Hello, Cello! Yeemz Rewrites the Instrument’s Place in the Indie World
You can tell Yi-Mei Templeman’s (aka Yeemz) new single “Wondering Why” is a folk song from the get-go, with its rich melody line prancing around wispy vocals like sunrise into a forest. It’s incredibly nostalgic and yet there’s an X-factor to it that you maybe can’t put your finger on right away. Setting the expectations of classical instruments aside, she has laid her cello across her lap in the same way you would embrace a guitar. By pairing the familiarity of strumming with the cello’s warm tones, Yi-Mei displays her talents as a cellist, songwriter, and composer while gently stirring up curiosity and broadening horizons in the indie-folk genre.
As luck and a carefully curated Instagram algorithm would have it, I stumbled upon a video of her playing just the other day. That’s a huge guitar, I thought before my brain, riddled with an hour’s worth of cat reels, finally registered what was really happening. It was one of those moments where social media had finally done a good deed; I was instantly tethered in by her heartwarming lyrics (“You’re free, you’re light/ You choose me every time”) and before I knew it we were setting up an interview.
While she has played the cello from a young age, it didn’t become the songwriting asset it is today until a few years back when it was the only instrument she could bring to college: “I just kind of started strumming it a bit… it was quite uncomfortable and awkward at first but I liked the sound of it a lot”. She cites the presence of rubber bridge guitars (which she finds to sound quite similar to the cello) in indie-pop and Ken James Kubota, a cellist whose finger-picking she describes as “prolific”, as inspirations behind the playing style.
These days, Yi-Mei also plays in a classical trio (Trio Gaia) in residency at the New England Conservatory of Music: “I still get lessons and coaching…I’m working with a non-classical teacher for the first time and he’s teaching me about rhythmic things and improvisation which is a fun addition to my classical degree…and it’s fun because my trio mates are like my best friends so we rehearse and hang out every day…I feel very lucky.”
The transition from writing for school assignments to song lyrics was a very natural and necessary one, she emphasizes. I shared a quote I love with her from a Joan Didion essay (“On Keeping a Notebook”) in which she describes writing as a sort of compulsion “inexplicable to those who do not share it”, and I was happy to see that Yi-Mei shared the same sentiments: “I definitely relate to the need to express…I feel like I’m not myself I don’t sit down and have a writing session over a certain amount of time” she admits.
Yi-Mei also listed reading fiction and poetry as inspiration for her work, prompting us to swap book recommendations: “I can’t let go of Murakami and ‘Upstream’ by Mary Oliver,” she suggests, “those always bring me back to songwriting if I’m stuck.” As far as inspirational musicians we spent a good chunk of our time gushing about Samia, but also other folk muses like Phoebe Bridgers, Adrienne Lenker, Kate Davis, and Madison Cunningham.
Yi-Mei becomes Yeemz online and on social media, which she didn’t grow up with but adapted to as a musician in recent years: “I have met so many wonderful musicians and idols of mine just through social media…a lot of the recording work I’ve done of playing cello on people’s music has been thanks to connections from Instagram.” She recognizes its weaknesses as well, but is not without hope that her content is “intimate, personal, imperfect, fun, and inspires people to play and experiment.”
Social media and the internet are almost like a playground for visual content, which is both a source and goal to the songwriter: “I’m often trying to recreate a very specific memory or image that evokes a certain emotion when I’m writing, so I guess the visuals of a scene (whether imaginary or real) are on my mind and then I try to explore that and represent the little details or specific feelings as vividly as possible!” Some of her more long-term goals include continuing to mix both contemporary and indie genres, touring, and one day scoring a film: “Basically I just want to record, write little songs, play classical music with my trio, and produce music with people I admire and tour for the rest of my life” she says with a laugh.
Creating and releasing music is no easy feat of course. While she finds classical music to be a bit more “competitive” form of playing than personal projects, Templeman still finds herself nervous to release: “It feels super personal and confessional, like it’s all just for me to work through my emotions, but then suddenly when it’s about to come out I become hypercritical…I’m definitely always trying to remind myself though that the music I release is just a snapshot in time and that every song I put out doesn’t have to be career-defining or all-encompassing…that's just the best I can do as of today, y'know?” Her previous releases do become beautifully vulnerable as she tells stories directly from life. It can be such an intimate and even innate experience to take stock of yourself and your environment this way, not for purposes of condensing, but to craft it into a unique vision and explode that world into something entirely new. It’s a chance her art is willing to take not only to beautifully frame a moment in time but to reach other people’s hearts along the way.
“Wondering Why”, her latest single, struck me as instantly and yet hazily familiar, like a classic folk tale passed down in a dream or a past life. The lyrics read like a journal entry, carefully cozying up to the public eye (and ear) inside the margins of its earthy, consistent strings: “I wrote the new single about feeling so lucky to be in love with someone in a relationship, or friendship, that you just can’t help but to lay awake and wonder why they keep choosing you every day… I feel so lucky to have so many people in my life that I feel this way about…hopefully [it] expresses a relatable feeling of wondering why other people choose you but trying to learn to just live with it and trust!”
The intimacy you feel in this track, and other previous projects, is a natural result of her style: “I started this exploration of making music while plucking my cello on my own and it was very private…playing with cello definitely requires a sensitivity of not singing too loudly, so I guess everything I started making started out quite soft, instrumental, and personal,” she notes, “Making music that feels safe, warm, close, and like I’m just sitting in front of you in a cozy bedroom playing a song is the most true thing to me that I could imagine and that’s the feeling that I just really want to give to anyone who takes the time to listen.”
“Wondering Why” is available now on your favorite listening platforms, and be sure to keep an eye out for more music from Yeemz in the future!