UMI is a Neo-Soul and R&B-Inspired Artist Creating Space for Healing

Q&A always had really bad stage fright, so no one knew I sang but my family. I’ve been writing songs since I was 4 and I have journals from back then. In high school, I wanted to do music but started a YouTube channel because I was scared to sing in front of people.

Rising Seattle-born and now LA-based musician Tierra Umi Wilson (better known as just UMI) is a perfect embodiment of her middle name, which translates to “ocean” in Japanese. Her music—an amalgamation of lo-fi beats, intense soul, and poignantly simple lyricism—radiates a quiet and compelling peace, not unlike that found in breaking ocean waves. And being half-Black and half-Japanese, UMI has rooted her identity in fluidity. It should come as no surprise, then, that breaking barriers in music seems to come naturally for her.

She’s been building slowly and steadily, sharing covers on YouTube and SoundCloud since high school, but this year especially, her momentum has hit new heights. In recent months, UMI has been sharing her energy far and wide. She just wrapped up a national tour with Cuco, is gearing up for a new EP after her last project Balance, and is about to hit the road with Conan Gray this November.

As her work reaches wider audiences, UMI hopes to keep up her thoughtful, intentional approach and create a healing space with everything she does—all, of course, while still going with the flow. Read our interview with UMI below.

Then I used to do covers—I was that girl who does covers every week for four years in high school. I started putting those covers on SoundCloud and eventually I started getting flagged for copyright. I was at two strikes and I was like, “You know what? This is the universe telling me to start putting out original music.” Then I just took some songs from all my journals and started producing my own stuff and playing guitar and putting that on SoundCloud and YouTube, and over time it’s grown. It’s always been in my family because my mom’s a pianist and my dad’s a drummer.

So it’s almost like you’ve always had it. It just took the right moment to uncover.

Exactly! It feels like it’s always been my natural way of expression. Back then, I didn’t even realize what I was doing—it’d be like, “I’m angry, I’ma write a song.” But now I see that’s just an extension of me.

How did you get started making music?

I feel like it’s always been an extension of me. I’ve been singing since I was super little. But I

Where do you draw inspiration from, whether that’s life experience or sonic influence?

I write poetry or I write journal entries about things that happen and then when I’m in the studio I draw from that. But I’m also very empathetic, so I feel other people’s energies a lot. Like, “Remember Me” was [actually] my friend’s experience which I felt so deeply that I wrote the song almost for her, but I felt like I was going through it too. eah, people don’t really know. They’re like, “Who broke your heart?” But I really that was my friend! Someone broke my friend’s heart. I just felt it so deeply.

Sonically, I’m inspired by a lot of neo-soul and female artists like SZA and Eryakh Badu. Women who talk about how they feel. [SZA’s album] Ctrl was the first time I felt like someone who looked like me was talking about things like insecurity. It was cool to realize I can write about that and people actually listen to it.

That’s what I want to do with my music, too. I want to give back to my fellow listeners. I hope people can find healing—I learned that from people [who came] before me.

So you wrote the song “Remember Me” based solely on your empathy?

I think it’s rare to be able to be that empathetic with other people—it’s a really beautiful trait that you bring to your work. What’s your

process for bringing that to your music?

What I’ve been doing lately is making sure I’ve lived before I go to the studio. I used to just go to school and go to the studio, and I’d wonder why I felt creatively blocked when I’m writing music. Now I’ll go on an adventure. Hang out with my friends. I’ll talk to somebody so I’m always speaking from a place of emotion and the music connects more. Music is just energy, so you can feel the purest, most wholesome music that comes from my heart. That’s what I’ve been doing recently—just feeling more. When I feel more, I write better music.

Music is just energy.

When I feel more, I write better music. On social media, it seems like meditation is a big part of your life. How does your spirituality impact your music?

To me, spirituality is just heightened self-awareness and taking time to check in. That’s why I like to meditate—I’ll just reflect on the day and ask myself why certain things happened to me? Why did I feel this way? By doing that, I can write better music. I can always be more aware of where my emotions and lyrics come from.