Sevara: «Being present does not always begin beautifully»

When music transcends the boundaries of a genre, artistic identity begins to expand into new territories. Perhaps that is where the essence of Sevara and her new EP, ‘Here‘, conceived as a journey through five stages of presence lies. The singer songwriter, originally from Uzbekistan and now based in London, presents ‘See It Through‘,  the first single from the EP, a song about self-confidence and the ability to keep moving forward even when circumstances aren’t in your favor.

Blending indie, alternative rock, and R&B, the track draws on memories and imagination to find the strength to face uncertainty. Sevara crafts a body of work in which sound, imagery, styling, and atmosphere function as parts of a single creative language. The result is an intimate, cinematic, and slightly surreal universe where emotions are not only expressed through music but also take visual form. This identity reflects her understanding of art as an experience capable of transforming our perception and connecting with our inner world.

This concept also runs through ‘Here’, where presence is not conceived as a permanent state of calm or balance, but rather as a process that evolves through various emotional experiences. The journey begins with confusion, resistance, or detachment and moves toward movement, vision, and joy. ‘See It Through’ is the first single from your upcoming EP, and it’s about moving forward even when circumstances don’t make it easy. Where did the song come from, and what does it mean to you at this point in your life?  

I wrote ‘See It Through’ at around 4am while I was in Uzbekistan. What was special about that moment is that the song arrived very fully: the melody, the sound, the words, and even the visuals came to me together. It felt like the whole world of the song appeared at once.

At this point in my life, the song feels like an energy source. I listen to it and it fills me with hope again, not in a naive way, but in a way that reminds me I can keep moving. I think I wrote it for myself in a sense. Almost like I created something I could return to when my own hope feels lower, so I can tap back into the energy of the song and feel it again.

That connects to a wider part of how I think about art. My academic work in neuroaesthetics explored how aesthetic experiences, including music, visual art, movement and sensory environments, can influence emotion, memory, perception and wellbeing. So for me, a song is not only expression. It can become a place you enter, a state you reactivate, a way of shifting your internal world.

‘See It Through’ is about drawing from the most hopeful parts of yourself and using them as fuel, especially when the future feels uncertain. It is not about pretending everything is easy. It is about finding something inside you that is strong enough to keep going. 

Sonically, the track blends indie, alternative rock and R&B influences, while memories and imagination also play an important role in its message. How did you build the song, and how do these elements come together in it? 

The song was built around a feeling before it was built around a genre. I wanted it to have movement, warmth and emotional lift, while still keeping the vocal close and direct. The indie and alternative rock side gives it drive, while the R&B influence brings softness, rhythm and a more fluid emotional texture. I like that contrast: something that pushes forward, but still feels human and personal.  

At the time, I was listening to The Rolling Stones a lot, especially ‘Gimme Shelter,’ ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,’ ‘Angie’ and ‘Miss You’. Those songs gave me this specific emotional state: drive, joy, presence and the feeling of becoming lighter. They pull me out of heaviness and make me feel like I can move again. I was also inspired by ‘La Seine and I’ from A Monster in Paris, which has this fairytale warmth, charm and purity. It feels slightly magical, but still very sincere.  

Memory and imagination are central to the track. Through my neuroaesthetics research, I became interested in how emotionally meaningful sensory material, like sounds, images, places, bodily sensations and memories, can influence internal emotional states. So I do not see memory as only nostalgia. I see it as something active. It can bring back a version of yourself, a feeling, a sense of possibility.  

In ‘See It Through’, memories and imagined futures become part of the sound. The song is not only looking back or looking forward. It is using both as fuel: the memory of hope, and the imagination of a future where you make it through.

Your project brings together a sonic identity and an intimate, cinematic and slightly surreal visual universe. You’re also originally from Uzbekistan and are now based in London. How do your influences, experiences and the places you’ve lived shape the artistic identity you’re building? 

I love the phrase “cinematic and slightly surreal visual universe,” because that is exactly how I feel inside. I often experience emotion visually before I can explain it. My work is about taking that inner world and projecting it into reality through sound, image, styling, movement and atmosphere.

Being from Uzbekistan is a big part of me, but I do not want to use culture in a decorative or obvious way. I am more interested in filtering it through my own perception. In my earlier work, Uzbek influences appeared more directly in the music and visuals. Now they are still there, but they come through in a more personal and instinctive way. Even my braids are connected to that. Braids exist traditionally in Uzbek culture, but I wear them in my own way, as part of the visual language I am building.

Moving to London changed a lot for me. I think London is where I started embracing myself more fully and following my curiosity in a more conscious way. It gave me space to bring different parts of myself together: my culture, my music, my visual world, and my interest in health, wellbeing, memory, and perception.

Neuroaesthetics gave language to something I already felt intuitively: that art is not only a sensory experience, but something that can shape how we perceive, remember, feel and connect to ourselves. I think my artistic identity lives in that space between culture, emotion, science and imagination.

So my world is shaped by contrast: Uzbekistan and London, memory and future, softness and strength, reality and surrealism. I do not want to choose one side. I think the identity I am building exists because all of those things meet. 

Your upcoming EP is structured around five stages of presence. How did this concept come about, and what made ‘See It Through’ the right track to introduce it and offer a first glimpse into this new project?

The EP is called ‘Here’, and it explores presence not as one perfect peaceful state, but as a cycle. I became interested in the idea that being present does not always begin beautifully. Sometimes it starts with confusion, resistance, detachment or asking why something is happening to you. But if you stay with that process, presence can slowly become movement, vision, hope and eventually joy. 

Each song represents a different emotional stage. ‘WHY WHY WHY’ is the questioning stage. It is about being inside confusion and trying to understand why you are experiencing something. ‘IDC’ is detachment, but not in a cold way. It is about standing in your own energy after you have already felt too much. ‘RUNNING THROUGH THE HILLS’ is movement and focus, where you know what you want to move towards, even if the path ahead is unknown. ‘See It Through’ is the vision stage. It is the moment where you become present enough to see the future through a more positive lens. Then ‘FREE’ is joy, where presence becomes freedom from the inside out. 

‘See It Through’ felt like the right first single because it carries the emotional heart of the project. It introduces the idea of using memory, beauty, belief and imagination as fuel to keep going. It is hopeful, but not shallow. It still knows uncertainty exists, but it chooses to look through it. 

For me, the EP moves from being inside a foggy maze to understanding how to move through that maze with a free, peaceful, present feeling inside you, until the maze becomes the big beautiful garden it actually was from the beginning. 

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