AIMEI 媚 * 2001
( One For The Future? You Choose… ) - Friday 15th March 2024
Words by Isaac Solanki. Photography by Koto Shimada. Thanks to Rick Moreno.
Introduce yourself and describe your sound…
“Hey, my name is aimei 媚, I’m half Chinese, half English and I make pop noir music - I’d describe it as a kind of dark pop sound with electronic undertones and ballad pop melodies over the top. I think it's quite difficult to categorise my music into one specific genre, hence why I came up with the term pop noir.”
What do you think makes you different to the other young up and coming artists of today?
“I think that what makes me different to others is perhaps my ability to combine a lot of different styles together into something new. I love listening to ballads but I also love listening to contrasting genres such as techno or electronic music and I also love mainstream pop music too. So, I think it’s my ability to kind of combine it all into one project, into something that takes you on this musical journey from really heart wrenching, sad girl music, to something that you could hear in a boiler room set. That versatility combined with subtly implementing my cultural roots into my writing is something that I feel is very unique.
Being half Chinese, it’s obviously a big part of who I am - that includes the language, the culture, the sounds, the aesthetics and I just really wanna try and hone in on that within my music as well. Some of the music that I'm bringing out soon will have one or two lines in Mandarin and I think that kind of makes me stand out because I feel like there's not really many artists, especially female Asian artists in the UK who are bringing cultural roots into their music and tying it together into something that sounds smooth.”
What’s your story? How did it all start and what challenges have you faced along the way so far?
“It's been a fucking journey mate, honestly how long have you got? From a very, very young age, I was kind of blessed enough to realise that music was the only thing that I've ever wanted to do. At the age of three, I would go around the house singing the songs from Wizard of Oz. My mom is a singer as well, so music has always kind of been part of my formative years. Then, when I was about 12/13, I basically became a Disney kid in China - I did loads of television, game, variety and singing shows. It's a big thing over there and I was home schooled for a lot of the time. Obviously, I went back to school to do my GCSE's and then at the age of 17, I got signed to a major label in China - I release a load of music and went on tour about a year and a half before covid hit.
My career was really starting to take off but after COVID hit, I came back to the UK and realised that I wasn’t really happy with the way that my career was being shaped for me over there. I went through a 2 1/2 year long court case through COVID to get out of my deal and after that, I went to Uni in Manchester, living with the boys from Fieves and Sweets and I kind of just had to like re-find myself; I really had to figure out what it was that I actually wanted to do and what kind of music I wanted to make. It was really just about rebuilding my confidence because it obviously got really knocked down. It's like I’d spent my whole life like my whole teenage years working towards something that wasn't really me and it wasn't really who I really wanted to be.
Long story short, I released some music under a different name in Manchester and it's been an amazing start to a new journey so far. I didn't have a single person that I knew worked in music here when I started fresh and it's crazy to think that in China, my whole career was taking off but when I came back here, I still managed to build, meet people and network by myself.”
Moving forwards, what are some of your short-term and long-term career goals for the future?
“I think for this time next year, I would like to have sold out like 3 headline shows - London and Manchester too. I think that the big one for me is that I wanna be able to do music full time - I kind of am doing that now anyways but I mean I’d love to really be able to do music for a living.
My long term goals are to release 2 EP’s, play a festival and it would be an absolute dream of mine to play Ally Pally - that’s a goal of mine that I've always had. I also really wanna do support for someone big soon and maybe play in the US within the next 5 years. There's loads of goals obviously but I guess those are the main ones for me right now.”
Talk to me about some of the unsung heroes of your music career to date. Is there anyone that you perhaps wouldn’t be here today without?
“Definitely my mum and dad, they’ve really been my constant throughout - I've moved around a lot as a kid and they have definitely been the people who have supported me the most, especially my mum. Without her, I really don't think that I would be where I am now. They've never pushed me too much to do anything, they've always just allowed me to express myself, which is something that I’m truly grateful for - big up mum and dad.
My best friends too, they have always supported me, showed me love and continuously pushed me to be the best version of myself. My support network is really important to me but in terms of musical inspirations, Jessie J was the first concert I ever went to and I cried my eyes out the entire show. She came to Beijing when I was 10, I always looked up to her because I grew up listening to her and other powerful singers like Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus.
I guess another unsung hero that I could talk about is an artist called Coco Lee who sadly passed away last year. She was basically the Britney Spears of Asia and I somehow ended up meeting her when I was on holiday at nine years old. She sat down with me and told me to believe in myself and that if I had a talent but didn’t share it with the world, then no body would ever see it - I was really shy at the time, so her words definitely helped me. I remember the next day she was there again and she asked me to sing - I did and that was the first time that I really came out of my comfort zone. It was after that conversation with her that I actually gained the confidence to sing in front of a group of people. I do think that if I didn't have that influence on me, then I probably wouldn't have the confidence to do it now.”
“I Like U Looking At Me” by aimei 媚
“I suppose it's about that validation that we sometimes crave as humans from other people that we perhaps fancy. I guess it’s just a funny spin on it - I do like you looking at me, look at me more basically. It’s just a pretty fun song to be fair; it's not super deep compared to a lot of the other music I write, it's just kind of like a fun take on the idea that I like you, look at me more.
I don’t mean that in a cocky way or anything by the way, I just want the girls and the boys to be vibing to it. It's a real feel good song, I want people to feel good about themselves, feel confident as an individual and know that you are it.”
Favourite lyric from the track…
“I like you looking at me, like why are people so scared to say that? You know what I mean? Know your worth, own it.”
