Daneshevskaya - Interview

COSMOS.PRESS

Tell us about Daneshevskaya.

DANESHEVSKAYA - ANNA BECKERMAN

We started as just kinda playing around and having fun and singing songs we really like. We started writing together, but this is over the course of like five years or so.

Arthur came in and helped us with production and some writing. We were playing together for the last three years as the three of us and in the last couple months for the tour we got a guitarist Claire, drummer Joey, and that's where we're at now.

COSMOS.PRESS

Your band name originates back to your Russian Jewish familial roots. Can you tell us a bit about why you chose to represent these cultural ties in your band stage name?

DANESHEVSKAYA - ANNA BECKERMAN

I think it's just really hard to find a band name. I feel like a connection to it. It just kind of was intuitive.

COSMOS.PRESS

Right, now you guys are on tour with Black Country New Road, which is one of the most critically acclaimed online music acts in recent history.

How did it feel to get picked for this tour? And how's your experience been so far?

DANESHEVSKAYA - ANNA BECKERMAN

It felt awesome. Super flattering and I couldn't really believe it. I had been friendly with them. I've met Louis the saxophone player/singer a few times and we just like really got along.

It's been awesome and crazy to play such big shows. To go from playing shows in small rooms to playing huge sold out shows, is such a trip.

COSMOS.PRESS

Do you have a personal show so far that stood out to you?

DANESHEVSKAYA - ARTUR SZEREJKO

I would say that Portland, Oregon was kind of the most impactful shows for me. It felt like being dropped into the deep end.

DANESHEVSKAYA - ANNA BECKERMAN

I loved Kansas the people, they were just so sweet. I would say Portland was just like so surreal.

COSMOS.PRESS

You have a new project dropping on November 10, 'Long is The Tunnel.'

Can you preview us a bit on what that project is going to be?

DANESHEVSKAYA - ANNA BECKERMAN

It's a lot more variety.

I would say, all of the songs from the first EP were all kinda of recorded in a similar way.

This EP, there's just a huge range of who recorded stuff and what the instruments are and who we worked with. There's more rock and roll, some ballads, and some folky stuff.

COSMOS.PRESS

Can you tell us about the visuals for the track, 'Somewhere in the Middle?'

DANESHEVSKAYA - ANNA BECKERMAN

I had a friend who was learning how to use a film camera and they just asked if they could shoot some visuals. It ended up being a good fit for the music so we used it.

I had never interacted really with a film camera like that before so it was really cool.

COSMOS.PRESS

On your YouTube bio it says, "your band crafts artful haunting songs that only reveal themselves halfway before she spins the wheel again."

DANESHEVSKAYA - ARTUR SZEREJKO

I think that was about the barrier versus EP, which I wrote over the course of like, three years or so.

A lot of songs have a linear structure to them, where they take a turn and reveal something the listener didn't really expect towards the beginning.

There weren't any expectations. The genesis of this project wasn't rooted in the idea that we were going to be a band that was going to go on tours, like friends hanging out and making music together.

I think spinning the wheel is, is that you know, it's just friends having fun and playing games.

DANESHEVSKAYA - MADELINE LESHNER

I feel like Black Country is inspiring because they're also classically trained. Like Arthur was saying, I used to take lessons and when I was in the first band I was in I was trying to play cool.

But then seeing May perform with her elbows out and her good posture - I was like, Oh, that's awesome. They're both cool.

DANESHEVSKAYA - ARTUR SZEREJKO

I know that Anna is always kind of absorbing different content, not just from music.

But other mediums like painting, you know, she's also watches a lot of movies and all these things, I sense that come out in her music somatically just because we're around each other a lot.

You can tap into things that you come across, and then you digest it, and it comes through in your work. I think the reason that Anna's music stands out so much is because the things that she chooses to ingest complement each other in a really unique way.

COSMOS.PRESS

Yeah, I mean, all art is derivative of something else.

If you go far back enough it's constantly building an evolving thing. It can take things that are interesting and package it into something beautiful, right?

DANESHEVSKAYA - ARTUR SZEREJKO

100%

COSMOS.PRESS

What's next for Daneshevskaya?

DANESHEVSKAYA - ANNA BECKERMAN

We'll have a really show in New York - then some rest.

DANESHEVSKAYA - ARTUR SZEREJKO

Writing is going to be the focus for the next few months or so.

I'm really excited to get back together and just spend some time hunkering down and trying to make some stuff that is informed by everything we've been around for the past few months.

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LINKS: Bandcamp - YouTube - Instagram