Last year, guitarist and songwriter Jasmine.4.t released a video of a musically and personally exposed moment.
With just an amped-up Fender Strat for accompaniment she performed her song Woman – “I am, in my soul, a woman” – before taking her first estrogen pill. Music videos don’t get much more real or punk-spirited than that.
The Manchester-based artist recently became the first UK signee to Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory label, and just released her debut LP You Are The Morning.
Recorded in Los Angeles and produced by all three members of boygenius – Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus – it captures 12 heart-stopping moments of vulnerability from what Jasmine refers to as her “tumultuous timeline.”
Highs, lows and everything in between are reflected in tender fingerpicked acoustic guitars, tangled rhythmic layers and surges of fuzz-driven intensity.
“The songs were written in what was a very horrible time for me,” she says. “I was homeless and escaping my marriage, which ended terribly when I came out as trans. Performing them now feels very cathartic. And I know it’s helped other trans women who relate to that experience.”
She first picked up a guitar aged seven when her late uncle left his instrument to her. She says she’s been using songwriting to make sense of complex emotions for most of her life, and the process now feels more like instinct than a learned skill.
“I feel like I can write a song entirely in my head, including the guitar part. That’s a whole other step of being self-sufficient in terms of my emotional state,” she explains.
Playing exploratively in DADGAD, she’ll transform stream-of-consciousness phone memos into structurally complex vignettes on a daily basis. “It’s like writing a diary –I’m demoing each song as I go.”
The album sessions took place over two weeks at Sound City Studio B, where Bridgers cut her sophomore masterpiece, Punisher. With contributions from “the boys” and inspiration from Elliott Smith, Iron & Wine, Bright Eyes, Adrianne Lenker and Big Thief, it aches with all the devastatingly cool indie-folk sonics you could wish for – muted rubber bridge tones, baritone throatiness, woody acoustics, reel-to-reel tape, emotionally charged live takes.
“It’s a lot less rocky than I would have made it, if I was doing it myself, because I basically just play through a Big Muff,” says Jasmine, whose modest home/live set-up also includes a Danelectro Dano ‘63 Baritone electric and a Fender Blues Junior. But such are the joys of crossing the Atlantic to make a record at a world-renowned studio with three world-renowned artists – and their equipment.
“A lot of the guitars I’m playing are played on their records and on the boygenius record. The acoustic baritone that I’m playing on a few songs like Highfield is the same guitar as on Emily I’m Sorry.”
That’s Bridgers’ 1960s Silvertone 658 Hollowbody Archtop, which gets its distinctive voice from a rubber bridge and flatwound strings.
“Loads of guitars on the record have flatwound strings, which I hadn’t really had before. It’s a completely different timbre,” Jasmine says.
“They interact with pedals and amps in such a different way – you’re missing so many overtones and you have to consciously put them back in if you want them.”
Further lessons in soundcraft came from observing the esteemed rig whisperer of the group.
“Julien is so fucking good at tone. She uses several amps and A/B switches, and takes loopbacks out of the amps so you get the pre-stage as well. I’ve never met anyone with her encyclopedic knowledge of guitars, amps and pedals, and how to wire everything up.”
The others contributed valuable expertise too. Dacus led on song editing and “poetic voice,” while Bridgers imparted a fresh approach to tracking. “Phoebe records the acoustic guitar first, then records the final lead vocal, and builds the rest of the song around it.
“It’s cool because you end up with this really intimate performance – you can really hear it in her music – but it’s very different from how I do things. I usually put in a million layers of fuzz guitar before I’ll sing anything!”
Although ostensibly a solo offering, You Are The Morning resonates with a deep sense of camaraderie. Jasmine is backed by trans bandmates Phoenix Rousiamanis (piano and strings) and Eden O’Brien (drums). Group vocals come from the boygenius gang on wistful bop Best Friend’s Houseand the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles lend poignant harmonies to the studio version of Woman.
We were having such a great time that we didn’t really think about who was doing the solo and when
The album is also peppered with mix ‘n’ match guitar leads, comped together from parts performed by Jasmine herself, Baker and local session player, Addy Watkins. Lyrical themes of choosing your own family and blossoming in safe company appear reflected in every musical decision.
“We were having such a great time that we didn’t really think about who was doing the solo and when,” Jasmine reports. “We’d tag-team it. I’d do a take, then Julien, then Addy and so on. We just edited between them all.”
At Jasmine’s request, Baker also took the spotlight role for Skin On Skinlaying down a series of swirling leads in her signature melodic style. Another fun flurry is heard at the close of Elephant as Jasmine makes a frenetic climb to the highest of highs on her Dano ‘63.
“The top note of the top string is the top note of the lead line,” she says. “Getting to play the top note of a guitar is always a good moment!”
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