Mileena x Luna

Mileena plans to continue her education but values everything she still has to learn with music. It’s something she senses she has more control over and can understand better when not in a classroom setting. “I feel like music is something I can learn on my own. There are different ways you can learn music and I think it needs to be on my own terms...in my own way” She says. The artist has been able to avoid getting caught up in the academic part of music, as it sometimes can hold back artists and even take away from the music.

The musician may be still be learning and growing, but she still uses music for the same reason she started; as a way to speak up and simply express herself, “I needed something to speak up because I was really quiet.” Making music helped her project her voice and became a megaphone for what she wanted to say. Like many artists, her work truly became an outlet, her own little therapy even, for when she felt stressed or out of place. Beyond her feelings, her inspiration to make music comes from the process itself. “The whole art of making music is just fun.” Mileena explains. She does what she wants, “even if it sounds very millennial of me.”

Sticking to her desire to have music be something as natural and fun as possible, Mileena’s creative process simply comes to her when it comes to her. “When I have the free time and a lot on my mind I’m like, ‘okay I’m going to sit down and write something,’” she says. A recurring theme in her music is the beloved topic of romance. “I always relate things to a good or bad partner. Romance is so weird and up and down.” Mileena sings about things that we all likely relate to, which can hit home sometimes. She concentrates more on her writing than producing, but eventually wants to learn and grow to produce one day to have her own “Marc Jacobs by Marc Jacobs” brand, but for now she has more fun writing; “Writing is important to communicate to the world.”

Mileena defines her music as “indie R&B”, but she highlights how genres don’t exist anymore because everyone has “a little something of everything”. Music can be so diverse with many sounds, so she’s excited to try to find more sounds and ways to make them. She continues to develop her sound, but credits the atmosphere of Toronto shaping a big part of her artistry. Not only is everyone “super cool and super supportive,” the hip-hop scene and Toronto rappers individually influenced and inspired her to get out there. She also credits the friends she’s made in LA, who she’s “inspired [by] every day to push myself to be the best I can be.”

Inspired and pushed by her friend RJ and his cyphers, Mileena decided to give rapping a try. “When I started rapping I felt like a big woman,” she says, “But I feel like I don’t look like the type to rap.” The artist finds the stereotype of rappers to be frustrating, especially since

her music brings Bedroom Pop and more “soft” elements into her music. Though there’s a common idea that if you’re cute and adorable, you’re not the typically accepted rapper, things are definitely starting to change thanks to rise in female rappers. These women are taking over the charts, and they’re opening the doors for young female artists like Mileena. “For all these powerful women to be doing well changes the weird female architecture in Hip Hop, and the narrative that surrounds us.”

These women are giving female artists the power to say something back. Mileena mentions that hip-hop gives women a narrative, somewhere to speak up, where it was once only ruled by the male gaze. “It makes me feel like I can do this if I want to and there’s nothing holding me back,” she says.

In terms of sonic aesthetic, Mileena is inspired by soft spoken hip-hop. “I understood rap as this tough thing,” she says, but then had her horizon broadened by artists like Syd the Kid and Noname. She knows there’s a ‘soft voiced women saying what they want’ revolution rising - and she’s gonna be part of it.

Her sweet and genuine nature shines through her music and will continue to be at the core of Mileena. As she pushes through her education and finds new elements to tie into her creative career, she welcomes growth and change with open arms.