Friends in music #2 Who are you JAZMINE MARY?

Teepees, Sequins and ABBA - What the? How the? Who the?

I keep banging on about it, I know, but the best thing over the last few months for me has been playing and attending shows, and that feeling once again of how important music is and how it brings us all together - in line, on track, in the moment. The humans. Making music together.

I missed posting in June - I apologise. But when I scan over this last month, the standout moments have all been to do with music and people. I've loved doing the Live Rust shows again, and I don’t seem to get tired of playing and singing those songs. I’ve seen some beautiful shows - Earth Tongue with Troy Kingi in support at a packed Double Whammy, and Marlon Williams and the Yarra Benders at their first ever arena show at Spark (what a show). I didn’t love getting COVID again, and have been dealing with a few health issues, so once again, sorry for the no post in the last few weeks.

It is so distressing and heart-dulling to see and hear about AI-generated non-bands and music on the streaming platforms. It feels like a sick nightmare. So, in the interests of real human music winning, and being the actual bees’ knees and one of a kind, I wanted to find out a little more about the intriguing artist Jazmine Mary. We’ve performed together in the Atomic shows, and it was a joy to see Jazmine step right up and fill that performing space with complete Jazmine-ness.

I think the blurb on Jazmine’s Bandcamp page sums up Jazmine and their music perfectly:

Jazmine Mary is a Neo-Folk Artist from Gippsland, Australia. Visceral and haunting. Their surreal rose-tinted sounds will allow you to be transported somewhere bold and watery.

A couple of weeks ago, they released their third album, I Want to Rock and Roll, and I like it - a lot. However, don’t expect a Rock and roll album; this is still folk-ish music, folks.

It reminds me of many things - a strange mix: the loose melodic feel of 1960s band Love, with time signature changes within some of the songs; a warmer, more intimate Cate Le Bon instrumentally; and in attitude a little bit of New York, Nico, and Lou Reed.

I like the way Jazmine throws their voice around - this is something Joni Mitchell does with her voice within those incredible songs. Often, when a word is sung, the voice becomes that word. For example, when they sing “Down”, the melody descends, and the voice adjusts in tone to fit and give emphasis to the word.

I’m also impressed to see, with each release, they seem to have become increasingly themselves (whoever that is). I’ve always found Jazmine to be a little mysterious, yet beautifully forthright and frank, so I thought I’d ask them a few questions to find out more about the person and the music.

SO….WHO ARE YOU JAZMINE MARY?

Jazmine Mary, how are you feeling right now?

Im feeling, like hiding, I'm feeling quiet and in one of my blue moments, I'm feeling grateful and like I want to tell you all the ways I'm not an ass hole but mostly I'm feeling a little off but also excited? Calm, yes, I feel calm. I just ate some weed I'm waiting for it to change my life. It's Saturday night and I feel very rebellious being home alone. I went to a shop to buy a wall calendar and realised it's July, so I got push-up bars and a skipping rope instead. My muscles feel sore from trying to get stronger, that's nice, and I think I feel like on the edge … of “it” of something like in the void right before either inspiration or falling apart. Fingers crossed it’s falling into inspiration. Yes. Surely.

Jazmine, you once told me you didn’t listen to a lot of music when you were younger - is that right, or was I dreamin?

Half dreaming, I was probably talking about now, it's terrible, but I don’t listen to a lot of music now. When I'm not around people, which isn’t much, I like the quiet, and I also just forget about music. That seems ridiculous to say, but it’s true. When I was younger, I listened to a lot of music and used to write out the lyrics to songs in a book I had. I also listened to the mainstream radio most nights and would phone in for competitions. I can remember the first time being deeply moved by a song, I was maybe 14 vacuuming and listening to my iPod, it was Speeding Cars by Imogen heap, so beautiful and heartbreaking, the feeling that evoked was so fucking intense and addictive like I dared the song to try move me or something.

I am fascinated to know when and how you found yourself embarking on this musical road - as your PR quotes “They make music not to earn a living, but to survive, and it’s through their songwriting that Jazmine Mary feels tethered to something tangible, a constant.” How and when did you realise that your survival was resting on that need to express your true self through music/art.

How and when seem like such a simple question, but there are all these moments, hundreds of little ones that led to now. I think my musical journey with awareness and honesty to say “now I’m going to do it, I’m going to share with the world and admit I care” began more recently, perhaps the last 6 years.

But around 16 I got a guitar and would hide and learn and sing very quietly at first and then slowly I would show a person or 2 and that feeling of being the thing and then also sharing it was like fuck this shit is going to save my life. I think survival is a fitting word, I didn’t have or know my place in the world and then suddenly I had this thing to understand that and then beyond that a way to create a place anyway blah blah its been saving my life since. But if you move through the world with that bravery to want something, it kind of happens somehow. At 16 I could play two chords on the guitar and this music store opened up in the bigger town over from mine - I used to go in there and lurk around and the guy that ran it was an on and off junky, he disappeared years ago but one day he says to me. “Jazmine, do you want a job teaching guitar?” and I said, “I can’t play guitar”, - and he said, “Don’t worry about it, just stay two pages ahead.” So that’s kinda how I learnt guitar and all these other moments like that, where I guess it’s just being open to a path? Shit now I'm buzzed out thinking about it. I didn’t know I’d leave there and get to write and share music. I had no idea.

I am also interested to know if you made/wrote music while you were still living in Australia

Did you have any strong local musical influences or loves - do you have any musical influences you can pinpoint?

I was home in Australia until 20, so I was in school and then moved to Melbourne briefly, and mostly I was floundering about, a sad guy, an addict and very consumed by that.

I did write music and played some pub gigs or like these shitty promoter nights where you had to sell tickets and you got $2 a ticket. I made this EP, but I was a very young voice musically. No one will hear that. Jesus. Awful. Influences. I remember going to the Bunyip Country Music Festival. God, how good is a country music festival? My father is actually a blues musician, but I didn’t have much to do with him. I can name a few albums I listened to as a kid under 12 that were my Mum’s that I think heavily informed my musical taste The Dixie Chicks, ABBA, Simon and Garfunkel, Jewel, Norah Jones and Kasey Chambers. They were repeat listens in my house under 12 and I can hear elements of all of that I think in what I make.

Then there was a weird obsession with singing competitions like Australian Idol and Disney Channel kid stars. I think I didn’t have musicians / working artists around me, so I had this view that you had to get found and famous, be on TV to be an artist, which is wild.

I think we first met around 2018 when you played support for The Bads at the Bethells’ Te Henga cafe - were you or were you not then living there in a teepee?

Ha! Interrogation. Yes, I was living in a Teepee with my dear old dog Chuck and 2 miniature ponies lived in the field with me. I did a whole 4 seasons in that teepee. I love living outside. Think I’ve lived in lots of alternative spaces/ situations to make it possible to live as an artist.

Your sense of self visually is very strong, edgy and playful; your album cover art and videos carry a lot of spark and individuality. It seems as though you have gone from strength to strength visually as well as musically - When I look at the cover art of 2021’s The Licking of a Tangerine it almost seems very demure and innocent - and if you compare that with for e.g the video or cover for the 2023 single Seagull, or indeed the cover of your new album - they are almost polar opposite.

Has this developed in conjunction with your musical growth with your music, or did you have a strong visual sense before you made music? I.e did you DO art…

Both perhaps? I think musically and visually, I'm always growing, hopefully. I do visual and performance art as a practice but I don’t have formal training in any of these things so as far as I can tell, it just grows as I do. I really value committing to the art of an album, though, in all aspects, the language, the intention, the videos, the photos, consistently finding ways to express the thing over and over. Ultimately I fucking love creating. A big difference between the first album and now is I had no clue with the first album about anything. I just wanted to make one and no one writes it all down for you, if you’re independent you’re just asking for favours and learning by asking and fucking up. Now I understand how to do it a bit more, and probably have more resources. That first album photo is taken laying on the living room floor and I remember it being an after thought like shit I need an album cover lets take a nice photo so when I made album 2 - DOG I knew all the things that go into making an album and all the things I could indulge in…fish etc.

Do you think you would be making the same art if you had stayed living in Australia - do you think living in Aotearoa has had any influence on what you do and how you do it?

I would be someone else if I didn’t come here, I think this place saved my life and connected me to people and place that informed who I am or helped me realise it. Living here has given me unfathomable permission to create how I do. That comes down to the landscape and bodies of water here. The freedom and lawlessness, feeling of moving somewhere nobody knows you or your past, so you can make it up and have a really beautiful community.

You produced and mixed this album I Want to Rock n Roll at Roundhead studios with Dave Khan, Arahi, Louisa Nicklin, Cass Basil, and Cello Forrester. Choosing those you gather around you is very much a role of a producer - I am interested to know if you did a lot of pre-production with the band before you went into Roundhead?

It changed I always have quite a clear wanting, its finding ways to try express that to everyone involved, A few of the songs were demoed alone so I had pretty clear impulsive production choices in those I was attached to and was essentially making shinier versions of those, then tracks that use the band, we rehearsed the bones of those. We tracked it live in the room as it’s important for me to get that feeling of the song captured. I think I can hear when it’s all pulled apart and trying to be perfect. Then I tracked a lot of the strings/cello/saxophone, and backing vocals at my studio after Roundhead, wanting to have time and space to make those choices and not have the pressure of too many voices and money dictating those creative outcomes. It meant, for example, I could just have me and the cello in the studio working on the cello parts, which I think takes away pressure for all involved and allows more mistakes and magic.

Do you have a favourite song on the album, and why?

They are all very much revealing themselves to me, I made them and then threw them out there, and now I need to almost learn them? I think Back of the Bar is closest to me currently because I wrote that during the recording process, so it's just the feeling I'm closest to right now.

We performed together in Atomic #1 and #2 - how did you find that experience, and did it change you in any way as an artist or performer?

I loved the experience and was surprised by myself. I think moving away from playing guitar and being there as a vocalist/performer was a really frightening thing, nowhere to hide. In saying that, playing songs people already know and love is a relief in that I'm not there to convince anyone. I think it helped me trust myself on stage a little more, and also just a more solid sense that, I'm good at this. And its fucking great I get to do it. Anything that affirms my gratitude is invaluable to me as an artist.

Atomic at the AMAs

If you found yourself in an elevator with key figures in the international music industry—those who could help your music reach the global stage—what would you say to catch their attention during that 30-second ride to the penthouse suite?

Id rip of my shirt and scream for 30 seconds “Im Jazmine Fucking Mary” … Nah you know what I'm going to sound like a wanker, but the truth is I wouldn’t say anything, I fucking hate feeling like I'm selling myself or that I need to convince someone of my worth, I think I make beautiful music that some people will really get something from it and I know that and I want people to hear it but the capitalist industry insincere part of it all I'm just disinterested in. I'm actively trying to kill my ambition and not care about that, because then I can be and I am happy with where I am.

What can you really say about your music anyway people need to listen to it.