San Mei - Sink Or Swim

18 Feb 2022

San Mei

// MUSIC

‘Sink Or Swim’ is the dreamy new song by Gold Coast based singer-songwriter San Mei (Emily Hamilton). San Mei wrote ‘Sink Or Swim’ during a particularly challenging time in her personal life, and the song serves as an anthem for choosing optimism over drowning during dark times. ‘Sink Or Swim’ is the next single before San Mei releases her EP In Comes The World later this year.

After dipping into more industrial edged ‘90s rock with her 2021 releases, San Mei returns to her signature dreamy, open guitar sounds. Consciously coupling uplifting melodies with decisively optimistic lyrics, ‘Sink Or Swim’ threads a needle of emotion between turmoil and happiness. San Mei details, “The best option for me during that time was to look up and swim to the surface, rather than just let myself sink. I wrote this song as an anthem of sorts, not just for myself but for others because I know this feeling is universal. I wanted it to be a rejection of the idea that our circumstances have control over us and know that we can always choose optimism and forge our way to the light.”

San Mei’s forthcoming EP In Comes The World sees Hamilton taking to the studio behind the glass as well as in front of it. Working with fellow Gold Coast native Michael McCartney, Hamilton produced the entire EP with engineering and mixing carried out by McCartney. As a body of work, it’s one San Mei can be further proud of including ‘In The Machine’ and ‘I Can’t Sleep’ (co-written with Micah Jasper, writer/producer for Dillon Francis, Mothica, Cailin Russo and FINNEAS).

“It was cool to be in a totally new, challenging place and I think this song is a by-product of that sonically,” explains San Mei. “I wanted to make something that felt a little bit crazy and scary to me - kinda how it felt being alone on the other side of the world for a moment.”