Spotlight: Yumi Nu Celebrates AAPI Month With Debut of New EP ‘Hajime’
THERE IS AN EARNESTNESS TO CONFRONTING yourself. Gazing unafraid with a mere lens of acceptance into the landscape of meticulous self-inquiry that seems to define the process of “growing up” comes strength. For New York–based Japanese American artist and plus-size model Yumi Nu, there is an understanding of obliteration and renewal as one, a grasp onto the prospect that maybe there is comfort in the discomfort of existing adjunct the projected ideal. Intentionally aligned with Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Nu’s release of her new EP, Hajime, marks a powerful moment in her artistic renaissance. A beautiful representation of her deeply nuanced relationship with self and its many facets — race, religion, body image, and culture — Hajime connects her past and present, internal and external.
Composed of six tracks, Hajime, meaning “new beginnings” in Japanese, is realistically self-aware, candid, and multifaceted. “I thought it was a fitting word to title my EP because it’s my debut project as Yumi Nu,” the singer-songwriter explains. “I’ve grown so much as a songwriter and artist since the beginning, and this project simultaneously feels like the start for me while also an accumulation of everything I’ve learned and who I’ve become.”
Nu is vehement about this starting point in her artistry, and there is both a curiosity and a knowing quality that is present in each track individually as well as in the whole body of work. Visually and sonically, Yumi Nu creates a unique world in her musicianship, drawing inspiration from a deep archive of multi-genre and cross-stylistic choices and merging a largely alternative R&B sound with subtle pop and psychedelic elements. Hajime demonstrates a natural adeptness in capturing more than emotion itself but its little contradictions and observations, the way that desire, drive, love, or doubt are not the absolute, but instead doors to an unresolvable, infinite discovery of self.
Grounding these complexities into candid and honest expressions of thought, Hajime locates the pin that holds together the micro and macro, the blasé of the day-to-day and the existential pain of wanting to “be something.” Nu describes the opening track, “Bouquets,” as “sexy, confident, and honest,” where the depth of her vocal conviction atop a relentless, bass-heavy beat is inviting and electrifying. She seamlessly moves into track two, “Sin,” opening with a subtle embrace of a synth, pop-rock sound and developing into an immersive world of dreamy vocals that are light and insistent.
The conceptual range of the EP begins to show as we reach “Sandcastles,” a track that explores how delicate existence is, lending the effect of actually recognizing the fragility of self-worth through the lens of relationships. “‘Sandcastles’ is about your sense of self and worthiness becoming wobbly and unstable as you put all of it in someone else’s court to decide,” Nu explains.
As the EP continues, Hajime reveals itself more and more as a gentle catharsis, deepening as we move through each track. “Gully” grips this journey as a dreamlike, vast sound grounded in a lyrical stream of consciousness. “Illusions” shows a grittier diversity to Nu’s sound, with its rock-inspired percussion and bass line beneath her soft vocals. She explores the burden of feeling and a struggle to integrate the yearn for something more into a lived reality.
The notion of a heart that has exhausted itself, a mind so weighted that thoughts become a liability, Nu unpacks her track. “I wrote ‘Illusions’ about the illusion of the boxes and cages we put ourselves in,” she says. “I realized I had always had a ceiling over my head of how much potential I could reach and what I was worthy of, but it was me who put it there. It felt like realizing I was in a simulation, a belief and narrative I lived in but never questioned if it could be different.”
As the EP closes with “Pots and Pans,” there is simultaneously a finality and a pause before an unknown aftermath. With atmospheric vocals, the track completes the album as a world unto itself, and we are left not only with an entry point to the shifts and depths of Nu’s labyrinth of a mind and soul but with a journey that reconfigures our perception of human connection and shows us that, perhaps, we aren’t alone.
As AAPI month comes to a close, Yumi Nu’s Hajime finds a particular resonance in the hearts of those who have ever felt beyond the scope of normality, the souls of those that may feel too much, the eyes of those who detect the smallest of details, and the ears of those who utilize and understand music as a catalyst for feeling something — anything and everything. Having created a sonic-scape that is layered and multi-dimensional, Nu is an artist with a natural sagacity to music both conceptually and technically, and the debut of Hajime is just the inception of a blossoming artistry.
CONNECT WITH YUMI NU
SPOTIFY
-
weekly tunes playlist has been updated! new tracks from @furtradeband, @pecqband, @garryfool & more! check it out! https://t.co/ToFU0R6YGo -
-
RT @oliviaborch: new @LunaCollective out todayyy shot by @alltookev ✨ @P1H_official editorial design by me ! https://t.co/cvSCKsWB5D
-
RT @rlyblonde: @AnnieDirusso for @LunaCollective shot by me #35mm #portra800 https://t.co/0UUJSCBGcH
