For this UCLA student, songwriting starts with photography, a typewriter and a desire to think outside the box.
Fana Misa, who works under the artist name Letters to Fei – a moniker that combines her name with the name of her friend and former collaborator Mei – began recording music with the Brandy Melville studio in September. Brandy Melville owns the studio, and young musicians can apply or be invited to record live performances. After releasing a live recording of her cover of “No More What Ifs,” the second-year communication and music industry student plans to release her new single, “Wish,” on Nov. 16. A self-taught pianist, photographer and digital content creator with more than 85,000 followers on Instagram, Misa said she focuses on improvising and following her own intuition – a choice that’s reflected in her three released tracks.
“I’m not trying to force a certain structure onto something,” Misa said. “I’m not trying to follow a given pattern or blueprint.”
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Misa’s music departs from the conventional intro-verse-chorus structure. She often starts writing songs by experimenting with chord progressions and later adding lyrics from her typewritten drafts, which she has pinned on a corkboard, she added.
Her photography, poetry and music inform and inspire one another, she said. Shooting street photography of pedestrians on motorcycles in Indonesia prompted Misa to write a poem about how riding motorcycles reminded her of Jakarta summers, she said. Misa added that she then used the poem as inspiration for the lyrics of her original song “In My Dream.”
If her music is defined by anything, it’s its rich maximalism, Misa said. Layering several instruments, particularly cello, alongside her vocals adds depth and dimension to her music, she added.
This unconventional approach to creativity is also apparent to those she works with. Jae Nguyen, a second-year design media arts student who is Misa’s friend and collaborator, said Misa has a natural ability to weave diverse concepts together. Misa is always sketching or brainstorming a new project, no matter the environment, added Nguyen, who helped create the cover art for Misa’s single, “Wish.”
“She has a very natural sense of creativity that I feel is very rare,” Nguyen said. “She has such a unique perspective and taste, and she’s very ambitious. I feel like she’s the most creative and hardworking person I know.”
The artist’s creative instincts developed alongside an early exposure to music at home, said Afalita Siahaan, Misa’s mother. The family’s Indonesian and Filipino heritage informed their musical traditions, Siahaan added.
At family gatherings, everyone would sing karaoke, Siahaan said. While Misa was not serious about it until later in her life – even though both her parents are artists themselves – Misa always had natural groove, rhythm and talent, Siahaan said.
“You cannot pressure her to do something she doesn’t want,” Siahaan said. “She’s just not that person. She will do her stuff. And that’s what makes her very unique.”
UCLA connected Misa to her current bandmates, a trio of roommates who play with her at sessions and shows. After performing as a friend’s keyboardist during a session at the Brandy Melville studio in Santa Monica last year, Misa was invited back to record her own music. Misa said she has since completed several recording sessions at the studio and released some of those recordings on Spotify.
“If it wasn’t for Brandy Melville, I wouldn’t have put out music yet,” Misa said.
Her upcoming single, “Wish,” continues the trend of rejecting conventional songwriting structures through its improvisational arrangement, she said. The song was inspired by her visit to the Philippines to see her grandfather, who was diagnosed with dementia. When she played a chord progression for her grandfather, he appeared to recognize the tune, inspiring her to develop the sequence into a song that she considers her favorite piece she’s ever written.
“I really like songs that bloom, that blossom,” Misa said. “It’s not the same thing every time I play it. It’s different.”
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Misa said she plans to release the single along with several other songs she recorded with the Brandy Melville studio. She also plans to perform at UCLA Housing’s Tiny Dorm, based on the NPR online series Tiny Desk, where musicians perform live renditions of their songs, she added.
“Learning the song, practicing it, performing it, and being on stage and having people support you – that whole thing is just so precious to me,” Misa said. “It’s a very precious feeling.”
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