UMI Is Here To Heal Through Relatability and Authenticity
Who is UMI?
UMI is a genre-bending, multi-platform artist whose style refuses to be boxed in. An artist you may remember from our list of 30 Black Women Artists to Check Out In 2019, her music blends neo-soul, bedroom pop, indie rock, and lo-fi to create a sound that is most easily described (semi-accurately) as alternative R&B. She creates music that is both danceable and heart-wrenching with lyrics that speak to our collective experience of young womanhood. UMI is just a young woman herself who is figuring out how to love with peace and purpose through her music—and healing fans along the way.
Listening to UMI often feels like chatting with a close friend. In her music, she explores all of the topics that float through a young woman’s mind and effortlessly captures the feelings of existential dread and overwhelming excitement that come with entering a space in your life where you are freer than ever and more confused than ever. Though not necessarily anthems, UMI’s music can be felt deeply by all of us who are occupying that same space. In “Butterfly,” she admits to having her own quarter-life crisis, wishing she could just leave it all in the dust: “I just want to make you smile, but I know that'll take a while, 'cause I'm tryin' to find myself. I just want to make you proud, but I think that I'm runnin' out of time to figure it out.” Through her words, UMI sends healing energy out into the world and reminds us that we aren’t alone in our isolating sentiments. Although we all take our own paths, UMI provides some guidance to living in the least complicated way possible—with vulnerability, self-reflection and growth, and genuine love.
But living isn't just about trying to figure out how to be a competent adult.
As 20-something-year-olds, we finally have the chance to throw ourselves into every fleeting passion without being bogged down by the consequences. Young adulthood is the time for making as many mistakes as possible and having a lot of fun along the way. Charles Dickens said it best: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.” While she works to grow and exercise maturity, UMI also relays the moments when she allows her feet to leave the ground, even when she believes they’re firmly planted. In “Down To Earth,” she sings of losing herself in a lover, effectively losing sight of her own power to be herself: “I need you to be myself again. I need to believe I’m worth the work.” It is, without question, unsafe and irresponsible to throw yourself into someone else and put your joy in their hands, but there is no better time than post-adolescence to take that risk. Our young hearts are as resilient as they are fragile, and UMI recognizes, and indulges in, our innate dependence on one another. We all (should) exercise poor judgment every once in a while, and UMI’s candid sharing of her own momentary naivety makes her all the more relatable.
If I could describe the appeal of UMI in one word it would be authenticity.
Her music is genuine and relatable in a way that goes deeper than aesthetics or musical trends. She can easily heal and impact people because her music is born from a place of love and care. In speaking about her goal as a musician, UMI shared how important it is to connect with her listeners on a personal level: “I just want to write music that makes people feel understood ... I want people to feel a sense of familiarity and comfort in my music.” UMI understands her platform and uses it to intertwine her love for music with her love for people. She does not have to employ gimmicks to get people to pay attention. Her art simply has to exist, and the people who need to hear it will gravitate. As an extension of the spiritual ideology that informs her music, UMI also uses her Youtube series, Full Moon, to further extend positive energy and guidance. She makes spirituality more accessible with the hope that we can all cultivate the inner peace and self-love that she pours into her music.
UMI is here to support us as much as we support her. All we have to do is listen. Her talent, sensibility, and healing energy all speak for themselves, so I’ll just leave you with this anecdote from an interview with Complex that captures her carefree and giving ethos:
“I also learned that music really is energy. People would tell me they feel so healed from the show. And I felt like I was really doing something to help people, to impact people. So I just need to keep working on my live show and practicing so I can heal even more.”
