Meliha: The Acoustics of Coffee & Cigarettes

By Alif Omar Mahfix  •  in Detonate
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“I’ve always been this way but of course I’m still just a teenage girl,”

You picked up your brother’s guitar at 15. What attracted you to the instrument and making music off it?
When I was younger, my brother had taken a few guitar lessons and I took piano. By the time I was 15, both of us had already stopped and so his guitar was just lying around the house. One night, I had a few friends over and at that time I was mainly watching musicals and there was this one called August Rush, I absolutely loved it! It was about this young kid who had the ability to pick up any musical instrument and play it fluently without having any knowledge about it whatsoever. I was quite influenced by that movie, so it was pretty random that I decided to pick up the guitar simply because I haven’t tried playing it. I didn’t know anything about what I was doing but it felt right, so that led me to creating my very first song then and there.

Pretty cool that a movie was your initial inspiration to pick up the guitar. What and who else was your influence?
I’ve a lot of influences and they keep changing as I continue surrounding myself with different people and exploring different genres of sounds. But as of now, I’m spell bounded by the inspiring words of Ian Kamau, the style of Amy Winehouse’s voice, and the sounds of local indie pop bands which vary.

To be honest, you kinda remind us of Amy, looks-wise at least (laughs). The singer-songwriter scene is stereotypically associated with cornball love songs. What does Meliha sing about?
Experiences really. I notice I tend to always write about lessons I’ve learnt or anything that’s along the lines of self-motivation and inspiration. There’s a few love songs here and there of course, which I very much enjoy stringing together with sweet sugary words.

At 17, your voice and lyrical content can belie your age. Do you feel pressured to sound more adult due to being someone so young in the scene? Heck, does it get bothersome to be questioned of such?
I’ve always been this way but of course I’m still just a teenage girl and I still have a lot to learn. I have to admit that it was much more pretentious at first because I didn’t know everything I know now. I suppose as the days passed by, it did become more natural what with me surrounding myself with people who are a lot older, so there’s always that certain expectation that I am expected to meet if I’d like to be taken seriously.

With questions like that, it’s gotten up to a point where it wouldn’t bother me anymore, in fact I’ve learnt to just let it slide by.

A lot of singer-songwriters have a safe look. If you don’t mind us saying so, you seem edgier – tats and all – was there a conscious decision to separate yourself from being a run-of-the-mill singer-songwriter?
Safe look? I thought we were all passed that already! But no there wasn’t any conscious decision to separate myself. I was and have been focusing more on showing whom I really am, so the tattoos were something I’ve always wanted and that ended up getting me questions as much as it did the attention. I like the whole strong and sweet look, not too much confidence but enough to have no one doubt me.

Seeing as how the mainstream music world here is still very much conservative, do you fear that the tattoos might hinder your career in some ways?
I don’t have a big fear of it hindering my career to be exact, but I do however respect it as how it is and I won’t go against it. This part just needs a lot of acceptance.

We heard you dropped out of high school early in Form 5. Was it due to your wanting to focus on your music career?
No, actually. It was because I fell in love with coffee. While I was doing my Form 5, I was working at a coffee shop just down the road from my house and I was overwhelmed with the amount of pride my boss and his wife had in every cup they served. I hated coffee before and absolutely knew nothing about it but working there turned it right around. I absolutely loved how they were so passionate about something so insignificant! But there was a lot to it of course and sooner than later my focus diverged completely and I then dropped out to run away with a coffee career and to also give music a chance to change me.

We dug what you you said about music consumption; “Music for me, is about the selling your words. You wrap your lyrics around with a melody and present it to your consumers.” You seem to have some self-awareness about the creation of music and the bartering of it to the masses, it’s commerciality. What do you really ultimately hope to achieve with your music?
I hope to be able to catch people in the moment of my songs and create possibilities with the meanings to my lyrics. I want to be able to make people think, and really think. To be able to simply just catch their minds, hearts, and ears and make a difference, even the least bit. That’s all I wish to achieve!

Where do you see yourself as a musician heading to 5 years down the line?
Doing live collaborations with other musicians who share the same purpose. Nowhere on the Top 10 charts or anything like that but just performing at many places, at different shows and events. That’s just about the things I want and would like to see myself at, 5 years down the line… exposed.

Follow Meliha on Twitter at @SiapaMeliha. Like her on Facebook by searching for ‘Meliha Faisal’. And complete the social media round by checking her out on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/ladygunfish.