Leandra Ophelia Dax (real name: Olga Telnow , born as: Olga Wladimirowna Te… Read Full Bio ↴Leandra Ophelia Dax (real name: Olga Telnow , born as: Olga Wladimirowna Telnowa ; born December 19, 1981 in Minsk , Belarusian SSR ) is a pianist , keyboardist , singer and songwriter with Belarusian and German citizenship.
Olga Telnowa was born in Minsk, Belarus (then the USSR ) as the only child of an English lecturer and a physics engineer.
At the age of five she began to play the theme songs of her favorite series on the piano , at the age of six she was admitted to an elite music school, where she studied piano, classical composition , music theory and choir .
The general school she attended also specialized in promoting musical talent. Her perfect pitch was quickly discovered and her creativity encouraged: the music school allowed her to take part in composition competitions. When she finally won first place in one of the competitions at the age of nine, she got a scholarship at the Moscow Conservatory . However, her parents persuaded the jury to transfer the scholarship to an adequate academy in the city of Minsk because of the young age of their daughter .
Then Olga Telnowa was placed at the Minsk Conservatory, where she began a junior course in piano and composition. In 1996 the family fled to the German Ruhr area . The then successful young pianist tried to continue her junior studies at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen . Due to language barriers, the 14-year-old only succeeded in doing this after two unsuccessful entrance exams. In the same year she took first place in Jugend composed with the classical piece Variations on a theme of its own and a year later with freedom of variation for a keyboard cattle .
At the age of fourteen, Olga Telnow discovered her love for contemporary rock and punk music. She started wearing her hair brightly and dressing funky. Eventually she left the University of the Arts to take electric guitar lessons. After three years of abstinence from the piano, she made up her mind to take her diploma in piano and composition at the same time as graduating from high school .
At the age of seventeen, Telnow founded the riot-grrrl band Venusbabydoll , in which she processed influences such as Hole and Nirvana . During a two-week internship in a recording studio , the classical pianist developed an interest in recording technology and got to know her long-time mentor and friend. Rya, then under contract with FAME Recordings , took on her by making the first demo recordings of Venusbabydoll and later including the songwriter in her live band as a keyboardist.
Over the next three years, tours with Mila Mar , Last Instance and appearances with Corvus Corax followed . In the meantime, Telnow wrote new pieces of her own, which she describes as "selected from extreme situations", founded the Leandra project and completed her Bachelor of Arts in social and educational psychology.
When Rya withdrew from the public eye, the pianist took on an engagement as keyboard player for the synth rock band Jesus on Extasy under the pseudonym Ophelia Dax . This stage name is made up of one of the characters in the tragedy Hamlet by W. Shakespeare and the character Jadzia Dax from the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .
The band Jesus on Extasy was under contract with Drakkar Entertainment , toured Europe over the next few years and shared the festival stages with Nightwish , Tool , Skinny Puppy , And One , Unheilig , Last Instance and Marilyn Manson, among others .
In 2008 the artist finally got a contract with Drakkar Entertainment to release her first solo album Metamorphine under the name Leandra with the Sony BMG distributor . The album includes a duet with Sven Friedrich ( Zeraphine , Dreadful Shadows ). Her longtime friends of the band last instance invited her as a singer and pianist to her acoustic album The White Song and the accompanying The White Tour .
In 2010, Olga Telnow accepted an engagement with the band Diary of Dreams under the pseudonym DAX . Due to personal differences within the band, the collaboration only lasted a few months.
At the end of the same year she joined Apoptygma Berzerk , with whom she competes in the second part of Unheilig's “Great Freedom” tour . In 2011, the keyboard player also appeared at the same time as the cashier band and accompanied Frei.Wild's "XMas" tour on the piano. In 2012 Leandra Ophelia Dax joined Die Priester , Santiano and Roterfeld as keyboard player .
Olga Telnowa describes the solo debut album Metamorphine of her project Leandra as her secret diary. The pieces are a reflection of extreme situations in her life. Stylistically, the music moves between Tori Amos , PJ Harvey and Massive Attack .

Projects and collaborations
2003–2006: Keyboard player with Rya. Tour with Mila Mar and Last Instance.
2007–Dato: Keyboarderin bei Jesus on Extasy
2008 – date: Keyboard player in Andy Brings' band (formerly: Sodom , The Traceelords )
February – July 2010: Keyboard player with Diary of Dreams, for the tour with Unheilig.
2008: Duet with Sven Friedrich ( Zeraphine , Dreadful Shadows )
2008: Piano and vocals on the album The White Song by the band Last Instance and on the subsequent The White Tour
2008: Club single Noisy Awareness , remixed by Chai Deveraux, guitarist of Jesus on Extasy.
2009: Duet with Sid from The Pussybats on The Most Beautiful Tales End Sadly and Dance With the Devils , both on the album Famous Last Songs .
2010: Live keyboard at Apoptygma Berzerk for the Unheilig Support Tour Große Freiheit II .
2011: Background singer at Frei.Wild - only assholes around me
2012: Live Keyboard at Santiano
2013: Background singer with Frei.Wild on the album Still

Noisy Awareness
Leandra Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Noisy Awareness

Your unconscious scarred little
space in time's old horizons
Unlocking swooning voracity
You raise obsession in between

Sometimes you wither enchantment

in intimate gardens
Each step of reserved delusion
fertilizes your fantasy

You may enslave
You may disgrace
My will your fury may obtain
In a rainy summer night
you're making me nervous
Through tomorrow
through my fights
you're making me nervous
In a wedding summer night
you're taking the summer
In a wedding summer night
you take me

So wake up and forget the self
and you will fear nothing
Cut anything out of your life
and you will fear nothing
Beware the risky transactions
and you will fear nothing
So chase for abduction of duty
and you will fear nothing

You may enslave
You may disgrace
My will your fury may obtain
In a rainy summer night
you're making me nervous
Through tomorrow
through my fights
you're making me nervous
In a wedding summer night
you're taking the summer

In a wedding summer night
you take me

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of "Noisy Awareness" by Leandra express the idea of being caught between reality and illusion, between the conscious and the unconscious mind. The beginning of the song sets the tone for a journey of introspection and self-discovery. The line "Your unconscious scarred little/space in time's old horizons" seems to evoke the idea of past traumas, which have left a mark on the unconscious mind where they remain in a dark and hidden space.

As the song progresses, the theme of obsession and addiction becomes more apparent. The line "You raise obsession in between" suggests that the singer is on the brink of falling prey to an addiction, which will be hard to resist. The lyrics also reveal a vulnerability and a sense of discomfort, especially in the lines "In a rainy summer night you're making me nervous/Through tomorrow through my fights you're making me nervous." This seems to suggest that the singer is grappling with the idea of giving in to the temptation of addiction and is anxious about the consequences.

The chorus seems to offer a solution to this internal struggle by urging the listener to forget the self and cut out anything that might cause fear. The lines "So wake up and forget the self/And you will fear nothing" convey the idea that we should let go of our ego, identity, and attachments to cope with the anxieties that come with the struggle between the conscious and unconscious mind.

Line by Line Meaning

Your unconscious scarred little
Your innermost thoughts, hidden and wounded

space in time's old horizons
Forgotten memories of the past

Unlocking swooning voracity
Releasing intense desire

You raise obsession in between
You create a fixation that consumes everything else

Sometimes you wither enchantment
Occasionally, you lose the magic and wonder of life

in intimate gardens
In moments of vulnerability and closeness

Each step of reserved delusion
Every instance of holding back from reality

fertilizes your fantasy
Nourishes your unrealistic aspirations

You may enslave
You have the capability to control and dominate

You may disgrace
You can bring shame and humiliation

My will your fury may obtain
Your anger can overpower my desires