aron! SHARES “MACRAMÉ” FEATURING INDIE-POP JAZZ ARTIST MEI SEMONES
LISTEN HERE
WATCH THE OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO HERE
DEBUT ALBUM DUE LATER THIS YEAR
“Verve Records-signed jazz virtuoso aron! is blending vintage charm with modern flair and is proof that jazz isn’t just alive, it’s evolving”
08 MAY 2026 (TORONTO, ON) — Today, aron! teams up with indie- pop and jazz artist Mei Semones for his new single “Macramé.” Fusing indie rock with jazz-leaning guitar melodies, “Macrame” captures the spark felt at the start of a new relationship. Listen to the new single here, watch the official music video here. Stay tuned for more information on aron!’s upcoming debut album due later this year on Verve Records.
When speaking on the new single, aron! says “so i’m dating this girl named mei and i wrote a song about imagining living together (getting way ahead of myself) and decorating our room. we’re hanging up posters and macramé (macramei 🙄). mei wrote her verse in a car with me on our way up a volcano in maui. she also wrote the crazy guitar stuff as she does.”
Marking the first official collaboration between aron! and Mei Semones, “Macramé” takes a unique approach to storytelling, featuring verses in English and Japanese. Brooklyn-based artist Mei Semones, known for her jazz-influenced indie pop and bilingual lyricism, has quickly emerged as a rising voice in the contemporary indie and jazz landscape, following the release of her debut album Animaru and her latest EP Kurage. Her rise has been marked by standout performance sessions with COLORS, Vevo DSCVR, KEXP, and Audiotree, alongside widespread critical acclaim. Mei has been featured on NPR All Things Considered, Variety, The New York Times’ Artist to Watch roundup, The Fader (Gen F), Stereogum, Guitar.com, and Rolling Stone, where she was named an “Artist You Need to Know”.
“I admire Aron so much as a musician so I am very happy we got to make this song! It was so fun to write & practice different lines together, I always learn new things when we play :)”. On “Macramé,” Mei brings her intricate guitar work and distinctive sensibility to the track, adding a dynamic new layer to the collaboration.
In the build up to his highly anticipated debut album, aron! previously released two other singles with “Foolsong” last month and “Wonderful Thing” the month prior.
“Foolsong,” an unlikely guide for the next person who dates his ex. He shares dos and don'ts, her love of sneaking into the movies, and the mistakes he hopes the next guy won’t repeat. Warning, “don’t be a fool / you’re looking at one,” the song reflects on where he went wrong, and where he hopes someone else gets it right. Listen to the new single here, and watch the lyric video here.
“Wonderful Thing,” an endearing cozy-pop song about fearing love, but falling anyway. John Mayer recently praised the single on his SiriusXM channel “Life with John Mayer”, saying: “[aron! is] really good at putting harmonic information in a tune that is both complex, which shines nicely on aron! and his talent, but also is right for the tune. It's just nice to hear music performed by a guy who knows a lot of chords but also knows how to use them in a tune.” Listen to “Wonderful Thing” here, and watch the lyric video here.
ABOUT ARON!
Born and raised in Charlotte, NC, aron!’s mom and dad introduced him to rock icons like Pearl Jam and Led Zeppelin, but it was the game Guitar Hero that first made him pick up a real guitar at eight-years-old and enroll in lessons at a local music school. He eventually met an “80-year-old jazz guitar teacher at Sam Ash.” The instructor taught aron! how to read music and further inspired his passion for jazz. Maybe it was the pre-teen rebellion inside that pushed him from rock and into jazz. In high school, he also regularly played music for the residents of retirement homes, performing old classics from Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra for dementia patients. “I'd put on my little bow tie and a dress shirt to make it official,” he laughs.
aron! studied classical composition at University of North Carolina School of the Arts, developing an appreciation for Chopin, Ravel, and Bach. During COVID, he dedicated himself to learning piano, waking up at 7:30am daily and exploring all that you can do with 88 keys. He earned a full scholarship to the University of Miami and majored in jazz voice and film scoring. Simultaneously, he cut his teeth live by playing dozens of shows in his indie pop band Sunny Side Up!.
In 2023, he explored what he calls “a vintage pop sound,” and started building a strong following online. Labels started to call, and he signed to Verve to further develop his brand of ‘cozy pop’ on this new EP. “It's like singer-songwriter jazz,” he goes on. “I've always resonated with the real old-school romantics. People are going through the same things now as they were back then. Heartbreak is heartbreak, and love is love. We’re all humans, and that’s what most of these songs are about.”
ABOUT MEI SEMONES
There’s no one doing it quite like Mei Semones, the 25-year-old Brooklyn-based guitarist and songwriter blending jazz, bossa nova, and indie-pop. Named an “artist to watch” by Pigeons & Planes, The FADER, the New York Times, and more, Semones is a prolific and rising star; her debut album, Animaru was released in May 2025, followed by “Kurayami” and “Get used to it” later that fall. Her songwriting has a specific and recognizable lightness, an ease in spite of its knotted complexities. It’s a testament to Semones’ discipline and dedication to her craft of guitar playing that her music is so cerebral, but with such a buoyancy and accessibility – an amalgamation of guitar lines swinging from jazz to bossa to math-y to grungier hooks, lyrics fluttering between English and Japanese. To listen to a Mei Semones song is to be delighted, surprised at every turn – it’s the sense that you’ve met an artist with a truly singular melodic point-of-view.
On Kurage, Semones’ new collaborative EP, the scope of her musical world continues to widen as she presents three new tracks across relationships and locale. Recorded throughout the fall of 2025, in-between Semones’ whirlwind international touring schedule, each track is grounded in place, in people. “Koneko” (Japanese for “kitten”) features Semones and band in duet with her friend Liana Flores, the British-Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist, recorded at the iconic Strongroom Studio in London. “Koneko” is an ode to the two’s relationship and time spent together in the glitzy chaos of London, imbued with a playful sweetness and lyrics in English, Portuguese, and Japanese.
“Tooth fairy,” on the other hand, is a bit more mellow in how it unfolds, encapsulating Semones’ friendship with longtime collaborator John Roseboro and recorded at New York’s Figure 8 Recording. It recounts the two running into each other in Greenpoint after Roseboro happened to lose a tooth on the subway (a classically random New York moment) re-told with a laid-back sense of humor that can only come from years of friendship. Both “Koneko” and “Tooth Fairy” skew higher-energy, technicolor bossa-jazz affairs built out by the full Mei Semones band – Noam Tanzer on bass, Ransom McCafferty on drums, Claudius Agrippa on violin, and Noah Leong on viola – a tight-knit crew of collaborators seemingly reaching the height of their powers.
The EP’s final submission, “Kurage” (Japanese for “jellyfish”) is more subdued. Recorded at Solid Sound in Semones’ hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan “Kurage” is a duet with her father, Don Semones, a chemical engineer by day and euphonium player by night. It also marks his first-ever studio recording. It stands out as maybe the most pared-back Semones release yet, but it feels fitting that it’d be the title track – at the core of each maximalist track after all is just Mei and her guitar, and the song they make together. The foundation for Semones’ entire dazzling catalog is built on that contented solitude, a quiet self-confidence in creativity and expression that comes close to weightlessness, like floating.