Yumi Nu Releases New Single “Sandcastles”

This song about identity and relationships is a must listen.

On February 24, SI Swimsuit model Yumi Nu released a new single called  “Sandcastles.” The song features lyrics that Nu co-wrote with singer/songwriter Phebe Starr and explores themes of how we can lose our sense of self while in a relationship with another person.

The music video, directed by Anna Theroux Ling, features ephemeral sequences of Nu in a lake. She stuns in a number of different looks throughout the video–styled by Blair Cannon–including a simple white long-sleeve shirt and black briefs in the opening and a beautiful bedazzled two-piece later in the piece.

Nu has been an artist for years, but explains that “it was super hard for me to find confidence in my instincts. I think that for my whole life I’ve always been looking to everyone else for their validation and I realize that [at a certain point] I’d lost my artist’s voice.” And so she took a break. In the year leading up to her rookie shoot for the 2021 SI Swimsuit Issue, Nu expressed that she had just begun to take her music more seriously. She describes her work as alternative pop and loves “spacey, juicy vocals” and “R&B elements but also a lot of pop writing.”

Her best advice for creatives? “Check in with yourself. Really allow yourself the space and give yourself the permission,” Nu says. “[If you need to take a break] it doesn’t mean that you’re not an artist. We get scared that that title is going to be stripped from us because it’s so intertwined with our identity sometimes, but if you don’t attach your worth to how productive or creative you are, you have so much more freedom to just be a healthier person, and then you have the time and space to be creative.”

Nu continues, “I think that your instincts make you the artist that you are. Now that I know what I like and don’t like, and I don’t care as much if other people don’t like it—it’s the most-me my music has ever been.”

More Yumi Nu:

• [View] Yumi Nu's 2021 SI Swimsuit Photos 
• [Watch] Yumi Nu on Her Energy and Embracing Her Body and Culture As An Asian American Woman