Elliot Smith, Big Thief, Ezra Furman: as she shares her wonderful debut album, boygenius’ potent prodigy jasmine.4.t tells Wonderland about the tracks that inspired the work.
jasmine.4.t is the type of songwriter that you feel like you’ve known all your life. She’s familiar, caring and revealing, with a rich and piercing ability to make you feel found. Based in Manchester, the trans woman and rising artist is the first UK signee to Phoebe Bridgers’ label Saddest Factory Records. Today, via the respected imprint, jasmine.4.t shares her fantastic debut album, You Are The Morning.
Produced in its entirety by Bridgers and her boygenius counterparts Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, the LP is a poignant and fearless exploration of identity, growth and hope. The raw and expressive vocal performances are comforted by often stripped-back acoustic guitar-driven folk-tinged instrumentation. Swirling with emotion and personality, it’s a highly commendable and joyfully listenable debut opus.
To celebrate the release, Wonderland asked jasmine.4.t to share some thoughts on the tracks that influenced the wonderful album, in our latest On Repeat feature.
Listen to You Are The Morning…
Read jasmine’s On Repeat…
Elliott Smith – “Christian Brothers”
I first recorded a demo of the song Elephant when I was in a precarious housing situation and couldn’t be too loud. So, I deliberately leaned into a DIY production style inspired by Elliot Smith: I double-tracked thin vocals as well as acoustic guitar. This was one of the demos that Lucy Dacus first played to Phoebe Bridgers, before I had even heard that Phoebe was talking about signing me. Phoebe later told me she could hear Elliott in the recording, which means a lot to me. It was one of the first things the two of us bonded over as we are both obsessed with Elliott’s music. His first album in particular has been a favourite of mine since I first heard it as a teenager.
“Christian Brothers” is maybe my favourite song on this album. It ends with a chorus that has a driving on-beat snare. This drum pattern was directly referenced in the second half of the solo of “Elephant”. That awesome drum part (there are actually two drummers layered on this track!) was played by my trans bandmate from Manchester Eden O’Brien, who flew out with us to record in LA and a more local trans musician, the incredible Bobby Gruska.
Ezra Furman – “Forever In Sunset”
All Of Us Flames came out when I had just landed in my first kind-of-secure accommodation following a period of homelessness and precarious living situations after coming out as trans. This album, and this song in particular, is a dedication to the resilience of trans people. Within a year of me recording my album, three of my trans friends in Manchester died. We live so close to death, always. It is healing to hear others who share our experience of living “Forever in sunset/An ending not quite done yet”. This album was on repeat the first weekend I spent with my trans partner Roan, which in itself was an incredibly healing experience. It was the first time I had felt completely seen for who I was by a partner. So, hearing All Of Us Flames feels like a warm blanket of recognition.
Iron & Wine – “Upward Over The Mountain”
I think Iron & Wine was the first acoustic indie/folk music I really heard growing up, around when Our Endless Numbered Days came out. When I got really into that CD, my dad borrowed The Creek Drank The Cradle from the library and copied it, and it lived in the CD player by my bed for years. I listened to it most nights, and my favourite was “Upward Over The Mountain”. It’s so bittersweet, a mournful song about children leaving their mothers when they fly the nest. I really love how the instrumental section at the end is arranged, how big the reprise feels when the slide guitar and palm-muted acoustic rhythm guitars re-enter. The symbolic, romantic descriptions of scenes in Sam Beam’s southern gothic lyrical style has been a major influence on the way I write.
Alex G – “Bobby”
Me and Lucy Dacus used to duet this when I opened for her on the Historian European tour. I love Rocket—it’s such an iconic album. I went alone to see Alex G play in Manchester in 2023, my friend was supposed to join me but she forgot. This was fortunate, because while I was calling that friend from the venue entrance, I saw a beautiful fellow trans woman step out of a taxi in massive platform trainers and claw rings: Phoenix Rousiamanis. I immediately befriended her – she had also been stood up but wanted to see Alex anyway – and it turned out she was an incredible musician and classical composer. She became my collaborator: she plays violin and keys and arranged the choir parts on my album. It was also fortunate because, at the Manchester debut of Phoenix’s opera (Songs Of Descent), she introduced me to my girlfriend. In a wild full-circle ending, Phoenix now plays with Lucy Dacus, having been introduced by me while working on my album in LA.
Big Thief – “Real Love”
Having been a fan of Adrianne’s solo work for a while, I was slower than I might have been falling in love with Big Thief. But fall in love, I did. I remember walking in halfway through “Real Love” at The Louisiana in Bristol in February 2017 on the Masterpiece tour. I had just come straight from work and arrived in a bit of a flap, right at this tense moment of silence before Adrianne’s guitar solo. It was such a magical moment that erupted into one of the most incredible solos I have ever heard, full of raw sadness and chaos and rage. I remember thinking this is simply the greatest band right now. I listened to the album a ridiculous amount. When I wrote “Skin On Skin”, I was staying in rural Scotland with a friend. I wanted to create something reminiscent of Big Thief and it ended up containing all of these references to Adrianne‘s work. I deliberately reply to this song Real Love which is about domestic violence. Adrianne sings “Real love makes your lungs black/Real love is a heart attack”. I wrote in response to this, “Real love is a gift/Real love is the sweat on your back/Real love ain’t a heart attack/It’s just what you want.” This was about the trans love I had found and the acceptance I had experienced, the acceptance I had wanted my whole life, and how that stood in contrast to the experiences I was leaving behind.
ANOHNI – “It Must Change”
ANHONI’s album My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross came out the summer I was signed to Saddest Factory Records. Me and my best friend Yulia drove the eight hour round trip to go to the album launch listening party in London. It’s a heartbreaking album about the plight of trans people globally. ANHONI has always been my role model, the only trans musician I was aware of growing up, and this album in particular set the tone for the album I wanted to make and the impact I wanted it to have in raising awareness of our struggles.
Moses Sumney – “In Bloom”
Græ came out early in my transition and I constantly had it on in my car as I was moving from Bristol to Manchester. Singing along to Moses helped me explore the upper registers of my voice. I love the themes of this record around blurring binaries of sexuality, gender/sex and friendship/romance. I took on a lot of this in my own writing when the songs on my new album were forming.
boygenius – “$20”
I could talk about boygenius and the boys as individuals till the cows come home. I fucking love those guys so much, and they have shaped my sound enormously. Phoebe, Julien and Lucy produced my album but also I am hugely into The Record which came out while I was working on the songs that came to be my album. Long before this, I had toured Europe opening for Lucy Dacus. I have followed Phoebe and Julien’s careers for a while, since Lucy took me to my first Phoebe Bridgers show at the Thekla in Bristol and introduced me to Julien Baker at End Of The Road Festival. Working with them all on my album was a dream come true. In particular, I chose “$20” because of JB’s distinctive guitar tones, which I’m proud to say can be heard on several tracks of my album.
Florist – “If Blue Could Be Happiness”
I love Florist and If Blue Could Be Happiness is my favourite of their albums. I am the proud owner of a signed copy. I also love Emily’s solo work and this album has hints of the distinctive synthesisers used on the later Water Memory which is another favourite of mine, and informs the electronic elements of my own work. I love the attention Emily brings to the natural world, and the joy of the treasure found in the present moment. This is parallel to Adrianne Lenker’s work as well as Iron & Wine’s southern gothic style, and has definitely inspired my own writing.
Adrianne Lenker – “Music for Indigo”
Adrianne’s music is now so deep in my psyche that I don’t even think I could write a song that isn’t inspired by her. Her album Instrumentals got me through the toughest times of my early transition and divorce. For me this album now represents the security I find in music. I recently realised the guitar solo in the title track of You Are The Morning is (unintentionally) inspired by Music For Indigo’s ascending and descending 6th harmonies over an alternating bass drone. I attended Adrianne’s School of Song classes and her focus on the microscopic, the natural world and the present moment has informed my own work hugely.