Mei Semones

Today, Mei Semones — the 24-year-old Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and virtuosic guitarist — announces her first full-length album,  Animaru, out May 2nd via Bayonet Records, and releases its lead single “Dumb Feeling.” In conjunction, Semones announces a North American tour with stops in Chicago, Toronto, Boston, and more.

2024 was a transformative year for Mei. Since the release of her beloved 2024 EP Kabutomushi, Semones was highlighted as an “Artist You Need to Know” by Rolling Stone, crowned the “Best of What’s Next” by Paste, toured extensively across the US, cultivated a dedicated following, and wrote the songs that would eventually make up Animaru.

Following the “elegant, flexible, wily songs” (New York Times) found on  Kabutomushi, Animaru (the Japanese pronunciation of the word “animal”) is the embodiment of Mei’s deeper trust in her instincts. The album is a collection of musically impressive tracks that see Mei sounding more adventurous, more vulnerable and more confident than ever before. “No second-guessing, no overthinking. The way I want to live my life is by doing the things that are important to me, and I think everyone should live that way,” says Semones of her strengthened self-assurance. 

Though her music might inherently evoke feelings of romance and softness, the crux of the album lies in Mei and her band’s skillful balance of tension and release. Often within individual tracks, there are moments of pared-back acoustic guitar adorned with Mei’s infectious vocalizations that, in a moment’s notice, transform into orchestral swells of sweeping strings and complex guitar rhythms. Album opener “Dumb Feeling” is a prime example. The track is a bossa/samba blend complete with indie rock sensibilities in the choruses as Mei details her contentment with her life in New York City. 

The accompanying video reflects this, showing Mei thriving in the city before meeting up with her band for rehearsal. In Mei’s words, “‘The ‘Dumb Feeling’ music video is a depiction of a day in my life in the city — running around the city, rehearsing with my band, taking the train back & forth between Manhattan and Brooklyn. I wanted the video to represent what the song means to me — my love, gratitude, and contentment with the city, my friends here, the music we make, and the charming chaos here, like the screeching trains and the rats & pigeons.”

Mei and her five-piece band recorded the album in the summer of 2024 at Ashlawn Recording Company, a farm studio in Connecticut operated by their friend Charles Dahlke. To these sessions, she brought a batch of tracks that, not unlike Kabutomushi, are sophisticated declarations of non-romantic love: love of life, love of family, love of music and her guitar. Animaru exemplifies Mei’s enchantingly wide range as a songwriter and musician, including some of the most challenging and most straightforward songs Mei has ever written