Nikita Lev can’t get out of her own head in her new single Kill Her Mind — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
The lead single from her upcoming EP Waiting, Kill Her Mind is a hypnotic, gut-wrenching exploration of post-breakup turmoil. Built on shoegaze-like guitars, layered vocals, and pulsating rhythms, the track captures the relentless, looping thoughts that follow emotional upheaval. “It’s about wanting to stop thinking — wanting to let go — but also knowing you can’t,” Nikita explains. “It’s like your mind is working against you, replaying things over and over, and you just want it to shut off.”
Nikita’s music lives in the in-between. Between solitude and connection. Between nostalgia and uncertainty. Between self-destruction and healing. On Waiting, due May 16, the rising indie artist will release a collection of songs that inhabit those liminal spaces, grappling with heartbreak, longing, and self-reconstruction through grungy atmospheres and cinematic storytelling.
While Waiting is deeply personal, Nikita wouldn’t call it a breakup record — it’s a reflection of the ways we hold on to things that are already slipping away, waiting for time to dull the pain, waiting to understand what went wrong. “I knew it was going to end. I just didn’t know when,” Nikita says of the emotional space that shaped the EP. “And then it happened, and I felt lost. These songs aren’t about weeks or months of my life. They’re about the most heightened moments — the ones where I felt like I might completely lose myself for an hour, and then had to keep going anyway.”
Nikita is carving out a distinct space for herself in the indie-pop world, blending folk intimacy with gritty textures, layered sonics, and emotionally charged storytelling. Her influences span from Radiohead, St. Vincent, Leonard Cohen and The 1975, but her approach is anchored in raw, deeply felt moments. “I don’t really think about an audience when I write,” she admits. “I’ve never thought, ‘How’s this going to sound on Spotify?’ It’s more like — I follow what feels right. If it sounds cool, then sick. But when it’s out in the world, maybe someone will hear it and think, ‘Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m going through.’ Either way, that’s enough for me.”
Raised on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Nikita’s musical DNA runs deep. Her family has roots in chamber music, her mother played in a ’90s rock band, and her home was filled with everything from ABBA to The Rolling Stones. But it was Taylor Swift who first set her path in motion. “I was four years old when I saw Taylor Swift perform on TV. My dad pointed at the screen and said, ‘Look at her.’ And I just decided — I’m going to be her when I grow up,” she recalls. By 10, she had a guitar in her hands and was writing her own songs. Unlike many young artists, Nikita resisted formal training, preferring to explore her craft intuitively. “I wasn’t a joiner. I never wanted anyone to tell me how to express myself. I needed to figure it out on my own.”
For Nikita, New York City is a creative force that shapes every song she writes. “I lived in LA for a little while, and my songs got softer — more folk. But when I moved back to New York, everything started getting heavier. The energy here just pulls that out of me.” That energy courses through every track on Waiting — a record that fuses delicate songwriting with raw edges, striking a balance between beautiful and bruised.
A self-described lover of solitude, Nikita’s music often wrestles with themes of longing, reflection, and emotional contradiction. “I’ve spent a lot of my life stubbornly wanting to be independent. Wanting to prove I don’t need anyone. But there’s a weird contradiction there — because I also crave connection. That tension is everywhere in my music.” She seeks out solo experiences, often attending concerts alone. “For me, live music is a conversation between the performer and the audience. It’s intimate. It doesn’t matter if I’m there with someone or not.” But she’s also learning to soften, to let others in. “I write, and that helps. It validates everything, and then I can move forward. And if that doesn’t work, I call my dad. Or my friends. Or my cat.”
As her career gains momentum, Nikita remains committed to trusting her instincts. One of the most memorable pieces of advice she’s received? “Ignore everything industry people tell you and just do what you want.” Of course, she laughs, she doesn’t take that literally. “I listen. But I also question. I don’t want to make music based on what I think people want to hear. I want it to be honest.” That honesty is exactly what makes Waiting such a compelling record. It’s a study in fleeting emotions, in learning how to exist inside the moment before it’s gone.
Check out Kill Her Mind above, hear more from Nikita Lev below, and find her on her website, Instagram and Twitter.
