The artist is helping listeners find comfort in sound baths, meditation, and vulnerable storytelling.
Singer-songwriter UMI is pretty sure she “came out of the womb anxious.” “Like, I don't know what I brought from my past life,” she adds, “but that shit was in me.”
To cope with what she calls “unhealthy” anxiety, UMI tried her first meditation, a 10-minute practice, at 18 years old.
“I remember after I did it, I started crying, because never in my life had I experienced that much inner peace inside, like, that much quietness in my brain,” UMI says. “And once I experienced that, I was like, whatever this is, I'm dedicating my life to this feeling, because this feeling feels more like who I actually am.”
In the years since that pivotal moment, now 26-year-old UMI has been meditating nearly every day — and guiding others through sessions at her own shows.
Despite having played music since childhood, the singer has long dealt with stage fright. Nervous about her first time opening for a major artist in Los Angeles, she offered a meditation to audience members (and herself) before her set. It was a restorative, grounding moment that became a permanent piece of her performance. “Once I got over stage fright, I then had the space to see how [meditation] affected other people,” UMI says. “And I realized, like, it was calming other people. It was making other people way more present through my shows, and people would talk to me afterward and be like, ‘I really needed that.’”
These mindfulness experiences later emerged as stand-alone offerings. In 2022, UMI hosted the Forest in the City Meditation Tour, leading breathwork and sound bath sessions at venues across the country. The goal? Use her platform to introduce fans to a practice that could change their lives. “I think I'm just a very sensitive soul, and learning how to navigate my sensitivity has helped me to, like, invite people to be sensitive, too, and be soft and be honest,” she says. “The more I make music, the more I understand my purpose on a deeper level, which is really cool.”
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Part of this purpose is empowering listeners to be honest and vulnerable, a mission UMI is carrying out with her latest album, “People Stories.” Each song is inspired by a story shared by a fan — a memory of a break-up, an existential crisis, a disappointment. In exploring these narratives, UMI hopes to convey that the associated emotions are not shameful but universal to the human experience. It’s music designed to heal — both listener and performer. “Honestly, just in her own way, that almost, like, gave me permission to be human more,” UMI says of the songwriting process.
To be human also means to acknowledge and accept the uncomfortable. On the heels of the album release, UMI says she feels like she has lost her balance. She’s scared that being content with her success (she was named Billboard’s R&B Rookie of the Month for September) feels like “giving up.” So she’s taking a step back from her creative endeavors, creating space to learn how to “hold happiness” in this fast-paced life, she says.
“I'm learning how to appreciate life. And I can feel that it's healing, because I keep having these moments where, like, out of nowhere, I'm just like, ‘Oh my God, I love my life’ — just driving in the car or looking at my dog,” UMI says. “It’s the simplest things, and I always thought that was so cliché, [but] it’s really those things that get you and sustain you.”
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