Artist Feature: Shinju (真珠) by Mei Semones

Photo by Deanie Chen

Meet Mei Semones

Photo by Deanie Chen

Mei Semones is an artist creating jazz-influenced indie pop songs with lyrics in both Japanese and English, currently based in Brooklyn, NY. Drawing from her background in jazz guitar and her Japanese heritage, she uses creative harmonic and rhythmic concepts and two different languages to write her songs.

Mei’s influences include John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery, Thelonious Monk, João Gilberto, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Nirvana, with a sprinkle of folk. Drawing from these different influences, her music incorporates a variety of genres.

Check out more of Mei on her website, Spotify, and Instagram.

Mei’s latest double single, Shinju (真珠)

On Friday, October 21st, Mei released her double single, Shinju which features two tracks: Shinju (真珠) and Okashi (お菓子).

Shinju (真珠) was written in the winter of 2021/2022. It is a song that now holds a different meaning than when it was originally written. It's about love, friendship, and treasuring someone, but there is foreshadowing in the lyrics -- something that is seemingly "perfect" usually has a bitter side to it too. 

Cover Art for Shinju (真珠) Double Single by Rhi Ragone

Okashi (お菓子) was written in the spring of 2022. It also started as a love song, expressing gratitude for kindness, humor, and compatibility. By the end of the song, it morphs into something angrier and expresses the discomfort of feeling fooled.

Both songs were recorded in the summer of 2022 at Northeastern University with engineer Kai Tsao, who I have been working with on my last couple of projects. He is an excellent recording, mixing, and mastering engineer, musician, and person. I played guitar and sang, and my wonderful band added all of their parts, listed below:

Upright Bass: Jaden Raso

Drums & Hand Percussion: Ransom McCafferty

Viola: Noah Leong

Violin: Claudius Agrippa

Cello: Kely Pinhero

Select BGV: Kai Tsao (Track 1)