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
The Narcissist Song
Leandra Lyrics
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Whispering noises in your ear
I'm the voice you can′t ignore
I'm the born that you don't want to hear
I′m the choice that you regret
The army that you led
I′m the branch within your eye
I'm the stalker, I′m the spy
And my mum has told me never to go out
And the daughter should have never screamed and shouted
And the grave you dig me never will be found
Take the best from me – never strike it down
Please, write a book about yourself:
You've deserved the attention
The dramas you live through
Are those to be mentioned
Threw everything in flames
The world′s on fire
To suffocate my name,
Identities I want to hire.
And my mum has told me never to go out
And the daughter should have never screamed and shouted
And the grave you dig me never will be found
Take the best from me – never strike it down
In Leandra's song The Narcissist Song, the lyrics explore the perspective of a narcissistic personality, embodied as a voice whispering in the listener's ear. The lyrics are heavily psychological, reflecting the insidious nature of narcissism, with the voice claiming to be the noise in the listener's ear that they cannot ignore, the choice that they regret, and the branch within their eye - alluding to the metaphor of the mote and the beam.
Furthermore, the voice claims to be the stalker and the spy, implying that the narcissistic individual is constantly watching and manipulating those around them. The sense of victimization is further reinforced through the lines "And my mum has told me never to go out / And the daughter should have never screamed and shouted / And the grave you dig me never will be found" - suggesting that the voice is trapped and controlled by external forces. However, the song ends with a defiant statement - "Take the best from me - never strike it down" - suggesting that the narcissistic persona will always seek to maintain control and power over others.
Line by Line Meaning
Hello again, it's me
I am the constant presence in your life that you can't escape
Whispering noises in your ear
I am the voice inside your head that never goes away
I'm the voice you can't ignore
You can try to ignore me, but I will always come back
I'm the born that you don't want to hear
I represent the ugly truths that you would rather not acknowledge
I'm the choice that you regret
You constantly make decisions that you later regret and I remind you of them
The army that you led
Your actions have consequences that you must face, and I represent the consequences of your choices
I'm the branch within your eye
I am the source of your pain and frustration
I'm the stalker, I'm the spy
I am always watching and following you, never letting you forget about me
And my mum has told me never to go out
Even the people who care about me know that I am dangerous and should be avoided
And the daughter should have never screamed and shouted
Someone close to me suffered because of my actions and I regret it
And the grave you dig me never will be found
I will always haunt you, even after I am gone
Take the best from me – never strike it down
Don't destroy the good things about me, even if the bad things outweigh them
Please, write a book about yourself:
You are so obsessed with yourself that you want to write an entire book about your own life
You've deserved the attention
You believe that you are entitled to everyone's attention and admiration
The dramas you live through
You create unnecessary drama in your life for attention and validation
Are those to be mentioned
You want everyone to know about all of the problems in your life, even if they are mundane
Threw everything in flames
You destroy everything around you, no matter how much it hurts others
The world's on fire
Your actions have consequences that affect more than just yourself
To suffocate my name,
You want to eliminate anything that could damage your reputation or image
Identities I want to hire.
You are so insecure that you pretend to be other people to impress others
Writer(s): Olga Telnow
Contributed by Alex S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.