Healing Frequencies: How UMI Brings Meditation & Booty-Shaking To Her R&B/Soul Shows

An UMI show is far from your typical concert. The 26-year-old R&B/neo-soul artist incorporates meditations with fans, an otherworldly intuitiveness, positive vibrations and banging beats to her shows in a way that’s like no other performance you’ve seen before.

“Her shows are true experiences,” says WME agent Sarah Tehrani Maya. “I’ve seen fans have emotional reactions, even cry during her sets. In just one show, you can experience a calming meditation, a slow dance with friends, laughter and tears, and a full blown twerk session.”

The proudly queer singer/songwriter typically performs as a trio with producer/collaborator Vron on guitar and a saxophone player – and ensures that her ethereal, soulful vocals and authentic lyrics shine. 

“She’s an incredible dancer, and works with a trainer on singing while dancing, so her vocals sound smooth and clear, never breathless,” manager Michele Harrison at mph collective says. “She’s an absolute expert in crowd engagement – you cannot leave an UMI show without feeling rapt, connected and enchanted.”  

Harrison adds, “Her songs evoke so many emotions, but the overriding vibes are deep, smooth, soulful and uplifting. Like a warm hug.” 

Born Tierra Umi Wilson, UMI (which means “ocean” in Japanese) grew up in Seattle in a musical, multi-cultural family with a Japanese mother who played piano and an African American father who played drums. UMI has been writing songs since she was a young child and started sharing acoustic songs and covers via SoundCloud during high school. 

Tehrani Maya signed UMI as one of the first artists to join her roster after being promoted to agent in 2018.  

“She played her first-ever show opening for another one of my artists at the Moroccan Lounge in L.A. Her sound was incredible. She had this mesmerizing voice and an alternative R&B style that has always been my jam. From that moment, I knew I had to work with her,” Tehrani Maya.

Over the next few years UMI’s profile grew exponentially as she released several EPs, which included her song “Remember Me,” which now has 168 million Spotify streams, and her debut studio album, 2022’s Forest in the City as well as her 2024 single “wherever u r” (featuring V of BTS), which currently has 136 million Spotify streams. Live milestones included supporting Conan Gray on tour in 2019, which included shows at NYC’s Terminal 5 and Boston’s House of Blues. And in 2023 UMI made her debut at Coachella and Lollapalooza. 

When UMI was looking for new management Tehrani Maya introduced UMI to Harrison, who formerly worked at Range Media Partners before putting out her own management shingle. 

Harrison reflects: “When I consider taking on new clients, I ask myself three things; 1. Are they a good human being and will I enjoy working with this person long-term; 2. Do they have talent & vision; 3. Do they have good executive functioning, marketing skills and a strong work ethic? If all three boxes are checked, that’s the magic trifecta. I fell in love with UMI immediately and quickly realized she ticked all the boxes.  Meeting her felt like one of those fate moments – we both knew we were destined to work together so we got started right away, in March 2023.”

UMI’s recent career highlights include joining Jhené Aiko on the road for her 2024 “The Magic Hour” arena tour (featuring venues such as Brooklyn, New York’s Barclays Center; Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena and Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena); expanding her “U+MI” meditation experiences; and releasing her talking to the wind EP. Reports submitted to Pollstar Boxoffice for UMI include a few headline dates in Australia including a sold-out March 28, 2024, show at The Night Cat in Fitzroy, that sold 563 tickets and grossed $22,628 ($A34,643). Last month she put out the single “HARD TRUTHS,” featuring 6lack and marking her first new music since signing with Epic Records. 

“Two words come to mind when I think of UMI: Peaceful and Electrifying,” Ezekiel Lewis, President of Epic Records, said in a statement. “The energy that will greet you upon an encounter with UMI is somehow perfectly encapsulated in the music she has recorded for this project. Everyone wants peace, yet everyone wants excitement. So, we believe that everyone who finds UMI, will want UMI. Epic is more than happy to support her vision.”

Harrison adds, “Since signing to Epic, we have been exceeding all of our expectations; ‘HARD TRUTHS’ garnered 35+ radio adds within its first week, and UMI’s streaming numbers have doubled over her last single. These are just a few markers showing how far UMI has climbed and where she’s set to go.”

Pollstar caught up with UMI while she was in Los Angeles rehearsing for a run of dates in Asia including appearances at Greenroom Festival in Yokohama, Japan; Seoul Jazz Festival; and Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta that took place May 23 through June 1.  (See the Q&A below)

The run of dates in Asia is a continuation of one of the first goals UMI set with her manager when they started working together in 2023. Harrison explains that in order to grow UMI’s career in the Asia-Pacific markets, the team at WME planned two Asia-Pacific tours in quick succession and UMI “reached out to V of BTS for a collab, which happily resulted in the creation of the song, ‘wherever u r’ [and] catapulted her visibility.”

Harrison adds, “Simultaneously we worked with East Goes Global on building UMI’s presence on Chinese social media platforms and DSPs, joined WeVerse and executed strategic campaigns on TikTok and Instagram. UMI has since collaborated with (Japanese artist) Gen Hoshino on his track, ‘Memories,’ and Baekhyun from (South Korean/Chinese Boyband) EXO on the song ‘Do What You Do.’”

All that said, Harrison declares that UMI and her team are “just getting started,” adding that she “sees her solidifying as an A-level global artist in the near future!” 

“She’s releasing a new album later this year via Epic Records,” Tehrani Maya says, “and if you’ve heard her latest single “HARD TRUTHS,” you know she’s not playing around. She’ll be embarking on a global tour starting in 2025 and running into 2026, hitting 1,000 to 3,000-cap rooms around the world.” 

Pollstar: Congratulations on your new single, “HARD TRUTHS,” that recently came out. Can you talk about the songwriting process?  
UMI: So “HARD TRUTHS” I wrote a year and a half ago. I feel like every artist, especially every R&B or hip-hop artist, has a song where they flex, where they’re like, “This is where I’ve been in my career. It’s what I’ve accomplished.” It’s just part of the culture. … I realized for myself, because I have this introspective personality, what I really value about my life is less about the things that I’ve bought and more about the things internal, my relationship with my thoughts, my family and friends, my mental health.

If someone’s like, “I know how to calm the thoughts in my mind” or “I know how to deal with overwhelm,” that’s way more impressive personally than “I bought this watch.” I wanted to take a unique spin on that and offer a new perspective on what’s important and what to value. So, it’s an R&B bop, but there’s this introspective, spiritual undertone to it.

With your recent milestones, you have a lot to flex about including signing to Epic Records. How do you stay grounded and find a way to listen to your inner voice?
I have a really good relationship with my internal compass. And when something doesn’t feel right to me and I can’t shake the feeling off and it feels just off in my body, I know. I’ve done so much intuition training, especially during the pandemic. I would walk in the park and my intuition tells me to turn to the right or to turn left and I would just let my heart guide me. And then I would end up at this beautiful lake that I didn’t know existed or meet this dog. I started to develop a relationship with my internal guidance system.  … Outside of that,  meditating regularly every day, making sure I go outside and move my body, exercise every day and eating really well. I drink a lot of water. These things that make a huge difference in your health. I also think it clears your internal space so you’re not noisy inside. The outside world is so noisy. We have a responsibility to keep our internal world as empty and clear as we can.

How did growing up in Seattle influence you as a songwriter and an artist?
When I was in Seattle, I just didn’t go out a lot because it was always raining. It just breeds an introspective environment. You’re just always sitting inside looking out the window. You can’t help but to be very self-aware and very in your head in a way. And I think that informed me as a writer, I just am so in tune with my feelings and that’s where I write from. 

I also love nature and being in nature reminds me of being home. Nature is a big theme and an inspiring force in my music. When I get writer’s block, I usually have to go outside and just take a walk. So all those things started from being from Seattle.

What musicians did you listen to when you were young? How did you find your voice?
I love listening to Sade. I love listening to Erykah Badu, D’Angelo. There’s some Japanese artists like this artist named Itada Hikaru and this other group called Kobukuro … a lot of folky singers. And I love the R&B, neo kind of singers from America. I listened to so much Destiny’s Child growing up. And also classical music because my mom played classical piano. All those mesh into my music tastes.

What can you share about your next release?
I’d love to hint to people that another single’s coming out [in June] and I’d love to tell people that there’s an album on the way this year. Everything is inspired by stories, stories of my fans. I’m excited for people to experience my storytelling and songwriting skills.

What’s your relationship like with your fans?
I consider them friends because to me, why I make music is not just about entertaining people but it’s really about connection. I have these U+MI events where I do pop-ups where it might be a meet-up at the park or a group meditation or a party, but the whole point is using music as a connection point for people to come together and make friends and to meet me. Because of that, I’ve just had so many beautiful conversations with my fans. 
 
How did you first start meditating with your fans? 
I started meditating before my shows with the audience because I used to have really bad stage fright. I needed to breathe before I started the set or I was too in my head. But as I did them, people were really enjoying them and noticing that they were more present, less on their phones and more in the moment. So I started to do them more and then decided why don’t I do group meditations? So instead of VIP photos, I would do VIP group meditations with my fans. And then that turned into pop-ups. So now every time I travel or go anywhere on tour, I’ll do random pop-ups at meditation studios or at the park. I’ve been doing that for three or four years now. I have a meditation app where people can learn about new events, but I also upload meditations every month on there. So it’s become not only a connection point, but something that’s been really healing for my fans, especially for fans who would have never known about meditation. I think their appreciation for my music makes them open to try new things.

How do you approach your festival appearances versus when you’re doing one of your own headline shows?
With festivals, there’s a lot of people who it might be their first time hearing my music. So I give a broader range of my discography versus a headline show. But the one thing that’s similar between both my shows, is I still open with the meditation. I do a lot of interacting with the crowd. I’ll go into the crowd. I ask the crowd questions. We’ll do semantic exercises together. I’ll do covers – karaoke vibes. It’s like [a] friends and family cookout. We’re at a barbecue together singing. That’s the feeling I love to take into any show, especially festivals. But my next headline tour, I’m really excited because [there will be] more dancing, more production. It’ll be more curated, which I’m excited to share.

With Pollstar being a concert industry publication, is there anything that you’d want folks in the business to know about you or changes you’d like to see in the industry? 
I would love to see more and more of the music industry return to a remembrance of how powerful music is. I’d love to see people step away from consumerism and selling music being the priority and make connecting through music the priority. I think people would actually be surprised to see how much more profit and more fans they could make when they move from the core of what music really is about, which is connection. 

Music was a thing that people gathered around the campfire to tell their stories, to preserve stories, to preserve lineages. When we strip it down to just its consumer value, I really feel like you’re only receiving the tip of the iceberg. So when I look to the future, I see music returning more into its soul. … I encourage people to come see my show, come meet me in person so that they can remember what music’s about. And I’m excited for people to watch my career because I feel like it’s the future of where music is going.