Multi-talented Emi Meyer has enjoyed a fascinating career to date and we caught up with her this week to talk about the upcoming release of her album 'Galaxy’s Skirt: Deluxe Edition' on December 4 and her inspiration. 

Meyer was born in Kyoto, Japan and moved to Seattle as a child where she won the 2007 Seattle-Kobe Jazz vocalist competition. Her music can be heard in various commercials and popular television shows including MTV’s 'Awkward'.

The deluxe edition of your album, Galaxy's Skirt, will be released stateside on December 4. What can you tell us about this collection of songs?

This album was made pretty much on New Year's Eve of 2011- I'd been through a bad breakup and decided I'd wasted too much time not being in charge of my own life. I wanted a different sound, a new experience. I wanted to record a full length album in LA with all new people. So I emailed David Ryan Harris (John Mayer & Carlos Santana's guitarist), he called me back, we had a chat and it was decided. Recording this album was new, exciting and terrifying because I was doing it all myself, flying down to LA to stay in a vacation rental or crash at a friend's. I never travel with a big network but I usually have at least one best friend or creative consultant for moral support. This time it was no label, manager, consultant. I had to be confident with my own ear and presence. It was liberating. David Ryan Harris made it so easy and taught me so much about arrangements and leading a team.

You recently announced on Twitter that your music video for ‘If I Think Of You’ is coming… what can we expect from that?

I always like to make something lasting of all these pieces in my life.  So I was performing two shows in Portland, one for Delta Air Lines and the Port of Portland, and the other for Portland Fashion Week. It's impossible to get so many extras in one room at one time, so I thought it was a the perfect opportunity for a music video. The video is me lonely in a hotel room, watching my outgoing performing on tv, questioning the duality. 

What inspires you to write? Is there anything you always find yourself coming back to in terms of themes or concepts?

Travel. When you travel you see things differently and objectively because you're distanced from your usual routine. So a lot of towns show up in my songs, like ToKyoto (Tokyo and Kyoto) or New York.

What’s your creative process like? Do you have a set routine i.e. lyrics first then music? Do you have a certain place that you visit in order to write - or a particular room/environment?

No, when I was younger emotions would build up and then come out. I didn't sing till I was 18 so I had a big gestation period. Lately, I still randomly write down lyrics or melodies at the piano, but I find it comes quicker if I have a specific purpose in mind: like an album the song is for, or a film, or for a duet. Then it gives me a picture to work with.

Is it important for you to embrace your international roots and incorporate elements from every culture you’re familiar with in your music?

I studied Ethnomusicology in Kyoto as a college student. That said, I've never felt compelled to incorporate old Japanese instruments into my music. It felt too forced or intellectual. However, I met up with Robbie Robertson (The Band) last month at his studio and that really opened my mind. He's embraced his Native American roots but at the point in his life when he felt ready, and it felt authentic. The way he went about it really moved me so when I got back to Japan I dived into it and wrote some songs with Koto (harp) and Shamisen (banjo) with him in mind. Sometimes someone just has to show you the way, and that's why my musical influences and role models are really random. I like a lot of current major artists but when it comes to someone I can relate to, it might be someone 50 years older than me.

What’s the most memorable moment you’ve had in the music world so far?

Honestly, I have a bad memory. Every time I travel to a new place, or get on stage, I get giddy like it's the first time. Recording my next album "Monochrome" in Paris (out from Seattle label Origin Records summer 2016) was awesome. I don't speak French so it was a lot of smiling and eating with the band, and enjoy the legendary Studio Ferber, where Serge Gainsbourgh recorded. There's not much you have to mess with to get an amazing acoustic sound there.  It's my return to a jazz record and I feel I can finally do it on my own terms, without worrying about whether I'm doing it right or not.

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Watch footage of Meyer singing live here: