Biography
Mei Semones serves as singer, songwriter, and guitarist while shaping refined indie pop laced with jazz, bossa nova, and math rock textures. She resides in Brooklyn, where her first EP, Tsukino, appeared in 2022. Bilingual lyrics in Japanese and English marked that project and persisted through later work, among them the Kabutomushi EP issued in 2024 as her initial outing on the Brooklyn independent label Bayonet Records.
She spent her formative years in Ann Arbor, Michigan, first on piano before shifting focus to guitar. Early interest in indie rock broadened once she joined local jazz and funk ensembles, prompting more varied tastes. During her jazz guitar studies at Boston’s Berklee College of Music she began working with Reggie Pearl, the Brazen Youth, and G Luné while also issuing her own recordings. Drawing on an uncommon range of inspirations spanning Thelonius Monk and João Gilberto to Smashing Pumpkins, Semones tracked her debut EP, Tsukino, in Michigan before self-releasing it in 2022. The set, featuring string arrangements by Noah Leong, showcased her deft fusion of detailed guitar-driven pop and bossa nova rhythms. Its arrival aligned with her relocation from Boston to New York, after which she spent the following year issuing two notable collaborations with John Roseboro on “Waters of March” and “How to Cope.”
Early in 2024 she signed with Brooklyn’s Bayonet Records, which brought out the EP Kabutomushi that April. Kai Tsao handled production, recording, and mixing, and Semones once more performed alongside a compact acoustic group that included Leong on viola.
She spent her formative years in Ann Arbor, Michigan, first on piano before shifting focus to guitar. Early interest in indie rock broadened once she joined local jazz and funk ensembles, prompting more varied tastes. During her jazz guitar studies at Boston’s Berklee College of Music she began working with Reggie Pearl, the Brazen Youth, and G Luné while also issuing her own recordings. Drawing on an uncommon range of inspirations spanning Thelonius Monk and João Gilberto to Smashing Pumpkins, Semones tracked her debut EP, Tsukino, in Michigan before self-releasing it in 2022. The set, featuring string arrangements by Noah Leong, showcased her deft fusion of detailed guitar-driven pop and bossa nova rhythms. Its arrival aligned with her relocation from Boston to New York, after which she spent the following year issuing two notable collaborations with John Roseboro on “Waters of March” and “How to Cope.”
Early in 2024 she signed with Brooklyn’s Bayonet Records, which brought out the EP Kabutomushi that April. Kai Tsao handled production, recording, and mixing, and Semones once more performed alongside a compact acoustic group that included Leong on viola.
Albums
Singles
