Song For The Mute’s 13-year legacy has evolved from a two-person gig to a plurality of ideas. One-half of the label, Melvin Tanaya, speaks out on the role of community and connection in the brand’s recent successes, including but not limited to its first permanent flagship store, an Adidas collaboration and an induction into Hypebeast’s Hall of Fame.
“Surround yourself with the right people, I think that’s very, very important.” says Melvin Tanaya. The co-founder of cult label Song For The Mute is dishing out advice for aspiring individuals, an activity he is qualified for, seeing as he has thirteen years of brand-building and counting under his belt. It would not be an over-exaggeration to describe his career as relational. After all, he has been friends with the label’s other co-founder and current creative director, Lyna Ty, since they were ten. “Lyna gives me the story to tell. So we wouldn’t work without each other almost. Without Lyna, I wouldn’t have a story to tell; without me, Lyna wouldn’t have the vessel to tell that story.”
This modus operandi of communion hints at Tanaya’s disposition as a people person. He does not shy away from hosting “no filter” Q&A sessions on his online platforms, nor from sharing about his family, which he evidently has pride in. On a brand level, the Song For The Mute camp is notorious for being lean but mean and super tight. His voice carries a sense of beamy achievement when asked about his company. “Our team is still small, like a tight-knit family.” This efficiency has paid off. While successes are hard to quantify, Song For The Mute just opened the doors to its first permanent flagship store, an achievement that may slightly overshadow a global rollout of a second Adidas collaboration.
“It shapes everything,” says the Indonesian-born Australian. “Being exposed to different cultures and people from all walks of life has influenced me and how we perceive the world. Not just how we run the business, but how we want to be as individuals, designers, or parents.” The savvy behind Song For The Mute cannot begin to unfurl without first understanding the man’s upbringing. The foundations of Song, as he affectionately nicknames, were elementally built on the quintessence of kinship, too: Ty is likened to a sister.
The label may be better known among the masses for its inclinations toward avant-gardeism. The collections are rich and diverse in pattern and materiality and are crisply constructed to remain as staples, not seasonal fillers. But for loyalists, the brand stands for more than just pretty pieces to own, if not covet. Vision-wise, the brand was conceived as a “long-form narrative”. If its prologue was authored by Ty and Tanaya, its current chapter is more of a synergetic brainstorm, devised by the fifteen-man team but still engineered by the two.
The brand has indubitably expanded and is now stocked in some of the most prestigious institutions worldwide. But the label is not the only moving part of Tanaya’s story. In the thirteen years since its inception, Tanaya married, had a kid and then another. As he embarks on a new territory of change, Men’s Folio picks the psyche of Melvin Tanaya.
For our readers who don’t know your backstory, can you tell us how you came to know your co-founder Lyna?
So I met her when I first came to Sydney. I moved from Indonesia to Perth for six months before moving to Sydney and met her in my first roll-call class. They put us together because we have the same last name, “Tanaya” and “Tye”, so “T”, you know. At the same time, she just moved from Paris to Sydney. We [have a] brother and sister relationship. We grew up at school and had the same mutual friends; I never thought we’d be working together, but here we are.
What was your childhood like?
My childhood was pretty good. I’m very grateful to have such a good and tight-knit family. I’ve been really close to all my siblings; my parents value our time together — they’re always present and there when I need them. So I think the strong bond we’ve made, it was really lucky. And yeah, I was pretty happy as a kid. Obviously, when I started becoming a teenager, it was slightly different [laughs].
And how has your upbringing translated into Song For The Mute?
People always say we are quiet achievers, [but] I think it’s just been how we’ve been brought up. Lyna and I always tell the team that we need to be humble and treat people the way we want to be treated. And for me, it is not for us to be recognised as the best designers. We feel that the brand has grown bigger than just the two of us. We want to showcase our diversity in the team and the different stories that people relate to the brand as a collective. There’s a lot of people who have their challenges, you know, and not able to voice them. We do that through the brand; that’s why we have different chapters. And for Lyna, choosing a certain narrative has meaning. It transcends more than just clothing on racks.
Thirteen years on, how have your roles evolved?
The roles have evolved, but at the same time, they haven’t. When we first started, Lyna and I would do everything from design to production to sales to marketing. In some ways, we’re still in touch with all of those, but also we give full autonomy and a sense of ownership to all our teams. They all have different voices, and we do want them to shine. We’re all students at the end of the day, still trying to learn every day and improve ourselves. We challenge each other in a positive way. There’s no right and wrong way to run a business, design, or do marketing. It’s just what works for you. Lyna still heads the creative vision of the overall brand; she’s the soul of Song For The Mute. I’m there every step of the way with Lyna, and she’s also there for me regarding business decisions and stuff. But we do take care of two different things.
And so, what does a standard day of work look like for you?
Oh man, I think if we had a day in the life of Song… Sometimes, we take it for granted, but we do so much. A standard workday is always different. Every day, we have new challenges, problems, or opportunities, making it super exciting. Especially now, we just opened up a retail store last week, and we’re moving to a new headquarters space by the end of October. But also we have our main collection to work on. We need to juggle many things, but it’s super exciting.
You became a father reasonably recently. What is it like to evolve as an individual, balance responsibilities and still helm a brand?
I have two daughters now. Alexa is five years old, and Maddie is turning four next week (at the time of conversation). It definitely has changed me as a person, an individual, a business owner, and the company’s CEO. I tell the team, “The business should complement what you want to do in life rather than being your life”. So, the vision is that. To run a good business, not superficially in terms of outside looking in. We want to run a good business internally and externally, ensure we’re taking care of our staff, and let them pursue what they want and their interests. That comes from seeing my little girls having their personalities and dreams and how I can give them that opportunity to explore. It’s a humbling experience, and I’m still trying to manage both business and family. It’s been a challenge, to say the least, but I’m loving every minute of it.
What was the process like in fostering that essence of affinity in your team?
My team is a close-knit one. I’m so, so lucky to have the team that I have. We have about 12-15 people, and they’re all averaging seven to nine years with the brand. That is a large portion of their adulthood that they’ve committed to the brand, and I think it is the true essence of Song, the sense of belonging, the essence of affinity. I don’t think there is a plain strategy on how to foster this. It’s just how we are as people and approach our work. It’s not a conscious strategy. We hang out inside and outside of work, so then everything becomes fun. We have problems and sometimes debates, but it’s all to better the business. So we know work is work and outside is outside. And we’re so lucky that we want to hang out.
Song For The Mute has a pretty strong cult following. Are there ways that the team looks to engage your community?
Yes, I must say that we do have a strong cult following, for which we are very, very happy and grateful [for]. This is something that we would have never taken lightly. The sense of community is important, and so is building and nurturing and seeing what you can do to retain that community. There’s no smoke and mirrors with us. We want to share our experience and knowledge, hoping that others can see us and go, “Hey, if Melvin and Lyna can build Song For The Mute, so can I.” And that’s all we want to try to do.
Song For The Mute is described as a“long-form story”. Can you speak on that — how do you decide what“chapters” best suit each season?
Lyna is very emotive. For her, the fabric and concept take precedence over the aesthetic. In the beginning, we were always questioned, “What’s your brand essence? You don’t know who you want to be.” But at the end of the day, we grow up with the brand, go through the journey together with the brand, and want to tell that [story]. The intention of change should be celebrated rather than the other way around. And that’s why we see seasons as chapters and never the same. Because Song For The Mute is Lyna’s journal of her life, it’s a true documentation of what Lyna and I are going through then. And how do we decide what chapters best suit each season? We give that decision to Lyna. It’s where she’s at with her head, what interests her at the moment, or what she wants to challenge herself with.
Is there a particular connection you’ve made in your career that has unexpectedly come to play a large part in Song For The Mute’s history?
Every day, the people we meet change the course of the brand. For example, Adidas came most unexpectedly, and look at what it’s done for the brand, us, and Adidas itself. Song For The Mute is moving the needle of Asian representation and is the first designer out of Asia Pacific that is part of the global rollout, up there with Wales Bonner and all that. That’s insane, and one connection that has probably changed Song For The Mute’s history — being handpicked by [a brand] like adidas for collaboration is mind-boggling to me.
Your team just opened its first permanent store. Are there any bigger, grandiose plans for the coming years that you can tease?
Yes, there is one coming in 2025 that is going to change Song For The Mute again. It’s very, very exciting, but we’re still working through it, so I can’t say anything. This year is already huge to have the first permanent flagship store and move the HQ to a new space — you know we’ve been in this space for almost ten years. We want to make sure that the first permanent flagship store runs well before we think of other things. So for now, it’s like, “Okay, we’ve done this; let’s take it one day at a time.”
Any words of wisdom to creatives who look up to your success?
Always move forward, don’t be content [with] where you are, be a student in whatever you do. I think pride is the enemy of progress. And perseverance and hard work, man, it’s not just about connections. You can throw as much money as you want, but it’s not about that.
We don’t have an investor or anything; we’re still independent. Don’t be scared to forge your path. If you believe in what you do, you will create your audience. Surround yourself with the right people, positive people who have your backs, not just people who agree with everything you do. If you know something is not right, other people will see it too. If something is shit, you need to recognise that it’s shit. And it’s okay. Make it better, rather than going into it blind because you’re chasing something.
Once you’re done with this story, click here to catch up with our October 2023 issue.
