Something special happened in the studio last week. We filmed a live session of ELEPHANTS at Igor Matvienko’s legendary space, and Denis Podkolzin captured magic that I didn’t know existed in this song.
Performing ELEPHANTS with a full band for the first time revealed layers I never heard in my bedroom demos. The studio’s acoustics brought out the raw emotion that gets lost in polished recordings. Sometimes you need that live energy to understand what a song is really about.
Denis filmed it with this intimate approach that makes you feel like you’re sitting in the room with us. Clean, professional setup but still honest documentation of musicians doing what they do best. The lighting creates this moody atmosphere that perfectly matches the song’s fragmented emotional landscape.
Playing with the full band changed how I approached the vocals. Those broken, interrupted verses that felt so personal suddenly became this shared experience. The drummer found rhythms that follow the lyrical chaos. The bass lines mirror the vocal melody in ways that make the whole thing feel like one breathing organism.
Igor Matvienko’s studio has this history that you can feel in the walls. Knowing that so many important Russian artists recorded there added weight to our session. We weren’t just making a video – we were contributing to that legacy.
What I love about this live version is how it strips away studio polish while adding musical depth. You hear the imperfections, the slight hesitations, the moments where musicians communicate through glances. That’s where the real emotion lives.
The session reminded me why I fell in love with live performance. Studio recordings capture ideas, but live sessions capture feelings. When you’re in a room with other musicians, responding to each other in real time, something happens that you can’t manufacture later.
Denis understood the assignment perfectly. His camera work follows the music’s emotional beats without being intrusive. You forget you’re watching a video and just get lost in the sound.
Watch the full live session on YouTube
This is ELEPHANTS the way it was meant to be heard.
— Indie pop artist, musician Anastasia Ledovskaya