Mei Semones is a Brooklyn-based American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and bandleader of Japanese American heritage who studied jazz guitar at Berklee. Singing in English and Japanese, she folds bossa nova and jangle pop into her Bayonet debut LP Animaru (2025) — the natural place to start. Find Mei Semones vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Mei Semones is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and bandleader of Japanese American heritage based in Brooklyn, New York. She studied jazz guitar at Berklee College of Music. She has been positioned in the contemporary indie pop scene with jazz, bossa nova, and Japanese musical influences. She sings in both English and Japanese across her catalog. Her 2025 debut LP Animaru received critical attention.
Mei Semones's sound combines indie pop, jazz pop, bedroom pop, bossa nova, jangle pop, and singer-songwriter with her distinctive vocal delivery (bilingual English/Japanese), intricate jazz-influenced guitar work, and arrangements drawing on classic Japanese popular music, bossa nova, and contemporary indie pop traditions.
Bayonet Records pressings of the Mei Semones catalog have been issued in color variant editions.
Listeners new to Mei Semones typically start with Animaru (2025) or Kabutomushi (2024).
