Hello Jasmine! I’m so excited to have the chance to ask you some questions today : )

Hi thanks for having me!

In previous interviews, you have said that your debut album “You Are The Morning” is dedicated to the trans and queer communities of Manchester and beyond. What does the phrase “You Are The Morning” mean to you personally, and how do you feel it reflects your connection to these communities?

Yes! So, when I wrote the song “You Are The Morning”, it was about my best friend Han, who was helping me through the hardest time of my life. When I came out as trans, my marriage ended, I lost my home and was sleeping on my friends’ sofas and floors. Han was one of those who put me up, and she cared for me when I was really struggling with PTSD and suicidal thoughts. The song is about our queer friendship, about how she helped me find the strength to start my transition and to get back on my feet, to learn to fight for myself. It is also, more generally, about how we trans and queer people have an enormous capacity for solidarity and mutual care. We see this in the dense network of our global community looking out for each other, but it also goes beyond that. Over the past few years in particular we have seen queer people in our thousands turn out to interrupt the business of weapons factories in the name of solidarity that reaches beyond our community and across borders. For some this has cost us our freedom. My chosen daughter Yulia, on whose sofa I slept for two weeks at the start of my transition, is currently held in prison on remand without trial or bail for two years following a violent raid. She is alleged to have taken part in dismantling an Israeli weapons factory in the UK. I would encourage anyone reading this to please donate to her solidarity fund. I think the world has a lot to learn from queer and trans people in terms of solidarity. I think there is so much power to be had in reaching out to those in need of help. Right now, there are attacks on trans people around the world, in the US trans women are being moved to men’s prisons, which is a death sentence. In the UK, Wes Streeting has recently banned life-saving puberty blockers for trans children, which is also a death sentence for many children as suicide rates in untreated trans children are very high. Puberty blockers have been used for decades and are known to be safe and effective, and are still used for cis children. Similar legislation has recently been signed in Australia. We need help in fighting these battles, we need trans people to survive childhood and transition to become visible, protected members of society and we need help surviving this world when everything is stacked against us. That’s what You Are The Morning has come to mean for me: you (whoever you are reading this) can be the light that we all need, whether you are trans and finding your own light, or supporting others, whether that’s within your community or outside of it.

The album was produced by Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus. What was your favourite thing about working with the boygenius boys? (Also, do you have a favourite boygenius song?) 

Working with the boys was a dream come true for me. I am such a huge fan of theirs as a band and as individuals.

Julien Baker soloing on my songs has to be a highlight. I have long been a fan of Julien’s, and seeing Julien’s set at End Of The Road festival several years ago was a huge moment of queer awakening for me. I think “Salt In The Wound” is a contender for my favourite song, partly due to Julien’s solos.

Lucy is an old friend of mine, I opened for Lucy around Europe on the Historian album tour. Due to our closeness, Lucy had a huge part in editing my songs and the track list which was a massive help and honour. The song “New Shoes” on the record is a favourite of Lucy’s from when we toured together which is why it ended up on the record.

Phoebe was really central in the recording process. The way she goes about producing is really creative and unusual. Each vocal track, for example, was recorded only over the acoustic guitar, whereas usually people will record the vocals only when all the rest of the layers are in place. This really added to the intimate, authentic feel of the vocal takes, which in turn helped shape the arrangement.

But the best thing is just how they all work together. They like, share a brain or something. They all communicate so well, I don’t even know what they’re on about half the time but they all clearly understand each other. There’s really no ego in their process, and they curated such a caring and supportive atmosphere in the studio for me and my band.

Coming back to the favourite song thing, I actually think my favourite boygenius song is “20 dollars”. It just still hits so hard every time I listen to it. I love the production, how it builds. It really feels like a statement piece. 

I first found you through one of your TikToks captioned “POV Phoebe Bridgers gets her rad trans friend Bobby Gruska to add a second drum layer on your track” in which Bobby was adding some drums to the absolutely killer song “Elephant”. Were there any other rad trans friends who helped make the record sparkle the way it does today? 

So many omg. After getting signed by Phoebe, I formed an all transfem band in Manchester. The label flew me and two of my bandmates, Phoenix Rousiamanis and Eden O’Brien out to LA to record the album. Eden is an incredible drummer and percussionist, her style is so distinctive and creative and her sound is a huge part of the record. Phoenix is an incredible and successful classical composer in her own right (check out her opera “Songs Of Descent”) and she played violin and keys on the record, as well as doing the vocal arrangements for the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles. Recording that choir was such an incredible experience! They came in on the last day of recording and we booked out Studio A, which is this huge iconic live room at Sound City Studios. Filling that space with these wonderful magical trans people was so incredible, it felt like we were really making history that day. We also worked with local trans musicians including Addy Watkins, Vixen’s Diary, and Bobby Gruska. When we recorded the song Best Friend’s House, we were joined in the studio by ER Fightmaster, Claud (my labelmate!) and Becca Mancari. All of these incredible contributors had an impact not only on the sound but also on the atmosphere in the studio, which I think is a huge part of how the record took shape.

After a few listens, “Guy Fawkes Tesco Dissociation” has to be my favourite song on the project (and definitely has one of the best titles ever). How did you come up with that title?

The song is about this time when, early in my transition, I was struggling with PTSD following my life falling apart and experiencing some violent hate crimes. I was sleeping on my friend Han’s floor on my first visit to Manchester and she took me out to see some fireworks because the bangs were stressing me out and we thought that seeing them might help. It was Guy Fawkes Night, the night with all the fireworks, and someone was setting fireworks off in the street. One exploded right next to us and I don’t remember anything between that and arriving back at Han’s house. Apparently we had been to Tesco in the meantime. I wrote this song about that experience.

You’re about to hit the road in April with Lucy Dacus and Katie Gavin, and then your UK and Ireland tour kicks off in May. Are there any venues or cities you’re particularly excited to visit? (Personally, I can’t wait for you to come to Glasgow!)

Yes, I can’t wait to come back to King Tut’s! I’m also really excited to go back to Bristol. It’s the place where I was born and where everything went so badly wrong with my life. I have been back since, I even played a rough trade show. It’s gonna be wonderful seeing the community there, it’s really blossoming. I’m also really looking forward to the Manchester show of course! Manchester is my real hometown now. London also, I have so many wonderful trans fans in London. London was the first show to sell out. I’m also really looking forward to going to Ireland for the first time! It’s also gonna be my first shows in Nottingham and Cardiff!

This will be your second time supporting Lucy Dacus. What is it like being on tour with her? Are there any funny or memorable moments you can share? 

Oh my god, me and Lucy always have so much fun together! I can’t wait for the tour. I also really love Lucy‘s band and I’m really looking forward to seeing them all again. I think the best thing is Lucy‘s critiques of my bad jokes. I always save the worst ones for Lucy. One time we were on a ferry to Denmark and there was a buffet, and I was very hungry and I wasn’t vegan at that point, and there were these fried little balls of plaice, called (hilariously) plaice balls, which we got very excited about. I came back to the table from the buffet counter with my plate and told everyone that I’ve got one of everything, but I had ten plaice balls because “I never did understand plaice value”. Lucy said that was the “stupiest, most robotic dad joke”. It was hilarious at the time, but maybe you had to be there. Or maybe we were just sleep deprived, but either way we had fun.

I found the final two tracks, “Transition” and “Woman” to be extremely moving. “Transition” gave me full body goosebumps and the final lines of “woman” brought me to tears. Were there any moments in the writing or recording process that you found particularly emotional?  

Thank you. Yeah, it was all pretty emotional. I was processing my divorce at the time, and all of the band were going through a lot. Recording “transition” was a really magical moment. It really felt spiritual. I think the hardest part was recording “New Shoes”, I couldn’t get through a full vocal take without crying. This song was originally about the relationship that became my marriage. When I was singing it in the studio, I was thinking I should sing it about forging this new chosen family, but I couldn’t stop thinking about my dog that I had lost in the divorce.

Finally, is there a message you would like to send to anyone reading this? 

Solidarity is the highest form of love

Thank you so much for your time Jasmine, I appreciate you! <3  

Thank you for having me!