Indie Music Women’s Artist of the Day is…
Mesmi (@mesmix)
Singer/songwriter Mesmi has traveled a long road on the journey to finding her voice. Growing up first in northern Virginia and later southern California, Mesmi loved music and arts from an early age, learning classical piano and playing strings in the local school orchestra. She was also a lover and devourer of words, often reading so much she got in trouble for it. However, with the pressures of a typical first-generation environment, it would be years before the Asian-American artist could turn that love for music and language into works of her own creation, something she originally felt shamed for.
“I grew up a little emotionally starved, and music was a lifeline for me. But freedom of self-expression was not a big thing, so it was very, very secret, almost like forbidden fruit. I didn’t even dare to sing if I knew someone could hear me,” shares Mesmi. It took an existential quarter-life crisis spurred on by unstable jobs, family losses, and a deepening turn to music, finding solace in classics such as Otis Redding, Joni Mitchell, and the Great American Songbook, for Mesmi to take the plunge into music-making. But then it was all in: she wrote songs at her piano, learned the guitar and performed anywhere, from the dingiest dive bars to busking on local streets, and even picked up a few honors like placements in GRAMMY Amplifier, the International Songwriting Competition and
The Deli Magazine.
long the way, Mesmi’s ears expanded into new territory and darker, experimental sounds, leaning into artists like James Blake, Frank Ocean, and Mura Masa. Her love for creating took her into audio production and inspired by other female artists/producers like Amber Mark and Lapsley, Mesmi’s songs developed not only sonically but as ways of reckoning with her big questions and coming to terms with her multicultural roots. With a deeper connection to her music came new levels of self-expression, new territory into naked, heartfelt areas of vulnerability, and honesty.
Slow Bloom is the result of Mesmi’s long journey, a record on opening up, and letting experience with all its lessons happen. Sprinkled with intimate, otherworldly interludes, the self-produced 9-track record explores facets of strength and identity, yearning across time, and the acceptance of pain with growth. Altogether Slow Bloom is a deep dive in retrospect, picking apart relationships, perception, and identity, but in a way that is the most intimate of portraits for a budding artist finding her voice.
Official Bio Courtesy of Mesmi
Mesmi shared what it means to her personally to be an indie music woman artist:
“I’ve wondered a lot, what is strength? What is freedom? Honesty is so important to me, but how honestly am I living? Part of those answers required me coming full circle, walking through personal and cultural hurts to remember tenderness. Almost against instinct, I had to consciously make room for vulnerability, and trust, and exploration.”
You can hear Mesmi’s single, “Orchestrate” on the Indie Music Women Spotify Playlist.
