to remind people that I'm there, just remind people that I'm a musician like I for me, I'm a little bit of a control freak. It has to be good.

It has to be good. It has to be good quality. It has to be well thought out.

And so it tends to be less often because I can't just churn that out as quickly as a lot of people with who are just making who are just making easy videos or trying to, you know, get attention. I mean, it works. It totally works.

And I respect it because it is it's a it's a lot of work to to do that. But I don't I don't find that fulfilling in any way. So I don't want to do it.

It does feel ingenuine because it does feel like I'm just asking for your attention. I'm just asking for you to to to know who I am versus this is who I actually this is who I actually want to be. This is how I actually want to connect and actually want to be looked at as and as an artist, as a as a.

Yeah. So it's it's always been a and also less so now because I think I gained I gained a lot. I gained some attention from a video that I posted back in May and it like it it raised my following quite a lot.

And I think because of that, it proved to me that I could just do what I wanted and be authentic and not have to worry about. Because I also I see people posting all the time and it doesn't it doesn't necessarily work. They'll have, you know, one one video that works and then the rest.

I think you have to have a core. You have to have a core identity rather than you want to put good stuff up.

[Speaker 2]

That's what you.

[Speaker 1]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think I mean, it also comes through trial and error. Sometimes you sometimes you post something.

It doesn't work and it's fine. It's not also, you know, for me, I don't post for things to work. I post because I like it.

[Speaker 2]

What's next for you real quick? Tell me what's on. You're going to finish.

So what you're working on now, what are you going to do with what you're working on now?

[Speaker 1]

I don't know. We just since we finished.