Interview: Kara Levchenko

Photo by Chris Mush

Interview by Sally Watanabe

Kara Levchenko is a singer/songwriter and producer from Maryland who has her own solo project and is also the lead vocalist and keys player for the collective Medusa’s Muse. I had the chance to sit down with Kara and chat about her journey as a musician and upcoming projects! 

How did you get inspired to start making music? 

When I was a kid I didn't play many instruments– I tried piano, violin, flute, and none of it really clicked, but then I joined chorus in middle school and really liked singing, so I would just make up songs! I decided that I wanted to major in music, and then I got formal training in classical music, which I didn't really like…what I really wanted to know was how to write music and how to jam, how to improvise, but I didn't learn that in college. When I went to go teach, I found out that people are expecting to be taught the same thing, like classical music and all that, and it wasn’t aligning with what I believe music is really about. During the pandemic, I had a whole identity crisis where I was like, “I don't know if I want to teach anymore, I think I want to be an artist, a performing artist, and maybe teach on the side.” so I started that journey, started writing songs, started releasing them, working on my album, and here I am! 

Can you talk a little bit about how you found your sound? 

I started by thinking a song had to begin with an instrument and my voice, and when I learned piano and a bit more guitar I used those instruments to write songs for my album. I worked with a producer who mixed and mastered for me, but then I began wondering, how hard can it be to produce a track? Moving from writing on an instrument to envisioning a sound and what I want the landscape to be, and then creating that on the computer– it's totally different from how I was writing music before. It's been really freeing to realize a song can be created, there's no wrong way to start a song, you don't have to put yourself in a box, you can start it however feels authentic, or just for fun, and letting myself not be so serious. 

Photo by Indyah Larae

How did you come together with your collective, Medusa’s Muse? 

I was in a hip-hop cover band for about a year and a half before I left that group, because it was full of men who were not very communicative or sensitive to the women's experience, which became kind of a common thread for my experience in the music industry thus far. But that also showed me what I wanted to focus on. I was like, okay, so I actually want to focus on amplifying minority voices, but also women's voices, queer voices especially, in the scene. I want my community to be more like that, I want my collective to be more like that. And I think there's definitely importance with vision to have someone in charge of a vision. But I also believe that music should be more of a community experience, where everyone's kind of contributing. For me, I was excited to let go of my vision of the music and let it develop into something new in a live context, because it's not the studio. It's very different to perform it on stage with musicians. I found my collective members just on Facebook and Instagram along with my best friend Indyah from high school. We created the project Medusa's Muse to be lifting up women, lifting up queer voices, and just taking our experiences in the music industry and in society in general, and trying to write with that in mind.

Any favorite lessons you’ve learned along the way? 

It wasn't until I wrote my first album “Letters to Myself”, and put it out before I was like, ‘wow, I've been totally ignoring my queer experience’, why is that? And then it was like, well, because I'm scared to be vulnerable about it, that's why. So I started working through that a little bit in therapy, and remembering experiences I've had where I've had feelings for other women, and I've had relationships with other women, but I haven't let myself go there in terms of like, being open about it, and so finally being like, “Okay, I'm going to embrace that part of my identity, and I'm going to let myself go there in my songwriting.” It's been crazy, because it's brought up a lot of feelings, and the song that I recently released, Hide, is kind of inspired by the first queer relationship that I had. There was a lot there to unpack, but I wasn't really ready for it at the time. And so then years later, I unpacked that, and that's what the song is about. It's just crazy that you can write a song about something that happened so long ago but the feelings are still so relevant, and they just come right out, and you're like, damn, I didn't even know I was feeling that way until the lyrics left my body. 

Photo by Juliet Levchenko

How has community played a role in supporting your journey? 

Starting the DMV Local Music playlist was a really fun way to start branching out and meeting other people and playing their music. Being able to meet musicians and friends going on a parallel journey of supporting each really helps when I get bogged down in things like content– because as an introvert, content is a nightmare! I love people, I love community, I love music, and I feel like an extrovert when I'm in a music setting because it's just so addicting. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the streams and numbers and feelings of “Am I good enough?” But then I remember that literally every other artist that is on this planet is also thinking those things! Instead of feeling like we're competing with each other, feeling like we're lifting each other up, and that's exactly what it's all about. 

What are you working on nowadays? 

Right now I'm working on a sound and concept for another album and it will probably be a 2025 release. I have a lot of songs that are within the EDM, pop, hip-hop feel, and so I'm getting the tracks for that ready, but not rushing it, not feeling like I have to put it all out at one time. I'm taking a break with the collective to really focus on doing that and then once that music is kind of ready to roll, booking another little local tour season with the collective and getting back out there to perform, For now, it's really nice to just kind of hibernate internally, work on music, and then simultaneously go out to shows and support the community. 

Check out more at karalevchenko.com and follow along to stay updated @kara.levchenko!

Photo by Sally Watanabe