Yara is a Toronto-based creator of lush and beautiful electronic music - mostly instrumental, sometimes not. She was nice enough to respond to some rapidly typed questions via electronic mail.

Who are you? Please introduce yourself. Full name: Yara Jakymiw. From the very first record that I owned when I was about four years old (Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - I Love Rock and Roll), I knew I wanted to make music for the rest of my life. I started piano lessons almost immediately and studied classical music. I went to university for piano performance, always feeling I was on the right track but never in my element, until I met Kristi Allik (Queens University music professor), who introduced me to electro-acoustic music. Soon I was spending more than eight hours a day in the studio creating new sounds and composing with them. I was so inspired and captivated by this genre of music and the process of its creation that I have never really looked back. I graduated and moved to Toronto with the idea of writing and recording my first electronic record.

You released a CD back in September, of which I know almost nothing. Please tell me everything! Is this your debut? Was it a long-time work-in-progress? My CD Plant Life is my debut. It was about three years in the making. I basically started from scratch by building a studio at home and experimenting with different sounds. Soon those sounds became songs and the CD was created.

Instrumental electronic music is usually about creating a mood or setting, rather than telling a story. What kinds of moods are you trying to set? I would say my music is a bit of both - telling a story and creating a mood. The songs which have vocals are, of course, telling a story. "My Ella" is about a dream that I had where I fell in love with an android and how much of a faux-pas it was in the world we live in. The other, "Singerwannabe," is about a "true" ghost story I read called The Devil That Walked in Devon. It was about a town that experienced strange events which the people accounted to being the result of the devil passing through. Most importantly though, I am trying to evoke human emotion within all of my songs. I want to show people that electronic music is as natural and organic as any other kind of music.

Inevitable gender question.... you are one of very few women making electronic music. Why do you think the gender divide is so stark in this genre? Unfortunately, I don't really know or understand this myself. What I do know is that this is changing and that more and more women are making this kind of music. It was, in fact, an older woman that introduced me to it in the first place, and she has been doing this since at least the `70s. May I add that she performed on the same stage as Leon Theremin. Maybe it is that people just aren't as aware of the women who are making electronic music???

What are your plans for your live show? In the past, I tried to perform by myself, which turned out OK, but I personally was never really satisfied with the performance. I wanted to put a band together to re-create my songs live (which turns out to be very difficult) and that is what I ended up doing. Josh van Tassel will join me on the drums, with Lyle Crilly on bass, lap steel and computer #2. I find it adds more of that human element. Also, growing up a classical musician and listening to bands, I missed being on stage with other people. I find that not only is it more interesting for the audience... it is more fun and interesting for me.