Artist Spotlight: Alexis Arriano Travels 2500 Miles to Find Her Sound

BY: JAEQWON SUAREZ / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

EP Cover for Songs I Wrote in New York (Photo Credit: @t.2_the_kreativ/instagram)

When it comes to picking up your entire life and moving from the West Coast to the East Coast, there are two options that a person is left to: cry and give up, or write an EP expressing all the experiences you’ve felt since moving.

Let’s be glad that Alexis Arriano did the latter, as songs i wrote in new york fills in the right amount of homesickness, but also the surprises you don’t expect when life is coming at you quickly.

In honor of her late dog Bruno, Arriano released songs i wrote in new york on her birthday, Feb. 13, 2026, signifying the close of this chapter of her life and the start of a new one with this release. 

Her indie-pop sound is just the start, and while Arriano continues to figure out her sound, she was able to speak with Seawanhaka about her journey, from releasing her first project to struggling with songwriting and the exhaustion that comes with losing a family member during this process. 

“It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” Arriano began. “These songs have been in my back pocket for three years. It’s very vulnerable, and I was scared to show people, but it goes back to that feeling of the EP weighing on me. The longer I held onto it, the more I just wanted to let go of it.”

The EP covers melancholic themes such as missing loved ones and the overall feeling of being alone and isolated in a new environment. Arriano has a song covering the heavier topic of domestic abuse, “picture perfect”, which is something, as she states, that deeply affected her.

“I think Picture Perfect contains the most metaphors and imagery I’ve used in a song. Instead of just giving the story, this is what it is, I felt like I wanted to put more thought into something that affected me the most out of everything I wrote,” Arriano explained.

All of her songs on the EP reflect the idea of more than what is being said, inviting the audience to dig deeper into the lyrics and decode them for themselves. That is part of the reason why Arriano feels like she’s out of her creative juices for the moment.

“So much energy went into the EP, and now that it’s out, my brain needed a break,” Arriano explained. Not only did she write her songs, but she also helped with the production process as a Music Production major herself. From that standpoint as well, she’s been able to see her progress with each song from start to finish.

“You don’t have to be a perfectionist,” Arriano stated, when it comes to releasing music. She admires that when it comes time to create a new song or project, she can look back at songs i wrote in new york and hear her changes.

Her music journey actually started at the young age of five, and Arriano vividly remembers the moment that her passion for music was solidified.

“I saw Ariana Grande in her Dangerous Woman tour, and when the show ended, there were flames, and she was in this black dress. I remember leaving and thinking, ‘yeah, that’s going to be me’. That’s what I want to do for the rest of my life.”

Between seeing her favorite artist perform and songwriting since the age of five, Arriano's drive to tour, write songs, and produce music was on full display in her discussion with Seawanhaka.

This EP is just the start of that plan, having already played a show at Breaking Sound in the Brooklyn Music Kitchen, where she showcased some of her songs from the EP, like her lead single “world is spinning”, which is very playful while still highlighting her vocal range, and “picture perfect.”

This push to release songs i wrote in new york wouldn’t have happened without the passing of Bruno, and she discusses what it’s like to be grieving such a valuable family member.

“That ending song [“good boy”] was something that happened on a whim. Robert, who produced this EP, was leaving for work, and I got on his computer, and I remember telling myself, ‘I have to do something for Bruno.’ At the time, Bruno wasn’t even gone yet, but it was like an impending doom of just waiting for it to happen. So I made the song before “good boy” [“are u free?”] continued on as I grabbed my favorite videos of Bruno and put the audio over the track.”

She thinks back to her process when creating “good boy” and told Seawanhaka that the first time she listened back to the track, it made her sad, which meant it was doing its job. Nothing pulls at the heartstrings more than hearing the sound of Bruno, who was not only a pet to Arriano but also loved by her entire family, fade away, immortalized forever in such a special project.

Arriano also expresses that this project served as an experiment to see what people liked about her. Songs like “i miss it, i miss u” and “are u free?” have definitely gotten their replays; she answers that she would love to dive into jazz and other genres of music.

“Maybe some classical, similar to Laufey. But I’d also love to do more indie-folk with more elaborate production. That’s something I‘m really interested in. I just think I’m still discovering myself as an artist. But I can’t help but write in different styles. As a Filipino American, I feel like folk isn’t what people expect from me nor what they want, but that’s what I write in mostly.”

For now, she is thinking about curating a show that is based around the EP, and even potentially giving the people live versions of her songs. Arriano has shown that even the most difficult times of one’s life can lead to a creative explosion, not only as an ode to her loved ones, but also where she will be going next in her journey as an artist.