Daneshevskaya – No Easy Answers

Beckerman grew up in a musical family; her father is a music professor, her mother studied opera, and her brothers played various instruments. She learned piano from her father’s grad students. “The fun part of music is connecting with people, that’s how I was raised,” Beckerman says. Before experimenting with writing her own music, Beckerman would sing the prayers she was taught attending synagogue. Her own songs often feel spiritual, less so by any religious connotation and more as a hymn-like, archival record of Beckerman’s own past, present and future.

A life-long New York City resident, Beckerman’s recording moniker (and real-life middle name) comes from her Russian-Jewish great-grandmother, a person whose presence has always been felt although their paths never crossed in real life. Both her grandparents passed away while Beckerman wrote the songs that make up Long Is The Tunnel, and as much as stories about her grandmother — a poet and teacher — feel like “a version of me in the past,” they ignited a burning curiosity to color in the lines of where Beckerman came from. She often re-read her grandmother’s letters, which “conveyed longing in such a subtle and satisfying, realistic way,” a sentiment that can be applied to Beckerman’s own music.

While her debut EP Bury Your Horses stitched together the fixed points and mysteries of human connection, Long Is The Tunnel contemplates how the people you meet impact the pathway you travel. The somber melancholy of her love songs are often more manifestations to her internal self than anyone else. What she’s really seeking is the independence of a healthy relationship, or she explains: “we’re not gonna belong to each other, but we’ll share this life.”