Q&A: Mei Semones on Friendship, Love & the Magic of Music
IF YOU’VE EVER LISTENED TO THE MUSIC OF ONE — Mei Semones, you will likely agree that the feelings summoned by the musician’s melodies are most comparable to the warmth that spreads across your body after taking the first sip of a cup of warm tea. Enveloping listeners within her glowy sound, the Mei Semones listening experience is one that you come away from with a renewed sense of vitality.
Semones creates music written in both Japanese and English, blending indie-pop sensibilities with elements of jazz, among various other musical stylings. When she tired of playing piano at a young age, she transitioned to guitar after being inspired by the enthusiastic playing of Marty McFly in Back to the Future — and the rest is history. After making the switch, her musical purview quickly shifted from the classical realm toward the bossa nova and jazz influences she touts to this day.
While Semones is currently based in Brooklyn, NY, much of her artistry was influenced by the music scene in Boston, MA, where she attended Berklee College of Music. It was there that she began writing music she could truly stand behind, with the development of her craft being bolstered by new techniques she learned in classes, as well as the city’s lively DIY music scene.
Years of learning have led to the release of Semones’ most recent singles on Oct. 21: the lush “Okashi/お菓子” and the effervescent yet eerie “Shinju/真珠.” The musician has previously released several singles and an EP, Tsukino, but the two aforementioned tracks demonstrate her continuously advancing songwriting capabilities, showcasing a bolder, grittier sound and immensely intricate arrangements.
Love has never been an easy game to play, and Semones acknowledges her past defeats within the span of these two tracks. She recognizes the highs and lows that go hand in hand with being in love; her emotions are backed by instrumental swells and the subtleties that her gentle vocals lend to the fray. While she has not lost her signature blushy softness, there is a new edge to her sound: an ominous bite that nips at the heels of any optimism, slowly scaring it away.
Semones’ music teaches listeners that sometimes love just isn’t all that society chocks it up to be, simultaneously emphasizing that it’s perfectly okay to be nervous and to struggle and coming to the conclusion that those fears are, in part, what make us human. In capturing this complicated dichotomy between love and loss, Semones carves out space for us to embrace the element of uncertainty within our lives, encouraging us to carry on living and let life (and love) play out naturally.
Let “Okashi/お菓子” and “Shinju/真珠” be your reminder that while lovers come and go, Mei Semones’ music will always be there to return to when you need it.
Continue reading below to learn more about Mei Semones and the life behind her dreamy discography.
LUNA: Before we get fully into the double single release, I want to start off by asking about your origin as a musician. How did you get started?
SEMONES: I started playing piano when I was four. My grandma bought us a piano and I started taking lessons. Then when I was 10 or 11, I switched to guitar. I was inspired by the movie Back to the Future. Marty plays a Chuck Berry song, and I was inspired by that and I started taking classical guitar lessons. I actually didn't really like classical guitar that much so I switched to electric guitar, and that's how it started!
LUNA: You went to Berklee and you recently graduated from there. How did the music scene in Boston and Berklee as a whole help shape your art and the music that you make now?
SEMONES: It was a big part of finding my sound. I didn't really write a song that I liked until I got to Berklee. I learned a lot. I was already studying some music theory in high school because I was in jazz band and stuff, but at Berklee I got more into it and learned a lot more. I got a lot better at playing guitar and learned a lot of different types of chord progressions, voicings, arpeggios, and scales and all that. That inform[ed] my songwriting to help me find a sound and something specific I wanted to make.
LUNA: That's awesome. Do you feel like the conservatory or academic teaching of music is more helpful or harmful for experimentation when it comes to making music? With classical training, you have to do things a certain way. How do you feel about the education system around music and teaching people how to “properly” play music?
SEMONES: I personally have had a great experience with it. I know some people go to music school and they're like, “Oh, this is ruining music for me. This is not what I wanted to do, it's not fun anymore.” Sometimes you get an assignment and you have to do it a specific way rather than the way that you want to do it — but for me, I didn't really have an issue with that. I felt like I was learning new things; I didn't feel like anything was being confined. It was just growing. It really depends on the person and how your brain works.
LUNA: I feel like a lot of those lessons are just building blocks to help you get to the point where you can experiment and be creative. They're not meant to stop you, but it definitely can be discouraging.
SEMONES: That's how I feel too. You have to learn some things first to be able to experiment. For some people, it goes the other way around. They don't want to because [they] think it's like getting in the way of [their experimentation].
LUNA: Your music blends so many different genres. You have jazz, a classical element, and a pop element. What specifically drew you to combining all of those very different soundscapes together?
SEMONES: It happened naturally. I remember when I first started writing songs when I was in middle school, they were all really bad. They were pop rock, just weird songs. I didn't know what I was doing. When I started playing jazz, that became a big part of my music. It was what I listened to, so that naturally went into my songwriting. Growing up, I listened to a lot of rock music. I don't know if you can really hear it — that's not really a huge part of the sound of my music, but I think it's part of it because I listened to it a lot. The blending of influence wasn't necessarily something that I planned out. It's probably naturally happening because of the music that I listen to and the music that I play.
LUNA: I can see how they all feed into your sound. I can hear a little grunge in the second single, actually — it's a harder, more bold sound. My next question is about your style and aesthetic. You not only musically have this soft aesthetic, but you have it in your fashion as well. Where do you get your style inspiration from?
SEMONES: I've gotten that question before and I never know how to answer it because it's not something I think about or plan out that much. I'm inspired by the people around me. I see somebody wearing something and I’ll want to get something like that, and my sister studied fashion at NYU so she's kind of an inspiration for me as well. Japanese street fashion too — whenever I go to Tokyo I'll always see cool clothes. My favorite color is pink, so that's a big part of it too.
LUNA: I love that. Your style is so awesome. You're on tour with The Brazen Youth currently. How has that experience been for you so far?
SEMONES: It has been really fun. This is my third time touring with them. They went on a couple tours in the fall and winter of last year. It has been good so far; we've played three shows. It's kind of slow at the start, but it's really fun. We drove to Kansas City from Connecticut in two days for a show there and now we're in Minnesota. Today we're going to Milwaukee.
Photo by Deanie Chen
LUNA: If it's alright with you, can we change topics and talk a little bit about the double single? Tell me about the cover art — it's so expressive and cute. Who created it and what was the inspiration for it?
SEMONES: The cover was done by Rhi Ragone. I found them on Instagram a while ago. I was thinking for a while that I wanted them to make cover art for me. For this release, it was two covers with two contrasting color schemes and designs based off the meaning of the songs. I sent them some reference images of art that they actually already made. They went off and did it. It was perfect. I didn't really need to do anything. So that was really nice.
LUNA: It matches your personal brand or the image that you put out into the world. They fit your music and your style as well.
SEMONES: Thank you. That makes me happy to hear because that's what I was going for.
LUNA: Since the two songs were released as a double single, did you find that they relate to each other in some ways? Are they connected thematically?
SEMONES: I would say so. I wrote them several months apart but they ended up representing the same period of time in my life. They are about my last semester of college, and the two songs are about two different people and something I was going through at the time. The first single that I put out was one that I wrote later on. It's a love song, but it's also talking about being angry and upset. It's actually about two different people, but you wouldn't really know that because it's all one storyline. The other song I wrote a while ago, about friendship and love. Those are the themes that go through both: love, and there's also foreshadowing and darkness about how things can be.
LUNA: I can definitely see it in both of the songs thematically — they're very much about love but they do have this tension, stress, and anxiety within them. It's a very nuanced way to write a love song. What is your typical songwriting process? Do you sit down and write during premeditated sessions, or are these songs more spontaneous out of emotions that you feel?
SEMONES: It's more spontaneous. It depends — a lot of the time I don’t have time to play and write. I normally start with a chord progression, some chords that I like, and then from there I'll find a melody from the top of one of the chords. It comes out naturally, and then from there I write the lyrics.
LUNA: It sounds like a natural process rather than having to sit down and force yourself to write something.
SEMONES: Yeah! I guess if I had more time to write and was writing all the time, maybe it would feel more tedious, but because I don't have that much time, every time I write it's like, "Sick! I have this time to do this!"
LUNA: Your songs are in both Japanese and English. Do you find that one language is more expressive or able to verbalize what you want to say in a song better than the other?
SEMONES: It depends on the moment in the song and what I'm trying to say. I don't think one is more expressive than the other, but I do find that when I'm writing a song, sometimes it feels way more natural and fluid singing in Japanese, or sometimes it feels more natural to write in English. When I'm songwriting and I get stuck, it's definitely helpful because I can switch between the two. It gets me past writer's block. It just depends on doing which language feels comfortable for whatever I'm trying to say. Sometimes if I want the verse/chorus to have a specific impact, I'll add in Japanese or English.
LUNA: Like you were saying, it helps with writer's block to be able to dip into two languages instead of just having one to pull from. I love that. "Shinju" is a sweet little love song with an eerie backbone in the instrumentals. You sing about love at first sight — do you believe in love at first sight like the track suggests?
SEMONES: Yeah, I'd say so.
LUNA: How will you know if it's love at first sight? What are the feelings and thoughts that go through your head?
SEMONES: That's a good question. It's just when you see somebody, just immediately being enamored with them even if you don't know who they are.
LUNA: It definitely has a lot to do with intuition and things like that. In the track, you sing: “Love at first sight / Don’t let me go / Be with me / Forever,” which is full of love but is also a little anxiety ridden. Is being in love something that is more comforting or stress-inducing for you, or is it a little bit of both?
SEMONES: It's a little bit of both. It's interesting because when I wrote that song, the person who I was writing it for I had a really great relationship with. I was super excited about our friendship and had so much love in that relationship. I wrote those lyrics before anything happened, but now looking back after the fact, although I didn't know that anything was gonna happen, it seems like I did know. It was in the way that the lyrics are so intense.
LUNA: Lyrics can definitely be a really good vibe check or predictor of what can happen. It's always interesting to look back on who you were while writing a song. Do you find that the themes in these tracks hold up to who you are now, or is there growth from between when you wrote them and now?
SEMONES: I've definitely grown since I wrote the songs. It's kind of eye opening. The last semester of college was a lot of change, a lot of transition. I wrote the songs before that all happened and during it. Now I'm in a different place. I have a different perspective on these songs now.
LUNA: Definitely, that's awesome. The second single, "Okashi," has a bolder soundscape than your typical jazz pop that you have put out in the past. What was the motivation behind this louder sonic landscape?
SEMONES: A lot of it was influenced by the music but I was listening to and the people I was playing with — like The Brazen Youth, who I'm playing with now, and then my friend Miles who's in this band called Clifford. Those were two big influences for the song. I wanted to try writing something that was different: more rock, folk. The start of the song still has a lot of jazz influences. It also has more of an angry side, so it lent itself better to the style of music.
LUNA: You really smoothly incorporate it into your sound — it doesn't sound like something forced, it sounds like you're owning it. You're like, "Yeah, this is me. I'm still Mei Semones, but a little different." I also love the lyrics of the track. You say, “There’s more to say, there’s more that’s on my mind / If you don’t let me take the wheel." It's kind of about wanting to stay in this relationship but having to be in control in a way. In a relationship, how do you convince yourself to relinquish this control and simply sit in the moment and relish the present?
SEMONES: Letting go of what other people are going to do and the way that you react to things. That’s part of it.
LUNA: What do you want listeners to get out of these songs?
SEMONES: Even if they don't know exactly what they're about, I hope that they’re relatable in a way. That the songs can help them get through whatever they're going through at the time, or make them think about something else.
LUNA: It's such a beautiful thing to write something and have so many other people relate to it. We're at my last question, and I always like to end my interviews on a happy note. What has been giving you joy lately? It can be anything at all.
SEMONES: That's a big question. It's being on tour — playing shows in front of an audience is great. My roommate's cat, Mayonnaise, is really sweet, and I love spending time with her; I miss her a lot. And my boyfriend, Micah.
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