Mei Semones Interview – Roots & New Album ‘Animaru’

Last Updated on 2025-05-01 by a-indie

Singer-songwriter/guitarist Mei Semones, originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, with a Japanese mother.

Having studied guitar performance focusing on jazz at Berklee College of Music and possessing experience as a Japanese kindergarten teacher in Brooklyn, Mei Semones is a young artist featured by media outlets like Rolling Stone and Paste in 2024 and is scheduled to perform at Fuji Rock this year, 2025.

What’s particularly noteworthy about her music are the lyrics that interweave Japanese and English, reflecting her roots, and a sound that transcends the natural order, where refined purity coexists with avant-garde approaches and technical arrangements.

Her debut album “Animaru,” released recently, is a challenging work that connects her musical foundations of jazz, bossa nova, and chamber rock to indie rock, while generously packing in her solid identity.

It is undoubtedly a masterpiece that will serve as Mei Semones’ calling card as she is expected to gain increasing recognition both domestically and internationally.

To convey the charm of Mei Semones, we delved into her roots, explored her deep connection with Japan in particular, and conducted a wide-ranging interview.

Mei Semones Interview

Artist:Mei Semones　Interviewer:Yuuki Takita　Translations:A-indie

-Yuuki Takita:Our media values artists’ roots, the background of their music, and the music, culture, and art that influenced them. Since this is our first interview with you, I’d like to start by asking about yourself so our readers can get to know you. You’re from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and have a Japanese mother. Could you tell us about your childhood in Ann Arbor and what life was like there? Also, in the lyrics of “Dangomushi,” there are phrases like “your precious memories” and “tell me your favorite things.” Following this theme, I’d like to know about Ann Arbor as a place and the things you encountered there.
Mei Semones:Ann Arbor was a lovely place to grow up! It’s a cute small city in Michigan, and it’s a college town. I would say I had a pretty peaceful childhood. As you mentioned, I grew up with a Japanese mother and American father, and I have one twin sister. My time as a child was spent playing outside at the creek by our house, going on the trampoline, going to soccer practice etc, while also studying Japanese with my mother and taking piano lessons from the age of 4, and then switching to guitar around the age of 11.

Relationship with Japan and Bilingual Background

-Having a Japanese mother, could you tell us about your relationship with Japan? As a fan of your music, I’m happy to see you gaining popularity with lyrics that weave together Japanese and English. I’m curious about your impression of Japan, your psychological connection to it, and how having roots in both America and Japan has influenced your life and personal development.
Growing up I would usually go to Japan once a year to visit my grandma in Yokosuka. Since the school semester ends earlier in the US, when our summer break started in the US we would go to Yokosuka and go to the local elementary school there for a couple weeks, until summer break started in Japan. Japanese language and culture has always been a big part of my life — my mom and I only speak Japanese with each other, and it was the same with my grandma. Although I was born and raised in the US, being half Japanese has been a big part of my identity thanks to my family, and it’s something that I will always feel very grateful for and deeply connected to.

Experience as a Kindergarten Teacher

-I understand you worked as a Japanese kindergarten teacher while pursuing your artistic activities. Could you share what motivated you to become a Japanese kindergarten teacher and how you interacted with the children there?
I worked as an assistant teacher at a Japanese preschool in Brooklyn when I first moved to New York. I worked there full time for one year and part time for another year. To be fully transparent, I took the job because I was moving to New York and becoming financially independent for the first time in my life, which meant I needed to get a job to pay rent and eat. I actually didn’t know that I liked children that much until I started working at the preschool, but I ended up really liking it! It was also nice because I was able to practice my Japanese on a daily basis.

From Jazz to “Indie J-POP”

-Regarding your musical career, you started piano at age 4, switched to electric guitar at 11, played jazz guitar in high school, and then studied guitar performance with a focus on jazz at Berklee College of Music. Could you tell us what inspired you to play piano and guitar, and about your experience at Berklee College of Music? I’d also like to know how these experiences have influenced your music today.
My grandma bought a piano for me and my sister when we were 4 years old, and so we started taking piano lessons. Being quite young when I started playing piano, I wasn’t necessarily inspired by something, more so doing it because my parents set it up for me. When I got a little older I wasn’t enjoying piano as much, and wanted to switch to guitar. What first inspired me to play guitar was the scene from the movie “Back to the Future” where the main character plays that Chuck Berry tune. At that age I thought it was really cool, and wanted to learn how to do that.

Regarding Berklee, I really enjoyed my time there! It gave me the opportunity to practice a lot and take a lot of specialized classes, and I think I got a lot better at guitar while I was there. I also met all of my bandmates at Berklee, and they have become a huge part of the sound of my music. I think my time at Berklee and my time studying jazz in high school has had a big impact on my music, as it was in these settings that I was introduced to a lot of the music that I love and that I am inspired by to this day.

About Her Musicality

-From your own perspective, how would you describe MEI SEMONES’ music and yourself as an artist? My impression of your music is that both your vocals and sound enter the ear naturally, with a pleasant, refreshing, and refined purity. But exploring the details reveals avant-garde approaches and technical arrangements, with a sense of firm identity that transcends natural order, creating an interestingly peculiar music.
I like your impression a lot!! When people ask me to describe my music, I usually say something along the lines of “jazz influenced indie j-pop” to keep it short. I think it has elements of jazz, bossa, samba, indie rock, math rock, grunge, pop, etc, but at the end of the day, I am just making whatever music comes to me naturally, and writing songs that I like. I just want to make music that I love and that is fun for me and my band to play.