Q&A: Slide Into the Blissful Harmony of guccimei's Debut Single “Too Good”
GUCCIMEI’S MUSIC FEEDS THE SOUL — and takes you on a sublime rhythmic journey. As a gifted poet, songwriter, singer, and producer, guccimei stands out for the way she immerses herself in her craft. Originally from Honolulu and raised in the Bay Area, guccimei has always had a deep fascination for music — she played the flute for nearly a decade and dabbled in songwriting from a very young age.
Despite her being a naturally gifted child in both the arts and academics, guccimei faced difficulties being accepted by her peers due to her identity as a Black and Chinese woman. Using writing and poetry as a way to escape family issues and release the pressures of growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood, guccimei learned from a young age that art is a powerful way to process complex emotions. Her perseverance and self-determination shape her career as a musician, proving that she is an artist to watch.
Guccimei is a lifelong student, whose curiosity drives her music — on top of going back to school for audio engineering and vocal production, she has devoted months to Femme House and She Is The Music programs. She distinguishes herself as an artist who wholeheartedly commits to enhancing her natural talents — not just saying she wants to mature her sound but actually taking tangible steps to excel.
This close care for her craft is what makes her new single, “Too Good,” so captivating, as it is clean, crisp, and exquisitely produced. Featured on Spotify playlists such as Musical Gems From Around the World, “Too Good” is a beautifully rhythmic track, layered with lush vocals and sensual R&B melodies — the subtle reggae and bachata-inspired beats enrich the overall sound. Her highly anticipated EP will be her first project as a budding audio and vocal producer.
Luna sat down with guccimei to discuss her relationship with writing and poetry, her future goals, and her journey as an independent artist. Read below to find out more about this up-and-coming artist.
LUNA: Congratulations on the release of “Too Good.” I am obsessed with the beat, the production is insanely crisp, and your vocals are killer. Can you talk us through the inspiration for the track?
GUCCIMEI: So, usually, artists like to have reference tracks when they're making something, and it can be for specific reasons. Let's say, you can go to an artist for a particular vibe, or maybe you like the way that a certain song builds momentum, and you want to mimic that production-wise. So I worked closely with another person, his name is Patrick, and we did not have reference tracks and I did not look to another artist for inspiration [for this track]. When I did first make the beat, it had a reggae influence, but now if you listen to it, it's more bachata-like, it has a Latin groove — it just fits more smoothly with my style of speaking.
And the rest of the elements in the song, content-wise, come from a relationship from many years ago, that I to this day think about because it has so many teaching moments for me. Teaching moments around my idea of what I want love to look like for me and what I think a partner who fits my personality looks like for me. I think across the board it's very original; it comes from an original place. The idea itself is original — it literally came from a voice recording that I had on my phone, and I sat on it for months before ever even touching it or entertaining the idea of making it into a song. So a lot of this was us developing ideas.
LUNA: That's awesome. I definitely heard that reggae influence but now that you say bachata I can totally hear that too. The beat really sticks to you.
GUCCIMEI: I'm really glad, and I think another thing too is that this was my first time really getting my hands into a project from start to finish. I had been taking audio production classes, I made songs, but nothing that I wanted to publicly release. So this was like a full circle moment for me to really test my skills and see how far I can go with my own contributions before having somebody else step into the picture.
LUNA: That's a really cool experience. Would you say the song felt like your baby at one point?
GUCCIMEI: Yeah, I definitely felt that way for a good six months. Then once you release something, you're already moving on to the next thing, and for me building out this EP, that's the next thing — there's definitely going to be more reggae involved. So if you dig that, you're definitely gonna dig like the next track that we're working really hard on right now. My goal is to be as experimental as possible but do it tastefully and do it in my own way.
LUNA: Tell me about your college journey.
GUCCIMEI: So I had a very non-traditional path. For starters, I went to three colleges in four consecutive years. First, at the University of Virginia, and then I had to come home abruptly — I took a few semesters at Las Positas College in Livermore, and then I transferred from there to UC Berkeley. Throughout that time, I was very committed to studying philosophy, and everybody in my family, including myself, thought that I was going to be, like, an assistant professor or [go to] law school. So those were the only two paths that I was considering at the time. But growing up, I played the flute for almost a decade, I was in concert band all through grade school, and I did marching band in high school. So it was really not far-fetched or far-reaching for me to consider music after I graduated from college.
That desire to go back to music came after months of just failure. Like, I had graduated in December of 2019, which was right into a pandemic, and nothing was going right for me, quite literally — not financially, not emotionally, not spiritually. It felt like everything that I thought would be right for me ended up in rejection. So I came to myself, I was like, “You know if I'm really committed to something, rejection shouldn't faze me — it should just be part of the process.” So through months of not getting what I want, essentially I really asked myself, “What do I feel is my purpose? What is it that I can continue pursuing on a long-term horizon?” and I kept coming back to music.
Initially, I did not buy the Ableton Live suite and start producing beats — that was not the case at all. I decided to take music supervision coursework and a class in copyright law through the UCLA Extension program. So I took the business approach first before realizing that that wasn't as fulfilling as I thought it would be. Now I’m trying and trusting my creativity.
LUNA: Do you think that having a basic knowledge of the business side of music gives you an advantage as an artist?
GUCCIMEI: Yes and no. I don't think I'm at a stage in my artist development where I have to apply that knowledge. It certainly helps in looser settings where you're working with another producer and both of you need to sign contracts. It's not the most glamorous part of working in a creative field but those things are necessary protections for both you and the other person. So those are really cases where I find myself using that knowledge and it comes in handy. But I wouldn't say it gives me an upper hand in any sense. I just think that I'm able to approach the table with confidence because I feel like I have the whole picture. Day to day, I actually work as a business development associate for a private management consulting firm. So being an artist is not yet a full-time job for me, and I think how I've been able to balance my professional, non-music life with my music life is really shaping me up to be a mature person. I don't think I would have been able to do this, do music in the way that I am, a couple of years ago because I just did not have that sense of maturity, nor the knowledge.
LUNA: I really appreciate that answer, because a lot of times the less glamorous parts of the music industry are not talked about, but it is really important because that is definitely a part of being an artist. I applaud you for having a full-time job and being an artist — that's really awesome. I think it really proves that your art is a part of you — you can’t not go for it.
GUCCIMEI: I think the way you put that that's exactly how I feel. I felt like I was in a pressure cooker at the start of this year. I finished my first full semester of audio engineering at Chabot College, which is a community college in Hayward, and I was working almost 30 hours a week while taking classes and doing music. So it's those experiences that really ask you, “How bad do you want this? Do you feel that this is a part of you?” And every time [I asked myself that], I never felt like giving up. I never felt like this isn't what I'm supposed to be doing.
LUNA: Do you have any affirmations that you tell yourself when you get overwhelmed with balancing those two things or when you feel like giving up?
GUCCIMEI: Yeah, I think my affirmations start at the very beginning of the day, and also they're the very last thing that I say to myself when I go to sleep. So when I wake up in the morning, I set the intention to have a good day. I say to myself, “Today is going to be a great day. Today, I'm going to accomplish everything that I have set in mind, I'm going to have an easy day, and things will come to me easily.” I always reaffirm that what I'm doing is important, that even if I don't see the fruits of my labor now that it'll be felt in due time. I was never a spiritual person growing up, even though my family is. I would always tag along going to church and things like that. But now I have a sense of spirituality and faith in my direction. So, you know, I feel it, I feel it now — it changes the way that I approach music, it changes the way that I think about how I want to storytell in songs. So affirmations are key to my well-being.
LUNA: How do your poems develop? Is it a similar process for songs?
GUCCIMEI: Yeah, so writing poetry and journaling was something that I did as a young girl, and it was a survival mechanism. My parents had a really strenuous divorce, not many people know this — I don't even think my closest friends know this. In middle school, when they separated and started living in different places, our agreement was that I would spend one week with my mom and, when we could, one week with my dad. My dad kept moving, he was very nomadic and kept moving to different places because he could not hold a stable job. So at one point, I was living in Tracy but going to school in Pleasanton. And in another one, one season I was living in Modesto and had to wake up really early at four in the morning just to go back to school in Pleasanton. I lived in Hayward, I lived in Fremont, and it was really tough on my body and on my mind.
So writing was the only place where I felt I had a true confidant — the paper was my confidant, and I could be as expressive as I wanted to be without repercussion. That was before someone had suggested that I try therapy. So writing was my first love, really, and now when I write it's not nearly as cold or dark as it used to be. When I write now, it's more so about how I navigate being an adult and how I am able to bring my whole self and be supportive of others in platonic and romantic relationships. So those tend to be the topics that I write about now, whereas in the past it was definitely more about strife and not feeling like I could communicate with other people about what was happening behind closed doors.
LUNA: That's really beautiful. I really appreciate that answer a lot. It is such a relatable practice to use writing as an emotional release and as a way to process hard moments. It's inspiring that it can also be turned into art or music as well.
GUCCIMEI: Definitely, I've had a lot of songs that just never made it but they came from a short poem. Some people are really strict about song structure, having words rhyme, and so on — which, I pass no judgment to them. But for me, I'm not really concerned about words rhyming with each other or if things have to make sense. Writing is being in a state of flow and that's exactly how I think when I'm singing music. “Am I in a state of flow?” — that's what I care about more so than if this word rhymes with the next word.
LUNA: What poets, songwriters, or musicians do you look up to?
GUCCIMEI: So I'm finding that my music is just categorically aligning with alternative R&B. So for now, I'm saying that I'm an alternative R&B artist — I'm fully embracing that term — but I'm really open to being more explorative and not pigeonholing myself too much. Really artists that had a huge impact —I think middle school is just an era for some reason that I often look back to. Artists that I really love are Neon Indian, whose name is Alan, and Kelela, who is also an alternative R&B artist. I think Tinashe is extremely influential. I wished I could see her creative process — everything from her sense of style to how she creates music videos. Also Sade. My earliest memory of music is jazz, so lots of Kenny G and Sade. So I would say those people I admire a lot, and I admire them for different reasons.
LUNA: In the future, would you like to continue controlling all aspects of your music — the songwriting, the vocals, and the production?
GUCCIMEI: I think I would rather have a team of people helping me in these different aspects. The creation part is the easiest, so to speak. I love being able to write my own lyrics, I love being able to produce the beats, and I love sitting with a mixing engineer and a mastering engineer and just spending hours listening to something in detail because I'm also in training for that. So those things I wouldn't give up. But if I'm thinking about… Like, this year, I'll be putting out my first music video, and that's not a one-man show. Marketing's not something that I like to do by myself, either. PR is not something that I would want to continue doing by myself. But when you start off, I think a lot of people are watching you, and they're watching to see how much you can do by yourself before somebody else steps into the picture.
LUNA: I think that that's also just a good lesson as well. With up-and-coming artists, I think there's this whole push to be a one-man show when in reality that's just such an unachievable goal.
GUCCIMEI: It's unachievable, it's unrealistic, and it's not something that I aspire for. If I think about my lifestyle, what do I want my lifestyle to look like in five years? Do I still want to be as independent as I am now? The answer is definitely no. I have mentors, like people who I go to and I will show them my demos and say, “Hey, what do you think about this?” And their feedback is so important to me in my development, but even their connection can only stretch so far at this point. A lot of people are just waiting to see what you can do by yourself.
LUNA: I really praise you for being an artist that not only writes their own music, does their own vocals, and makes their own beats, but is also immersed in the mixing and mastering process.
GUCCIMEI: Thank you! I definitely have to give a lot of credit to Patrick. Something that I think people forget in this industry is… I see myself as a small artist right now, but somebody who's more big picture–thinking [thinks differently]. I've had it said to me before that, “You’re competing in a genre and your competitors are SZA, Summer, Walker, etc. If you want to think of yourself as a big artist, you have to put out music that competes with them.”
One thing that I've really stressed is if I ever want to entertain a big mentality, I have to think of myself as more than just talent — I have to think of myself as somebody who's a skilled person. And I think that's really what gets people to turn their hobby into a business, right? It doesn't really matter what form of art it is. If you're a ceramicist [and] at some point, if you want to turn that into a business, you have to also branch out your skills — it can't just be the talent that takes you to the next level.
LUNA: What are you working on next, and what can we expect to see from you in the future?
GUCCIMEI: Right now in the works is my EP. I'm planning for it to be four songs in length, and I don't think we have an anticipated release date just yet but I'm aiming for next spring. What people can expect in the near future is another song that will be on the EP.
LUNA: And you said you're looking to do a music video soon too, right? That's a fun new project to get into.
GUCCIMEI: Yeah! I think having somebody else's creative direction there is gonna open my eyes. Music is like seeing through your ears, but then creating a music video is really like seeing with your eyes but your eyes are closed. And that's a whole new skill that I'll just have to observe and trust in somebody else when they help me with that direction.
Different projects bring out different sides of you. So who knows, this music video might encourage me to take classes with a choreographer and there might be some really great choreography in there. Everything's unfolding for me.
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