Senior Aryana Mahasseni is a familiar voice around campus, and is widely known as a passionate singer and song writer. She has been making music since her third grade year, and uses it as an outlet to express her emotions. As Mahasseni’s final year at CHS comes to a close, she discusses her goals for continuing to pursue music and gives advice toward those interested in getting started.

Lancer Link: What inspired you to make music?

Aryana Mahasseni: It’s always been a constant in my life. I initially started playing guitar because I wanted to play an instrument, but then I ended up turning that into songwriting.

LL: How do you balance making music with school?

AM: It’s a big priority for me. It is kind of helpful for me when it comes to processing anything in life. It’s also just fun for me, so during any of my free time.

LL: What’s your process of making music?

AM: It can either start with a poem, then turn into a song. Then I’ll add chords and picking patterns on top of it, or I’ll start with a picking pattern or a chord progression I like.

LL: What kind of music do you make?

AM: I would consider it kind of like pop alternative.

LL: Why did you choose that style of music?

AM: I would say I see it a lot in artists I look up to, and I like very lyric-focused music.

LL: Who do you look up to?

AM: I look up to a lot of different artists, but especially smaller ones, because I can see a lot of myself in them, because there is a sense of humility. But some bigger artists [I like] would be Taylor Swift and Gracie Abrams, who are known for [their] songwriting

LL: What’s your favorite part of making music?

AM: I would say one thing that was really cool was adding production to it and adding a producer to actually make it come to life.

LL: Where do you hope your music career will take you?

AM: I mean, I would, of course, like to take it as far as I could go, but realistically, I understand that that is difficult to do.