INTERVIEW: YAZMINDI

Yazmindi teases the release of forthcoming debut album with title track ‘Dream On’. This single is a distillation of the core messages that shine in the album - a reflection of the journey from dreaming teen to ambitious young woman.

This astute theme of empowerment, especially towards young women runs strong and true to Yazmindi’s core values. This self-actualised version of Yazmindi is a refreshing and bold statement of the importance of self-love. Yazmindi shared updates on her tour, the highs and lows of Splendour 2022 and the future of her music.

How are you doing?

Great! Chillin today - I want to have one day off so, I'm just gonna relax with my mum.

So have you had any of your shows yet?

I had my first show last Saturday night supporting, Greta Stanley who released her album. She ended her tour on Saturday night, and I started my tour on Saturday night. It was really fun.

And you guys work together on some of your songs as well, didn't you?

Um, no, we didn't. But the guys and her band and her producer we share like the same producer. Her drummer was my drummer in the studio. There's mutual. We've done a show together as well, a few years ago.

Small world.

Yeah, it is!

And so how long is the rest of the tour? Where else are you heading?

It's going to go until December. I want to do a whole thing on the road, I'll be back home, down and Byron Bay, but do little weekends away. Whole East Coast tour. I've got to finalise some shows. There's still more!

I did see that you're based in Byron -I have to ask were you at splendour?

Yeah, unfortunately.

You survived.

Yeah, I got pretty sick afterwards. I'm still recovering with this weird cough, which is slowly going away. But apart from that, I'm pretty good. I survived. I live there. I've had camping tickets and normal tickets for three years. I thought we'll just camp it's really fun when you camp….

I should have probably stayed home.

You came up on Thursday night?

Yeah, it took me six hours when its normally 20 minutes.

You're kidding.

It was a lot. We were exhausted all the time, because the conditions are just so exhausting.

Who was your favourites of the weekend?

I only really saw everyone who played on the main stage because that was just the easiest place to go to. I actually didn't really know a lot of the songs to be honest. I actually really enjoyed that set, the Brisbane band …..not glass animals.

The Jungle Giants?

Yeah! I've seen them in Brisbane and they were good, but, this was extra great. They were on fire. You know the sun came out and it was just a really happy vibe. I think that just made it more of a positive festival experience. I actually really enjoyed that.

10 out of 10, I think they were probably one of the best sets of the weekend.

I agree. I agree that we're just making the most of that massive stage as well. Handing out Polaroid cameras to take memories and stuff. It was just a really nice, refreshing.

Wholesome, wholesome show. It was really fun.

What was your most negative splendour experience?

You know what? It was probably the first night , because I was sleeping in my van and I opened the door and my eye mask fell out right into the mud. I couldn't have a nice clean eye mask. We were camping around the road and a big spotlight would come straight into my van. I think I definitely slipped on that big hill. My nice crochet top got muddy, gazebo broke, and our tent got flooded.

If you've got through that, anything that comes to you on tour is going be easy.

Yeah, it's just to prep! That's all it was.

But tell me a bit more about these new songs. ‘Dream on’ is the new single.

How's it been going?

It's been going great. Such positive feedback. Everyone's loving it. I dropped the film clip for it as well, which was really exciting. It's been such a treat to record this song because it's very sentimental to me because it's the title track to my album. The whole experience has been great. It's getting heaps of radio play. Awesome interviews. It feels good, releasing a female empowerment song and something that's super positive. I get messages, people saying I heard the song on the radio, and I just really love it and made me feel better. A nice reminder of why I'm an artist.

I love that. And how has this single compared to the previous things that you've recorded and the experience?

I think this this song in particular, it's more of my pop side that I got to explore which was really fun. Experimenting in the studios, I felt really confident with this. After having experience with the other songs. I felt like now I know what I'm doing. It's kind of like practising what I'm preaching in the song as well which is really cool. Everything feels right.

I know you did a lot of crowdfunding and recently hit your goal.

How did that come about?

A few artists that I've followed for a while have done crowdfunding. I thought that's really clever. I was looking at a bunch of grants, and they were all closed grants, that’s a whole other ballgame. I needed the funds instantly, because this whole project is costing me about $30,000. I've already covered half of it, that's all my savings gone. I thought, I need to pay up another $13,000 to cover my expenses. I thought, why not crowdfunding? I'm gonna give it a shot, and see what comes out of it. I literally couldn't believe that we might go over target. I was aiming for 13 grand, and then I got 14 and a half. That was a really crazy five weeks. But it was successful. It's a really, really empowering project, to have so many people reach out and go, I want to help you, I believe in the music!

That's so good. And is there any artists that you're keen to work with in the future that you've had your eye on?

I'd love to have some with Courtney Barnett actually, I think we would be really cool together. Amy Taylor from Amyl and the Sniffers - that would be awesome. There's a bunch of amazing women I look up to in the music industry that I'd love to collaborate with one day. Yeah, that'd be ideal.

I guess that leads to, is this a genre you think you'll always stick in like or do you want to try anything different? Is a country album ever going to be on the cards?

Absolutely. I love Americana and country that's where I kind of started. I'd love to do a country, and an r&b EP, then maybe a pop one. With my debut album, I've got 11 tracks and they're all quite different because I didn't really have one genre. I wanted to experiment with all the different tracks and different genres.

During your writing and recording process, what was your go to snack?

Oh, I had to be very healthy in the studio. I totally cut out, dairy and citrus stuff because that can get trapped in the vocal cords. Go to snack….. I think it was grapes. Healthy fruit or grapes. Black coffee. That was good for energy. Clean snacks, hummus dip with some carrot sticks or something.

And who is on your on repeat playlist at the moment?

I listened to the Beyonce album, that's pretty fun.

Whenever I listen to artists usually I listened to literally the whole album. I'm still old school. Dua Lipa. I just love her. She's always getting me into a good vibe, you know? Very upbeat and fun.

Is there anything that you would want your current fans or future fans to know about you?

I've got a big vision for my music and I love to make the world a better place with my music. It's fun to be my fan, you know? Everything I'm doing with good intentions.

FOLLOW YAZMINDI

Official Website | triple j Unearthed | Facebook | Instagram | Youtube | Twitter