Jasmine.4.t on working with Phoebe Bridgers, the importance of trans representation, and debut album 'You Are The Morning' • Neu • DIY Magazine

“It’s a shit time to be trans anywhere in the world, but especially in America right now,” says jasmine.4.t, as she fluffs her already iconic pink and blue locks in the mirror on her desk. Proceeding to top up her eyeliner and lipgloss midway through a day of Zoom interviews, she continues, “I think being able to go over there as a trans woman and foster some kind of international solidarity is such a big reason why I’m doing this.”

She may have only just released her boygenius-produced debut album ‘You Are The Morning’ last month, but Jasmine Cruickshank has already managed to resonate with the queer and trans communities way beyond her own Manchester doorstep. That special relationship was made rapidly possible after she became the first UK artist signed to Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records last year - a life-changing move that surprisingly came about organically.

“I toured with Lucy Dacus from boygenius pre-transition,” explains Jasmine. “We got on really well and stayed in touch. Lucy was one of the first people who I came out to and we always swapped demos. I’ve actually got one of her postcards on the wall behind me now from when they were recording their album in LA.” It wasn’t long before Lucy passed the Jasmine.4.t material onto Bridgers’ who immediately signed the project to her label.

Reflecting on the moment, Jasmine struggles to hold back a peel of giddy laughter. “It was such a wild thing to happen, being part of that roster is just fucking nuts. I’ve seen Muna’s rise to stardom and I love Claud as well. The Saddest Factory and boygenius connection has opened me up to this whole world of young American queer people which is amazing.”

It’s not hard to see just what Bridgers and Dacus saw in those early demos which were the very foundations of ‘You Are The Morning.’ The album’s title-track carries a therapeutic level of warmth as Cruickshank’s sweetened vocal cuts above the healing folk ballad, “You are the morning, you make the grass grow / You are the hawthorn tangled in dog-rose.” Elsewhere ‘Guy Fawkes Tesco Dissociation’ (which features Bridgers on vocals) carries a muddy grit that nods to Jasmine’s formative experiences as a DIY artist on the Bristol scene.

She explains it was a continuation of the music she’s been making for a lifetime. “I don’t really see it as that different a thing, this is just the latest iteration of what I’ve been doing.” Discounting her Bristolian skate-punk parody off-shoot The Gnarwhals - which still has a special place in her heart - she says she’s always been following this folk-infused sound. “It’s all part of my own solo project which has been going since primary school. I’ve been writing songs since I was two, I’ve always written songs like writing a diary, it’s how I process things.”

“The Saddest Factory and boygenius connection has opened me up to this whole world of young American queer people.”

Needless to say, the singer is the first to explain she’s had a lot to process in the run-up to ‘You Are In The Morning’; an incomprehensible period plagued with serious health-issues and that saw her at her lowest ebb. “Things didn’t go so well when I came out in 2021,” she offers in a trembling and breathless tone. “My marriage ended pretty rapidly, I tried moving back in with my parents and that went similarly, so I didn’t really have a place to live.”

It was around this time that Jasmine moved from Bristol to Manchester and found the embrace of her own tribe. “I was staying on friends’ sofas and floors for a while and during that time I met other queer people while I was writing these songs.” That sense of new-found community, hope and warmth pulses through the record. “The title track is originally about my best friend who took me in,” she says. “It’s also about the wider community and the hope my chosen family gave me when I arrived here. My community really opened my eyes to my future and gave me the energy I needed to start my transition.”

Cruickshank hopes that trans people across the world going through similar situations can take a similar courage through the music. “Every morning I wake up with messages from people all over the world with their transition stories and how my music resonates with them. I’m reaching so many people on such a deep level. It makes of all the stress and the fear so worth it. That’s really what this album means to me, it’s not just hope for myself but hope for others.”

Although there’s a defiance that comes just through being visible as a trans woman in the music industry, she does feel a weight of responsibility to use her platform. “There’s so much bias and structural transphobia in the industry,” she says. “I don’t think people really know what trans people go through, I think people see us as a threat and disruption to the norm at best. We’re human and this is what we’re going through. Stepping into the spotlight is a big responsibility and advocating for trans rights is definitely a big part of my job.”

With their own vast experience in the face of superstardom, boygenius have been the perfect mentors through that step into the spotlight. “I can really trust and depend on them,” she says, before recalling how they put her at ease arriving in Los Angeles to record the album. “Lucy and Julien had sorted dinner for us when we arrived and that was just so sweet, we met their dogs. They’re such friendly people, I felt very accepted into their community immediately.”

That communal-spirit is reflected on the album itself, with Cruickshank’s band comprising of trans women from the Manchester scene. Alongside boygenius members, the wider cast of voices on the album also features Saddest Factory Records label-mate Claud and many more names in the label’s orbit. “Coming out of those sessions, it was clear the theme of this album was processing and healing,” Jasmine notes, of how that communal bond helped her through the pain across the album. “It seemed quite obvious that ‘You Are The Morning’ should be the title, representing queer hope.”

She continues: “What’s wonderful is that all of these songs are about experiences that a lot of trans people will go through including homelessness, hate crimes, transphobia. It feels so good to know that I have this body of work that I can build on and these experiences I can draw on that will help people who have been through similar situations to process what they’ve been through.”

With ‘You Are The Morning’, it feels like Jasmine.4.t has already realised many of her dreams and so the vision heading into the new year is simply to keep going. “I would like to just spend as much of my time writing music, recording, performing and living my life with my chosen family,” she nods. “If I can raise other trans women up and be a visible role model then that’s a huge plus. If other trans women are out there seeing this, hopefully they realise that good things will happen to them to because it’s certainly made my life worth living.”

‘You Are The Morning’ is out now via Saddest Factory Records; find out where you can catch Jasmine on tour this year here.

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