myah’s Debut EP, 'IS THIS WHAT I SEE?' Feels Like a Dream You Don't Want to Wake Up From

South Florida-born, L.A.-based artist myah has officially stepped into the spotlight with her debut EP, IS THIS WHAT I SEE? — a vulnerable, cinematic, and deeply nostalgic indie-pop project that reads like the diary of a romantic overthinker.

Blending ambient synth textures, emotionally charged guitar riffs, and the kind of vocals that hit you in the gut and wrap you in a hug at the same time, myah has carved out a sound that’s both fresh and familiar. Think: the heartbreak of Phoebe Bridgers, the angst of early 2010s alt-pop, and the storytelling flair of “Emo Taylor Swift”—a title she wears well.

Each track plays like a scene from a carefully constructed film, and that’s no accident. As an award-winning filmmaker, myah treats her songwriting like scriptwriting, with emotional arcs, motifs, and even direct references—like Holes and Titanic—woven into her lyrics. Whether she’s offering her voice to a lost loved one (lost at sea), or dancing through fleeting moments of romance (summer love), myah delivers her truth with a rawness that makes every line feel like it was written for you.

Standouts like “i’ll be your light” and “flames” showcase the duality of her emotional world—hope clashing with heartbreak, beauty nestled in pain. The entire EP is laced with this contrast: optimism and loss, existential longing and soft-spoken clarity.

Self-funded and independently released, IS THIS WHAT I SEE? is a bold first step from an artist who clearly has much more to say. With her debut full-length album, i don’t know what i’m feeling slated for release this June, myah is proving she’s not just here to make music—she’s here to make you feel.

Your EP feels so cinematic—each track like a scene in a movie. How does your background in filmmaking influence your songwriting and sound?

I fell in love with filmmaking at a very young age. I would daydream about making movies and putting myself in all these different scenarios as a form of escapism. Growing up, we didn’t have much – I was raised by my mom, and I’m the youngest of five siblings.

I’d journal music video concepts for songs I loved, and I still have that journal, which is funny to look back on now. My favorite moments in movies were always the ones that were paired with a great score or soundtrack. The way those scenes made me feel really resonated with me when I was younger, and they still do today. 

It’s just a feeling you can’t describe when it’s done right, like in If Beale Street Could Talk, when Tish is talking about Fonny’s love for her and Agape starts playing – the whole atmosphere changes, and the montage on screen becomes so much more because of the sound. It’s felt so viscerally that it sticks with you. Or in Lars in the Real Girl, there’s this scene where Lars goes to a house party and he’s feeling out of place, and Talking Heads “Naive Melody” starts playing – the juxtaposition of that song with Lars shifts the whole emotional tone, and it’s easy to relate to Lars because most of us know what it’s like to feel like an outsider.

Without music, I don’t think these moments would have the same impact. I went to film school,l so the more exposure I got from watching decades and decades of cinema, the more I valued pairing music and visuals as an art form. Since I was about ten years old, the first thing I’ve always done in the morning is roll out of bed and put my headphones on. I don’t really know what life sounds like without music playing, so it makes sense that my songs live in that space between story and sound. When I write, I can’t help but picture the scene that goes with it, and a good number of my songs also have film references peppered in them. 

Film is an escape for a lot of people, and I try to write music that can be an escape for people, too. The goal is that when you’re listening to my tracks, you feel less alone or like someone out there understands what you’re going through – even if it’s just for a few minutes. I think that’s why storytelling is so important to me, because I know there’s a lot of value in it. It’s a reminder that we’re all human, just trying to figure things out.

"lost at sea" is such a moving tribute to your brother. What was it like writing and recording something so personal from his perspective?

When I started writing lost at sea, it wasn’t originally about Hunter. As the metaphor for the song took shape and I started to think about it more, it became clear to me that the song was for him. He always had this spirit of adventure, and when he was in his late teens, he bought a sailboat and decided to sail to the Bahamas from our hometown in Florida, but things didn’t go as planned. He ended up alone on the sailboat and fought for his life to get back to safety. There was a very bad storm, and he said a few times he was pretty scared and didn’t think he would survive – he just prayed he’d make it home. Whenever he would tell that story, I’d always imagine what that must’ve felt like, and how brave and strong he was.

So in the end, I took that visual and made it more romantic by writing a song where the character has another person with them, but Hunter is the one who gets them home safe. Since he passed away, it’s hard for me to listen to that track because I miss him so much, but when I close my eyes, I see my big brother on that sailboat, and it reminds me of how fearless and strong he was. I think all of my songs are quite personal, but losing a sibling and having a song be an ode to them is very different from a breakup track — it’s a grief that reminds you of your whole life, vs. a relationship that was just for a certain period of time.

You've been called the “Emo Taylor Swift.” How do you balance the emotional depth of emo with the structure and catchiness of pop?

Yeah, I was called that a few times when my first couple of singles dropped. I think it’s because my lyrics are usually built around a relationship or two people trying to figure things out, and when you’re a newer female artist trying to break into the industry, people tend to compare you to Taylor Swift right away. I think that comparison now is starting to fade with all of my new music because most of the elements and details I use in my music production don’t feel like Taylor; it’s really just my sound. 

I’m a huge empath, and that makes you pretty emo, whether you want to be more or not lol. I grew up during the height of pop-punk, emo, and alternative music, so that naturally influenced my music. I think “Have Faith in Me” and “You Had Me at Hello” were pretty canon songs as a kid — all that early 2000s music was crazy. Karen O’s vocals changed my brain chemistry. I think people don’t realize that these genres are also wildly romantic, which is where the pop hooks come into play. When you’re looking at music through the lens of romanticism, the hook is the outburst, it’s your statement, it’s what you want, what you’re thinking, and it’s gotta be catchy because if it’s not, then your statement is just annoying to the listener. So the lyrics are emo, the influence is emo, but the structure is pop hooks, so people don’t tune out. If my hooks didn’t have that energy, then I don’t think people would get the emotional impact behind it. I foundthat with music I could express myself without having to worry about seeming too much. By laying all my feelings out in my songs, other people sense the freedom to express themselves too. It’s very communal in that way. 

Each song on IS THIS WHAT I SEE? feels incredibly intentional. Can you talk about your process of choosing the track order and how you wanted listeners to experience the journey?

I approach EPs and albums the same way I approach films. I think it should feel like a story from start to finish, call it the hero’s journey. I love when albums are all connected – one of my favorite albums of all time is “Good News For People Who Love Bad News”, and I feel like it’s the prime example of something connecting from start to finish, it’s just cohesive. From that opening horn intro, you know you’re in for something.

IS THIS WHAT I SEE? was written with an outlook in perspective. The tracks occur in the aftermath of the situations, and if you listen to them sequentially, then you start to understand the EP thematically. 

“with you” is recognizing that certain people, when you’re with them, you don’t want to lose them, and acknowledging that we only have so much time, so when you’re with the right person, time stops because you know it’s not a waste. The lyric, “This must be the place if we’re in a groove!” is a nod to Naive Melody by Talking Heads and that scene from Lars and the Real Girl. 

“i’ll be your light” is when you lose someone and you’re left with that desperate feeling of wanting to go back in time and relive what was once magical, even though you know the other person has moved on. It’s from the perspective of knowing that some relationships only work for a moment in time and aren’t supposed to last forever. 

“notice you” is about not understanding if someone is into you or not, but hoping that they will be. I wrote it about a situationship I was in where I thought the person was really into me, but in actuality, I was misreading all the signs because of the romantic side of me, and it didn’t end up working out the way I thought it would. 

 “summer love” is a reflective track. It’s for the people who are in long-term relationships, because I think a lot of music is about new love or heartbreak, but not too many songs are about those who are together for 5, 6, 8+ years. It’s a nostalgic, remembering type track, and it touches on those ideas of life going so fast that when you stop for a second, the only thing you really want is to be able to go back to that first meeting where things felt magical and you had those butterflies. 

“flames” I wrote about one of my exes who has an avoidant attachment style, and again, it’s reflective. It’s when you know it’s over and all you can do at that point is think about what happened, and even though you have to let go, there’s a piece of you that would go run back if the other person came back too. The outro “If only, if only, if only” is a nod to the poem in the movie Holes, which is one of my favorite movies and books. The two characters in the poem are both longing for something that they don't have, and that’s really what flames is about.

“lost at sea” is for the hopeful, lets weather the storm romantics, and “running” is about two people fighting and how if life wasn’t so complicated, maybe two people could breathe again and ultimately find a way to be alright. Sometimes in relationships, it can feel as if external factors didn’t influence so much, and two people can be together and actually be happy. I think a lot of people just quit when it gets too hard, and I understand that. 

“say it” is when there’s a finality to a relationship being over, but the idea is that once you accept and recognize that, you can find yourself again by being okay with being alone, which is something that I’ve personally struggled with. 

If this EP captures the emotional snapshots of a moment in time, what are you hoping your upcoming debut album, i don’t know what i’m feeling, will say about where you are now?

I look at IS THIS WHAT I SEE? As an alternate reality to i don’t know what i’m feeling. IS THIS WHAT I SEE? is built around singular, fragmented moments that I experienced in my life, and gives people an introduction to me as an artist. Yes, it’s a collection of “love” songs thematically, but it’s more about the emotions behind love, vs. just love as a blanket statement. It’s also more mature in it’s resolution – the perspective of IS THIS WHAT I SEE? Is acknowledgment, growth, and moving on. It’s a wiser version of myself. There’s an understanding that things come and things go. Sometimes you have to just accept it, process it, and move forward on your own, and that’s okay.

i don’t know what i’m feeling is more desperate. It’s a 17-track album that explores every feeling I’ve experienced when you think you’ve met the one, but it doesn’t work out. The album is not about one ex or one person, it’s a collection of every emotion – wonder, lust, heartbreak, anger, resolve, feeling butterflies, being in love. I’ve kind of had a crazy ride when it comes to looking for “the one”, and this album, in a way, is a love letter to my 20s. It touches on the crisis you experience as you start to get older and realize that romance and love aren’t what you’ve been told your whole life. It’s toxic and devastating and confusing; it can feel like you’re on top of the world one day and then like your whole world is falling apart the next.

Being a romantic is hard because you grow up thinking that you’re going to find your person in a serendipitous kind of way, and then even when you think you do, even THAT could end poorly. Every song is intertwined from start to finish, and it’s meant to be listened to in order. As far as where I am now, I think I don’t know where I am,  because, well, I don’t know what I’m feeling.