In the dorms of Manzanita Square, one room glows purple. The strumming of a guitar can be heard and behind the instrument is Amber Brown, psychology student and musician. Dressed in all shades of purple, from her glasses to her lavender sneakers, her glitter nails pick at the strings of her matching guitar. 

“It’s kind of like a neurodivergent, special interest type of thing for me where I’ve been collecting purple and wearing purple for I don’t know how many years,” said Brown. “It’s kind of an obsession, but also a personality thing for me. It doesn’t matter what shade.” 

In October of last year, Brown posted a TikTok of her strumming her guitar and singing about the lack of privacy living in a dorm with a roommate. Using the tune of “What Was I Made For” by Billie Eilish, the video gained attention and 1.1 million views. 

Her roommate, Savi Hasan, is a communications major and helped Brown write and plan the viral video herself. “I told her, ‘Something that’s going viral right now is doing comedy sketches or parody videos about popular songs trending on TikTok,’” said Hasan. On the opposite side of the room was Brown with her purple guitar, ready to brainstorm ideas with her roommate. 

The same day, Hasan posted the opposite point of view on her own TikTok account, where she gained 2.7 million views. Between both videos, viewers would jump back and forth between the accounts and comment sections. 

In high school, Hasan wrote her own poetry but felt it was too personal to share with anyone as she was heavily bullied in school. “I feel like now that I’ve met Amber, she’s bringing that side of me out again. So, that’s why when we were doing the writing [of] lyrics and stuff, it was fun. It was fun to tap back into what I used to love,” she said. 

Brown was born in Burien, Washington, and her family moved to Mira Mesa, San Diego, where she grew up as an only child. Her parents, both being psychologists, are what led her down the same career path at SF State. 

But from the age of 9, Brown had an interest in music. She picked up the flute and was a member of the San Diego Orchestra growing up. In high school, she began writing her own songs but has yet to go on stage and sing in front of a crowd. 

“I’m terrified of doing that. I have it as a goal one day,” said Brown. “I’d love to do an open mic.” 

“She will definitely give everything a try at least once. I’ve never seen her say no even to stuff that she doesn’t like,” said her boyfriend, Andrew Dao. He describes that outside of singing, Brown has tried ice skating. She has also tried ceramics, and was a competitive gymnast and coach back home. 

According to him, Brown’s “side quests” as she calls them, have always been methods of expressing herself. The start of her musical journey and hobby is what led her to produce her musical persona, Violet Soul. 

After messing around with the GarageBand app on Dao’s laptop and using the digital piano, she wondered what it would be like to post one of her songs online. 

“I feel like songs are best written when you don’t try to write the song,” Brown said. “I find that if I sit down and try to write a song, I’m always unsuccessful when I am too intentional about it.” 

As an emerging artist, Brown finds it best to focus on the music itself rather than stressing about views or the statistics. “It’s really hard to market yourself as a small artist,” she said. “I honestly just want to care less about that and more about the art itself.” 

Her music, she describes, is bittersweet with melancholy sadness to it. She tries to incorporate beauty from pain within her music and is heavily inspired by alternative-indie artist Flower Face, which she feels has a haunting and ethereal vibe she’d like to incorporate into her own music. 

“I want Violet Soul to be this niche, indie artist that is kind of kept a secret, but the people who know it [the music] can actually appreciate it,” said Brown. “I also really like when people tell me my music means something to them, or I evoke some sort of emotion, or it’s relatable because I want to make people feel less alone in whatever they’re going through.” 

For SF State student Aracely Mendiola, Violet Soul came into her life in a time when she was in need. She’d met Brown at an SF State Campus Recreation event of ‘Hide-and-Seek,’ where they both hid in a bush on campus together and spent over an hour getting to know each other. 

During a night out, Mendiola and Brown were stuck on the side of the street with car troubles. Instead of Mendiola going home and crying, Brown encouraged her friend to go out and continue their night. After struggling with the stress of the damaged car’s expenses, Mendiola listened to Violet Soul.

“I would listen to her song ‘Rooftop’ and I could feel everything she was singing,” said Mendiola.  “Her song ‘Rooftop’ echoed loneliness and just staring up into the cosmos and being like ‘What is this?’” 

Brown’s confidence peeks through when using the TikTok platform, where she posts clips singing original songs of hers such as “my purple under eyes” and “afraid of fading away.” 

“I feel like being in the flesh in front of people in real time is a different beast to take on,” said Brown. 

Salinas Dinh met Brown after walking into a math lab at Miramar Community College, where they both attended. “Within the math lab, you just see this vibrant, gorgeous, purple figure from head to toe, and that was Amber Lihn,” Dinh said. 

Brown is one of the first two to three people they call whenever they are in an emotional crisis. One day, Dinh had a family emergency, and in a time where home wasn’t safe, Brown immediately offered them a home. 

“She has a very nurturing nature to her,” they said, recalling the first time they’d met Brown. “There’s a certain charm about Amber Lihn, and it’s that she makes you feel at ease.”