Exploring Harmonies: Misaki Umei’s Journey at 22, Mastering the Piano Language

Expressing Emotions Through Music

-You are from Kakogawa City in Hyogo Prefecture and started playing the piano at the age of four, influenced by your mother who was a piano teacher. You began composing music at the age of six.

Umei: I have always loved improvisation, and I remember that this led me to composing. I was not good at playing according to the score, and my teacher used to get angry at me, saying, “You’re composing on your own again! [laughs]. I was more interested in creating my own compositions than playing according to the score, and I don’t think that attitude has changed.

-Why do you think you enjoy creating?

Umei: It’s the same now, but I’m not very good at communicating with words. I used to think that if I expanded my vocabulary, things would change, but when I got to know various words, I realized that in the end, many of my thoughts and what I want to express are not applicable to words. Rather, I like the sound itself, and music has always been the closest thing to me, so I guess it felt right as an emotional expression.

-Did you enjoy school, or did you prefer coming home and playing the piano by yourself?

Umei: School was fun, but I knew I didn’t have the same interests as my classmates. What was popular when I was in elementary school was AKB48 and Arashi, but what I was into was DIMENSION and Niacin [laughs]. I didn’t intentionally try to like mature things, but people around me thought I was acting mature, and we didn’t get along when we talked about music, which I remember feeling sad about.

-Did things change after you went to high school with a music program?

Umei: For the first time, I met people with whom I could have deep conversations about music. It was a classical music school, but there were kids who had been child actors with Shiki Theatre Company, kids who played jazz, and others who played the bassoon at school but had always loved singing. It was an environment with a diverse group of people, and it had a huge impact on me. I never really listened to music by genre; instead, I focused on the artist or specific parts of a song that I liked, and this fit in perfectly with the environment.

Learning from Frank Zappa: “You Must Not Lie in Your Music”

-I think there is a general image that kids who have been playing classical piano since they were little “stick to that path,” but that was not the case with your classmates at school, nor with Umei herself.

Umei: I am a very greedy person. I have always wanted to be able to do this and that, and of course I love the piano, but that’s not enough for me. He was also an arranger, so he knew a lot about all genres of music. I was very envious of that. It was through that teacher that I started listening to Niacin and Frank Zappa.

-What did he teach you as a musician?

Umei: He let me play freely. At first, he was concerned about my interest in classical piano and popular music at the same time, but he also said that while I was playing the electone, the children who had been playing only piano were growing rapidly, and he said, “If you want to enter competitions in piano, you should focus on piano. I think it’s right to say, “If you want to enter piano competitions, you should focus on piano. However, I think it was very important that Niacin understood my personality of wanting to do whatever I wanted to do and allowed me to do whatever I wanted.

-And he taught me everything from Niacin to Frank Zappa [laughs].

Umei： In the Frank Zappa documentary film “ZAPPA” (2022), he says, “My purpose in life is to take my works home and listen to them alone. I do it for that time.” I really empathized with that. I haven’t recorded that many of my own works yet, but I am really happy to take them home and listen to them alone. I could feel from the documentary that Frank Zappa never lied about his music, and it really filled my heart with joy.

-That’s a great story. Did you also want to create and express your music without lying?

Umei: Nowadays, you can get all kinds of information through SNS. Living in such a world, I sometimes don’t know what I want to do. But when I saw Zappa’s way of life, I thought to myself, “I must never lie about my music, and I must never forget that.

High School Days: Becoming Enthralled with the Joy of Performing with Others

-Have you ever thought that it might be a little tough after being immersed in music all through elementary, junior high, and high school?

Umei: No. I’m basically bored out of my mind when it comes to anything other than music, and I can’t keep doing anything, but when it comes to music, I’ve never wanted to quit. Ever since I was in junior high school, I knew that I would probably make a living doing music, so I never had any doubts about my career path, and that feeling hasn’t changed at all.

-I think it is also significant that you have been able to work freely and not be limited to a certain genre.

Umei: I think it is very significant. If I had decided, “I want to be a classical pianist,” I might have suddenly decided somewhere along the line that I was done with that. In fact, I had a friend like that. She won the national championship every year, but one day she suddenly quit, saying, “I’m satisfied. I thought at the time that “satisfied” was a scary thing. I really liked her performance, and I wanted to hear more of it, but I realized that everyone has their own timing for being satisfied.

-Your activities have been expanding steadily. Especially since high school, you’ve been actively involved in extracurricular activities, such as performing at Blue Note during “BLUE GIANT NIGHTS,” participating in Berklee’s summer program, and starting various new endeavors all at once. Could you share something particularly memorable from your high school days?

Umei: We had a grand piano in our classroom. I remember the time we all played together and sang “Sing a song for my lips” in chorus with the class of 40 students, just like in “Tenshi ni Love Song 2” (1993), right in front of us [laughs]. It was an amazing experience.

-So you were able to experience the joy of sharing music after entering high school.

Umei: It was a big turning point for me, as I began to share with others what I had previously completed by myself, and I learned the joy of playing with others. I started going to sessions and started playing in ensembles at school.

-So that’s how you started playing in sessions, and that led to “BLUE GIANT NIGHTS” in 2018.

Umei: When I participated in “BLUE GIANT NIGHTS,” it had been less than a year since I started playing in sessions, so I was very surprised to be suddenly invited to the big stage, and I was like, “I’ll give it a try even though I don’t know what to do! I was so surprised, and I was like, “Let’s try it! I was so surprised, and I was like, “Let’s give it a try, even though I don’t know what I’m doing!” To be honest, I don’t remember much about it.

-I think it is typical of you to have both elements in your music.

Umei: I decided to make a piano trio album, but I wrote the songs with the hope that they could also be performed by a big band or orchestra. I think this is what led to the “genre cannot be limited” part of the album.

-The song titled “hannah,” released under my solo name last year featuring Fuki Kitamura, is named after a roommate from my Berklee days.

Umei: My English was not fluent, so my roommate was very kind and helped me in many ways. We kept in touch often after I finished my study abroad, but one day I suddenly lost touch with her. She wasn’t on any social networking sites, so I didn’t really know what had happened. That was hard for me, and it motivated me to create.

-Do you often use your personal feelings as inspiration for your solo songs?

Umei: I think so. That’s why I had a strong desire to complete everything on my own. “hannah” was the first track I properly produced myself, and I got into a weird zone and finished it all in about two weeks. After that, I started enjoying making tracks. Recently, collaborating with Kayoko Yoshizawa and Daisuke Tanaka on the song “24A/W Collection” was also a lot of fun. It’s a completely different mindset from writing sheet music, and it made me want to do more of it.

Delving into Music with Vocals

-You went to college at the Tokyo College of Music, majoring in composition and conducting, and it was right around the time of Corona, wasn’t it?

Umei: That’s right. Because of Corona, I moved to Tokyo around October 2020, but I couldn’t go out or do anything even if I wanted to make friends during that period. But the trio’s album came out in January 2021, so I was suddenly in a situation where I was going to perform at COTTON CLUB 4 months after moving to Tokyo, and when I went to play at sessions, there were people who knew my name. I was grateful for that, but it also put a lot of pressure on me.

-So, it was because of that period that you were able to fully launch the singing unit haruyoi with Shoka Sugano, right?”

Umei： I started thinking about things I could do at home and began making songs with my new DTM setup, so that was a big deal, I think. Before entering high school, I wasn’t really interested in music with vocals, but after entering high school, I started liking Taeko Ohnuki and began listening to various songs. At that time, the task of composing music to existing lyrics overlapped perfectly. At first, I couldn’t do it at all. Because I’m from Hyogo, the intonation of standard Japanese and Kansai dialect got mixed up and messed up. It felt really uncomfortable when it turned into a song, so I was told to redo it, like, go back and do it again, and I went home depressed every week.

-Surely from that experience, you must have thought, “I want to be able to create music with vocals too!” And of course, Sakika’s presence must have been significant as well.

Umei: Yes, that’s right. She originally studied clarinet in high school, but then she moved to Tokyo saying, “I really want to sing,” and I thought that was cool. She often talks about how she grew up listening to reggae because of her dad, and I think it’s because of that different background that her ideas and perspectives are so fresh, and being around her is really stimulating.

–On the contrary, what kind of music do the two of you share?

Umei：Mononkul, Gretchen Parlato, Hiatus Kaiyote, and so on. We often have conversations like, “This kind of sound production is great, right?” and find ourselves saying, “I get it!” quite often.

-The title “euphoria” was taken from Sugano’s favorite “Euphoria” by BTS.

Umei: At first it didn’t feel right, but gradually I came to like it. I am not really good at putting things into words, and I am very cautious about limiting myself to a single word. So with “euphoria,” at first, I was concerned that if I just defined the word “happiness,” I would limit the listener’s perception of the song. I was concerned that if I defined it as “happiness,” it might narrow down the audience’s perception of it. But when a friend of mine who came to the last day of the release tour said, “I was filled with happiness after seeing the live performance today,” I was glad I chose this title.

Processing Emotions Through Music

-The impression of your solo songs is that you freely shape the musical style you want to pursue at that moment. How was your latest song “w_mimoza” created?

Umei： “w_mimoza” was born out of a strong desire to write a string piece, and at first I was thinking of putting a song in it. But my admiration for strings was so strong that I thought I needed to study more before I could write a string piece, so I hesitated to write one, and it took me a long time. After thinking about it for a while, I suddenly thought, “Okay, I’ll write it all myself, even if it’s a little rough,” and I finished it in about two weeks.

-What are the roots of your admiration for string instruments?

Umei: I’ve always loved the works of violinist Toshihiro Nakanishi, considering him an entrance to admiration. When I was around 7 or 8 years old, my Electone teacher introduced me to his music. Since then, I’ve always wanted to create high-quality string compositions of my own, and I feel satisfied with what I’ve achieved this time. I hope to continue with this lineup in the future and am currently working on new songs again.

-The composition spans 7 minutes with a highly dramatic development, and it’s a piece I’d like to hear as a soundtrack or film score someday. What’s the origin of the title “w_mimoza”?

Umei：I was interested in white mimosa for a while. Also, when I was writing this song, I was going through a difficult time, and I was thinking about kindness. I was thinking about what I was doing by facing people too straight and being so tired. I think it was a time when I was feeling bewildered, and I think it came out of that.

-The story of finishing a song on impulse due to emotional inspiration also applies to “hannah,” doesn’t it?

Umei: It is rather rare for me to write a song in an emotional state, and I think that is why I have strong feelings for this song, but I also feel that I was calm when I was actually writing the song. When I play, I often get emotional, but at those times I am surprisingly calm mentally, and there is a conflict between my superficial and inner feelings. I am also slow to develop emotions, or I often feel sad or angry afterwards, and this sometimes causes trouble for others on a daily basis.

-Complex emotions aren’t easily put into words right away, and they’re not something that can be digested immediately. That’s perhaps why I digest them through music.

Umei: I’ve been thinking lately that maybe that’s true.

Pursuing Current Excitement

-From what you’ve shared, I feel that Umei-san is someone who lives as an expressive person without being confined by genres or titles. You can’t categorize them strictly into genres like classical or jazz, and their forms of expression are also free. They don’t seem bound by the imagery of terms like “music conservatory” or “academic.” It feels very natural, but I also think it’s something they can do precisely because they have a clear intention. How do you personally feel about this?

Umei: I still don’t know what to call myself, whether to identify as a composer feels somewhat different, and identifying as a pianist also feels different. I do feel like I want to take on the responsibility of identifying with something, but just performing tires me out, and continually composing as a composer can be exhausting in its own way, so I want to strike a good balance. While the driving force is always wanting to be most excited about what I’m doing, what I want to do varies depending on the timing. Right now, I’m in a phase where I really want to excel at the piano, which is a first in my life. Maybe suddenly I’ll say, “I want to do flower arranging now, so I’m stopping piano” [laughs]. I think I’ll probably live my life in that kind of way.

-Surely, the influence of musicians from older generations must play a significant role in that. Whether it’s Mononkul, mentioned earlier, or Mami Tsunoda, who I’ve performed with during haruyoi tours, or even CRCK/LCKS, I think they all embody this idea. They are individuals who have academic knowledge and technical skills but express themselves freely in various ways. I’ve definitely looked up to them and observed their example.

Umei: I really think so. I think it is the same for me and probably for the musicians of my generation around me. I feel that everyone is working seamlessly, transcending genres more easily than before, and I am very grateful to have people who make me feel like “I can do whatever I like at all.

-It’s not just carefree but not casual either. It’s not simply “I want to do everything,” but rather, I sense a careful and serious approach to each endeavor.

Umei：I think everyone definitely has backgrounds where they’ve delved deeply into something. Having delved into something once, I wonder if they can bring that deep-dive attitude to other scenes and genres when they cross over.

You also has aspirations to work internationally during their twenties.

Umei：Originally, I didn’t have specific goals, but as I continued, there was a moment when I suddenly thought, “I want to be able to go to various places around the world through music.” I felt like I might regret it if I didn’t go abroad in my twenties. I really enjoy traveling in general and seeing things I’ve never seen before. Recently, during a tour in Hokkaido, I cycled around Otaru, and that was incredibly exciting for me [laughs].

-Always seeking thrilling experiences of the unknown, perhaps that’s where music and travel intersect for me.

Umei: Yes, that’s right. I really feel that way.