Muse with Araya
Araya’s debut album, Atlas, released in January of this year, leads you on a path of introspection, a winding road of questions and inner thoughts entering your ears through an R&B-pop-lo-fi-electronica-hybrid sound. Notes of the tropics and piano solos lay underneath the hearty, yet smoothe, vocals.
The young singer-songwriter always had music when he had nothing else, and it is this that led him to putting all of himself into music after working so hard as a fashion student. Atlas leaves us off on a song entitled “Eden," a musing track that questions religion. As he and his bandmates work on album 2, he finds they are following a narrative arc that continues this introspection and questioning. “I just want people to be excited for a journey. We’re in the long run, vibes,” he told office.
Check out our conversation below.
Jacket, shirt & pants WILLY CHAVARRIA, bag HEAVEN BY MARC JACOBS, shoes SAINT LAURENT, jewelry MARTINE ALI, glasses RETROSUPERFUTURE
I see that you’re influenced by and have a background in fashion. What brought you to music?
I’ve had an interest in music my whole life. When I was 12, 13, I got my first piano and played in my free time. After high school, not that music or my dreams of singing faded away, but I applied to FIT. I’d really adapted to a lot of creative outlets. Music was definitely the most vital, and personally validating, source of inspiration and expression for me, but going to college at FIT made me focus and see my design as a career and the fashion industry as a place that I wanted to be. It really inspired me and defined my aesthetic, so about senior year, a really crazy design/fashion opportunity fell through, and it humbled me. I felt like I had nothing, as cliché as it sounds. But when I had nothing, I felt like I still had my music. It was there for me. It was like this huge cushion. I really leaned into that to heal from the loss of that opportunity. It’s been there for me my whole life; it’s like that thing that no one can take from you. I think the fashion industry led me to beautiful people, like minded people who have an open heart, open mind, and if I was doing music or whatever, I would still be happy to be around those types of communities, doing what I’m doing.
How does your experience in fashion influence your artistry in music? Does one inform the other?
I think music and fashion are really similar in a lot of ways; beautiful things have a likeness to them. Once we decide they’re beautiful. Fashion, going to fashion school, that was kind of my mantra in that field. It helped me have a more beautiful experience. Adjusting my eye, my taste… When I started music, I kind of just kept the same mentality. It helped guide me. I think my time with fashion was a perfect precursor to what I’m doing now. It all needed to happen.
It helped you develop your voice in a way?
Yeah, definitely. It helped me develop my voice. When I went to FIT, I knew it was good enough for me that I felt confident in my skills and abilities and I was fine just being Christian Araya, which is my first name and last name. Going to FIT, being a designer. But then the industry, and New York, and that hustle, and that drive, and that hunger, made me want to be more. It made me want to be ARAYA and fall into this identity, this persona.
Top right — Jacket MONCLER, sweater HELMUT LANG, shirt LOUIS VUITTON, pants PARIA FARZANEH VIA SOCIALITE ARCHIVE, necklace BARRAGAN
Bottom right — Jacket SACAI, jacket DIESEL X DIESEL, sweater & pants HELMUT LANG, hat MONCLER, jewelry MARTINE ALI
How would you describe your sound?
I think my sound is like a modern sound collage. I think we’re in a musical renaissance. I try to be progressive and provocative and almost traditional in a way… I like that there’s a dichotomy to my music, like that traditional soul, that R&B sound, laid on top of these beats that kinda go against structure. That’s my goal. I wanna try to break down walls that exist in music. I feel that same way with my sound, our sound, our process. We’re always trying new things because the more you try new things there’s more opportunity, the more sounds you try, you’re limiting yourself if you’re not doing that. As long as it makes me feel good, and I feel comfortable, then I’m happy.
I think you accomplish that well; the classic R&B sound with a modern twist on the beats. What is your creative process like in terms of writing music and then recording it?
When I started writing music, it was just me. I’d write songs on shitty piano chords. That got tucked away, the piano got tucked away into the back of my closet, the songwriting book got put away into the desk. Then, like I said, around junior/senior year, I started writing music on type-beats of YouTube and BeatStars. Just getting my pen. Writing with intention. Writing as a more grown version of myself. A very different feeling and approach. My producer person, he really helped me translate my ideas into this medium that I didn’t understand as well as I wanted to. Then, when I met my band, which was, like, 6 months after I met Thadeus, they came and added that tradition, that real instrumentation onto these type-beats and these electronic sounds. That’s why I call it a collage. Some beats started as type-beats, and we cut them in half, take them apart, and put them back together. After we put it back together, cut it into pieces and then put a piano solo on it.
Right, very layered…
Yeah, that outcome couldn’t exist without, like, a 6 layered step of processes of people of relationships in between. It really is just, like, a shapeless thing.
You also are very much a part of the creative processes involved in your music, such as editing your own photos, creative directing album art, etc… How do all of these creative outlets come together and form your concept as an artist?
I think at FIT, I was so exposed to how purposeful and important it is to — if you’re an artist, your rollout, your design — that is so much as part of you as your music. The intention behind it. People will hold you to that for the rest of your career. It’s way more important than some people view it. Just being in the art world, being obsessed with all of these mediums of art, it helped me not have any biases towards getting my hands into everything. Getting my hands dirty. It made me understand the importance. I was like, there’s no way I could put this music out and not be a part of the rollout, as well. This shit all matters. I want this to be a part of whatever legacy I’m leaving.
Your platform is growing. How does this allow you to discuss the current climate toward the violence and oppression in the Asian community?
I think it’s really important in general to speak up and be present and never be silent in a moment when any minority or any group of people are experiencing hate. As I was saying, like how important my community was to me in lifting me up, making me feel safe and never alone in what I was doing. In reflection, I feel like it’s my responsibility to do that for my people. With this happening, it’s really important to lift up the community and lift up voices that are speaking about the stigmas that are causing this violence. I hope to contribute to that as well.
Jacket & pants DAILY PAPER, sweater LOUIS VUITTON VIA SOCIALITE ARCHIVE, glasses RETROSUPERFUTURE
What can fans look forward to seeing from you in the coming months?
Definitely, I’m in A2 mode. Atlas was A1, we’re in A2. We went to LA in the hopes to create a 3-4 song EP and came back with 17 songs. There’s a lot of new music on the way. It keeps happening that way. We just go into situations and over deliver when it comes to this shit. It’s humble because it’s like, this is what we love to do. There’s things I love to do and the Universe or some energy in life stalls the process of things manifesting in front of me, and actually existing. So, I feel like just having all this new music is building up these assets that validate everything we’re doing. If it feels right, if I’m comfortable, if the people I love around me are smiling, comfortable, then I’m gonna keep doing this. Hopefully we drop 2, 3 singles in the next few months and then another album after that!
How do you think your process has grown since Atlas? Did you come to this next project with new knowledge or approaches?
Yeah, 100 percent. I think my biggest thing is to be a student. We’ve had the amazing opportunity to get into some rooms with really talented, experienced people. This album has been a personal act of breaking down this jadedness I had towards doing everything in-house with me and my homies. So we’ve let people in, and it’s been a really healing, beautiful work experience, work environment. Just allowing people to come into the picture and just really it being a kind of ritual of my trust being rebuilt back up by talented people who care and are passionate and are putting themselves into the work. Learning a lot.
The last track of Atlas is called “Eden”. I approached with the idea of wholeness of oneself and questioning religion. The next album kind of continues this story line, and I think it’s cool that we’re creating this narrative. I just want people to be excited for a journey. We’re in the long run, vibes.
