Masuk Free Press

Walking through the halls of Masuk, you may pass countless students with dreams and aspirations for the future. Some are even starting taking the biggest steps straight into their career now. Freshman Sienna Arraya is doing just that, with the release of her debut single, “Love Letters to London,” out now on all streaming platforms. 

For her, releasing a single is a dream-come-true. “It’s definitely a dream for me,” said Arraya. “It’s my biggest accomplishment so far.”

The pop track draws from many different inspirations, from rock, to classical. Though mainly pop, these influences can be heard sprinkled throughout the song.. On Arraya’s Spotify page, she curated a playlist of particular songs that have impacted her, featuring “We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night” by Sabrina Carpenter, “Cinema” by Harry Styles “Wonderwall” by Oasis to name a few. 

“I think what influenced me a lot with my song is definitely more pop music and alternative,” said Arraya. “Artists right now, like Oasis, Conan Gray, Chappel Roan, Harry Styles and The Beaches, have influenced me.”

However, modern music is definitely not her only influence. Older music and family play a large part in making the stars align for her single. 

“I definitely grew up with a lot of rock music… a lot of The Beatles and other music,” said Arraya. “I also am inspired by my dad. He’s an audio engineer, so I think he definitely influenced me into doing this.”

While her dad does help, she still remains an independent artist in her own right, creating her own identity through her dedication, work and music. “I try not to think about it as my dad who wanted me to do this, I think it was me who said ‘no I really want to do this, I want to put out music,I want to be a singer and songwriter’,” said Arraya.

As the songwriter, Arraya used the power of storytelling to make her lyrics come to life. “Although my recent single did not capture more of storytelling in the lyrics. In the [writing] process, I did create a story behind the song, ” said Arraya. “My single, ‘Love Letters to London, ‘ is told from the perspective of someone who longs to return to a place because it reminds them of someone they love.”

Once the songwriting is done, the song itself needs to come to life. By adding other instruments, sounds and mixing, Arraya created her single. Her process goes as follows: “I started by pitching the idea to the producer of Love Letters To London. We started by adding drum beats down, guitar, bass and keyboard.” said Arraya. “Mixing itself is like blending all of it together. Like changing the volumes of where everything is, or the placement of where everything goes,”

There is also the element of getting the song itself out. From the perspective of the listener, all that is seen is the song releasing on a certain date. But, the artist actually has to work with the song and plan for it to drop, as well as finalizing the song. For Arraya to get her song onto Spotify, she gave it to her producer to send out. Yet, the actual release was a tale on its own. “Funny story, when we first sent it out we just waited, and waited and waited, and then we were like ‘ wait, when is it supposed to come out?’ so we checked the status, and it said soon. There was no official date, and then I checked Spotify one day, and I’m like ‘dude it’s out, and it’s been out for like four days’,” said Arraya.

Throughout the whole songwriting process, Arraya is a regular student in the meantime. “I try to keep it [school life and music life] a little bit separate, I try especially not to focus on it more at school, although I do mention it to my peers and students around me that I’m a singer,” said Arraya. 

Additionally, Arraya attends the Regional Center for the Arts, or RCA for short, a part-time, interdistrict performing arts school that allows students to take classes and specialize in performing arts. “Especially because I do go to a musical theater school, I think a lot of people do put out music, so it’s not like a huge deal there than it is at Masuk, as at Masuk you’re not surrounded by people who are surrounded by music every day, like you are at RCA,” said Arraya.

On a more general level, releasing her single hasn’t changed her much. “I honestly feel the same way I always have. Music has been involved in almost everything I do, so I feel it has no change. But knowing my music is out for people to listen to and enjoy makes me happier than ever. My goal was to make other people happy and write from the heart,” said Arraya.

As many artists do, her music is spread through social media, rather than just word-of-mouth. Her Instagram, though not only used for her music, has multiple posts for her single. “I think it’s so fun, I think for me, I like to keep it on theme, but I do like to put some stuff that isn’t music related,” said Arraya.

For Arraya, this is only the beginning of her music career, including making an album one day. “It’s a big goal. It’s a lot of hard work and years to master,” she said. “I’m definitely releasing a new single soon, I’m not gonna say the name or anything, because I’m still kind of working on it. I want to do an EP soon, definitely.”

The song has also made its way to peers. Sophomore Coraline Goytette says, “ I really loved the way she formats her music so much. It’s so catchy, the first time I heard it I couldn’t get it out of my head. Also, I really feel like it encapsulates her as a person because it shows her connections to the world around her and who she is,”
From Arraya’s early days of listening to the music she grew up with, to releasing her single, to working on future projects, Arraya is an inspiration to the community. She is an example of how your future career does not need to be so distant, but rather, it could be right in front of you, waiting to start.