UMI Has A Story To Tell

UMI ambitiously connects narrative to sound in the microcosm of her sophomore album, People Stories.

UMI

It houses communal energy that the Seattle-born alternative R&B singer-songwriter has ingrained in her music for close to a decade, beginning with early SoundCloud notables Love Language and Introspection. Umi’s free-spirited nature also made her a must-have AFROPUNK performer, first during the thick of the pandemic in 2020, and three years later during the all-women’s Black HERSTORY festival in collaboration with New York’s Lincoln Center. Both shows had an intimacy that reemerges in the chrysalis of Umi’s latest LP.

“I’ve always loved AFROPUNK because AFROPUNK reminds me of Tumblr, [and] the old Instagram days, and current Instagram,” Umi enthusiastically recalls while on Zoom. “But I just remember being in high school and seeing the posts of all the people who attended AFROPUNK and seeing all these fly-ass Black kids, and I just remember being like, Oh, I can be like that.”

“I would see the pictures of kids at AFROPUNK and I’d be like, That’s my people,” she continues. “There are other people like me who like to experiment with fashion and I think that was very healing and needed for me and it helped me feel less isolated growing up.”

UMI

Although Umi never had the chance to attend the festival as a guest rather than an entertainer–which would be hard to attempt considering her growing stardom–she looks back fondly on the solitude of Herstory. There, it was just the musician delivering unalloyed songs to an audience that listened closely to her every word.

“It almost felt like this art showcase or something,” Umi shares. “I feel like I would love to experience the outdoor summer festival energy, but it was really nice to be like, ‘Hello, I’m Umi. This is my showcase for you.’”

“I open my shows with meditation and my shows interweave a lot of healing energies and aspects to it. So it was very conducive for a meditative kind of show and experience,” UMI continues.

The meditation persists on People Stories, where Umi resolutely changes her tune to incorporate folk and indie pop sounds to her alt-R&B essence. Among the songs where she lends herself to multi-genres are the sunsoaked reggae charm of “Grocery Store,” the bedroom lullaby of “It’s Been a While,” and the pop-country thrums of “Pink Camo.” All the while, Umi involves recordings from a therapist, who chimes in with lessons throughout the singer turning noteworthy moments into folklore.

“I was recording my therapy sessions and so you get to kind of hear what Umi was dissecting and learning as I was making this album. I wanted to be this example, like, I’m being so vulnerable and open that I’m even letting you all into my therapy sessions because I know how important it is for people to know what I’m going through.”

“I think without those therapy sessions, I don’t know if I would have had the strength to also continue making the album,” Umi explains.

Recorded when Umi was between 24 and 26 years old, the artist considers People Stories “more grounded” in comparison to her previous efforts, like her holistic 2022 debut Forest in the City and follow-up EP Talking to the Wind, which was released last year. But where Umi’s older material was considerably personal, her new album was a billet-doux to her adoring fans and was conceptualized after a performance in Amsterdam. There, Umi was greeted by a young couple who invited her out to a Thai restaurant where they had their first date and pored over their love for the artist.

“We ended the night with sticky rice which is like one of my favorite foods, and they said that they both fell in love while eating mango sticky rice,” Umi reflects. “As I was eating it I was like, That’s the concept of the album. I’m going to tell the stories of my fans.”

“It was so healing to hear them tell me that story,” she continues. “It just reminds me too, like, fans are real-ass people. Like I think sometimes the music industry can forget like, they’re real people who need music. Just like I need to make music, people need to hear music to help them make sense of life.”

While in attendance of the People Stories release party, which doubled as a jam session and open mic, fans, friends and family members relished in Umi embracing them, just as they’ve supported the artist through departing a major label to go independent and back again. Umi now joins the welcomed ascension of Black women in alternative music, like Ravyn Lenae, Annahstasia, and Jensen McRae, a movement with no end in sight.

“I feel like when you’re at a label where the expectation doesn’t meet who you are, it sucks your soul,” Umi says about her former label. “You have to abandon yourself to be successful, to make a living and I think that’s a really scary place to be.”

“I didn’t center my sense of being Black in one thing anymore, where before I was like, I have to like these types of movies and this type of music and wear these types of clothes to be Black,” she elaborates. “Now I’m like, I am a Black girl because I am myself and I hope I can inspire other girls to feel that way.” 

Umi was just as inspired by fellow Black female artists while being a supporting act on Jhené Aiko’s Magic Hour Tour in 2024, where she initially felt self-conscious about where she fit among R&B and hip-hop acts. But through some imposter syndrome, Umi found her groove and expanded her sense of performance in front of arena crowds.

“I ended the show being like, I love myself and who I am and like what my show is,” Umi says. “I ended feeling very confident and also understanding that sisterhood really is not about comparing yourself to anybody. It’s about appreciating everyone’s individuality and knowing that there is space for everybody.”

Turning towards her epochal new album, Umi wants all to identify with People Stories, as she plans to host occasional pop-ups with the purpose of community building. While bringing humanity back to the artist-fan relationship, Umi’s also taking a stand against dissension. 

“I think like in a world where divisiveness is being weaponized to hold us apart from each other, challenging that with community through music is going to be one way we’re going to be able to cut through the internet and cut through the normative behavior of society and bigger hierarchies,” she says.

In fostering growth through the patchwork of People Stories, Umi reclaims her identity while getting to be the storyteller for those in need of a voice through trying times.

“I don’t care that I’m supposed to record this in a nice studio. I don’t care that it doesn’t sound perfect,” Umi says. “Music can have that essence of imperfection and that’s the only way you can be true to what life is about.”