Jazz-influenced, indie, J-pop singer Mei Semones is sharing a new side to her songwriting, influenced by indie-folk and indie-rock. The Ann Arbor native is currently a senior Berklee College of Music student expecting to graduate this month and has been working on finalizing her EP, “Sukikirai (好き嫌い).” As she is scheduled to drop her new extended play this week, she has already shared her new single, “Kemono (獣),” meaning “beast” or “creature,” giving her fans a sneak peek of what the rest of her songs will turn out. With Semones’ bilingual lyrics and featuring special musical instruments, including strings following an array of music, it sets a scene and welcomes her listeners into her fantasy world.
The Japanese American singer songwriter says she is grateful for her mother speaking to her only in Japanese and learning the language by going to summer school in Japan. While she began songwriting during middle school and high school, she says, during a Zoom interview, “it never really felt authentic to me or never felt like it was really getting at what I was trying to say.” It was not until she wrote “Hfoas” released in Mar. 2020, that she realized writing her songs bilingually made her feel, “way more connected to the song, I felt like I was expressing myself how I wanted to and it’s just a way for me to connect with my heritage and background through a creative outlet,” she says. As a bilingual singer, she says, “it’s interesting writing in English and Japanese because the way the words would fit rhythmically are different, and in Japanese there are specific intonations with each word.”
The rising singer’s music career began when her grandmother gifted her and her sister a piano, but after seven years, she switched to playing the guitar. She chuckled admitting that what attracted her to start playing the guitar was watching the classic oldie film Back to the Future. Her favorite part of the movie was the scene where Marty McFly jams “Johnny B. Goode” with his electric guitar at the dance. Ever since then, the electric guitar has been by her side as she practiced and polished her jazz performance at her renowned high school jazz program in her hometown in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Also as an active lead guitarist for The Brazen Youth and G Luné, Semones says her band friends inspire her own music as well. By looking into how they write their songs and how they are arranged and put together, they give her a new perspective and ideas for her music. The muse and inspiration for her soft and euphonious songs are different for each one, “I have written some songs that start with imagery and fantastical, and some songs are very specifically about like one person or one experience.”
With COVID-19 restrictions, the 21-year-old artist admits that the recording process of her first EP was difficult and did not go as cohesively as she wanted it to be. However, after working with her lead music engineer, Kai Tsao, on her newest EP, she says, “everything went so smoothly, everything was so efficient. I think that’s definitely reflected as far as the EP, it just sounds so put together.” Semones and Tsao met last October through Northeastern’s student-run record label, Green Line Records. Since then they have been working collaboratively for five months on Semones’ highly anticipated EP and her new single. Semones praises her project partner’s work, saying he is a great asset when it comes to giving her advice, “I’m really bad at making decisions so it’s nice to have somebody that will just give me a couple of options, and I can just choose and he’ll give his own input too which I value so much so it’s really helpful.”
The music project was a team effort, Tsao says, “It felt like a collaborative effort between the two of us…it’s always felt like I was able to contribute to the project.” The audio engineer calls her music, “a unique blend of several genres, a kind of jazz but bossa nova but also rock in some ways at some points. I really enjoy her music it always feels like an adventure.” What draws him to her music is the way it challenges his musical foundation. As he was classically trained since he was young, the 22-year-old engineer says Semones’ background in jazz is “very different from how I grew up interpreting music.” Often working on pop and generic music, Semones’ music is very fresh and new for him, “I haven’t worked on anything even close to similar to this,” he said.
While the mixing engineer usually uses sample drums and electronic elements, he highly credits the organic-ness of the live instruments recorded for Semones’ music, “what’s really nice about working with Mei is that when her musicians show up, they really do show up.” A lot of projects Tsao works on are basically tracking vocals and mixing, but he says Semones’ project is “probably the most complicated in terms of studio setup and studio recording” because of the multiple huge sessions using nine or ten microphones at once. He then moves to the process of migrating all of those files onto his laptop, and repeats that process saying, “it’s a very convoluted process” compared to other projects he has worked on. According to Tsao, Semones’ music is assembled by 70 to 80 detailed layers that build the vibe and character of the song.
One of Semones’ listeners, Jay Osgood, shared her love for Semones’ music, “her version of indie is what you would find in like french bedroom pop. So whenever I am in a chill mood but awake, I listen to her songs because it’s calm and upbeat. It puts me in a calm state and her voice is soothing,” she says. As an Emerson College student and with several friends from Berklee College of Music, Osgood likes to show support for her fellow musically talented friends.
What’s next for the musician is that she is expecting to release her new EP, “Sukikirai (好き嫌い),” meaning “Love, Hate” on May 6th. Fans can tune into the dynamics and the rise and fall of the music. Tsao emphasizes, suggesting that fans, “listen for some of the more subtle elements of it that we worked a lot of or spent a lot of time on fine-tuning.” Semones looks forwards to her future plans to continue and grow her music career as a solo artist as well as touring with her band.
