photo: Emma Richardson
A couple of years ago, I was watching a beautiful lady on stage, polite guitar strumming echoing behind her. Without even flashing a look at the crowd, she clutched her glass of wine and let out a humble, raspy voice that cut through cackles, simmering the room and raising hairs on every arm. Eyes down.
Fast forward to November 2015, and the same lady sits across from me giggling in Broadway’s Café Bar. “This is so weird, because it’s you and you’re gonna ask me questions!” I tell her not to worry – something people have been saying to Yaz for the past two years. “When I first started doing it, it felt proper daunting. I thought ‘What if nothing comes out? What if I just freeze?’ The first few gigs, I got so worked up that I’d be sick afterwards.”
Yazmin has been a bedroom performer for years; writing, singing and hoarding her talents away at home until Parisa Eliyon booked her for Acoustickle. “I always think you should challenge yourself. I was petrified, mate. I just realised it’s only ever going to get easier if I just start putting it out there and giving it a go. If the universe is presenting you with opportunities, you need to rise to them. You’ve got to let go of the fear, take the risk and trust your instincts. It’s still only gig number twelve. That’s well early.”
With that in mind, it’s incredible to see how far Yazmin has come. “I feel really lucky,” she says. But it’s only through stepping out of her comfort zone with a strong work ethic that she’s been able to get to the point she’s at now: laughing with the crowd and really owning the stage. Just recently, she played Affinity Festival at Nottingham Contemporary alongside Congi from the Mimm Collective. “I love all the music Mimm put out, and I just love all the boys. It’s really hard to work with people you don’t know straight away, but when I met Gaz and Tulip [Congi], it just flowed so easily. I just felt really comfortable. We’re working on an EP and live set at the moment, so I’m really excited for that.”
photo: Emma Richardson
Like Congi, Yazmin is taking part in Gilles Peterson and Brownswood Music’s Future Bubblers project, after performing at their launch event at Rough Trade about a year ago. “That was the first gig where I proper enjoyed it,” she says. After being convinced by a friend to post a demo tape in, Yazmin was one of nine, and the only female artist, to be chosen out of the 300 demos sent to the new talent development team. Now, she’s found a mentor in Victoria Port from Anushka. “She’s going to be doing some vocal training with me,” says Yaz. “I love her stuff. She’s just great, man. The whole Brownswood team are great. I think it’ll be a really productive and exciting learning curve. Ultimately I do want that from music – to learn loads of things. I’ve got a massive creative head and I want to fuel it.”
And it’s not just in music. Yazmin has created art installations in the past which, with the help of Future Bubblers, she hopes to eventually incorporate into her live set. “They’re leaving it really open, asking what it is I want to do and how they can help. It would be nice at some point to bring other elements into the set, to create a space to listen to my songs.” Plus, back in London, she was doing youth theatre work: “I think that’s where I developed a love for writing. I had a play at The Old Vic.”
Yazmin moved to Nottingham about five years ago on a whim when a friend had a spare room in the house they were renting. “I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t have a job. I can be like that sometimes. Just put myself in a pressurised situation and say ‘Just go!’ It was the right time. I was only meant to be here for six months. Nottingham’s got charm. It’s hard to leave.”
After moving to the city, Yazmin met Susannah Gray and got talking about her previous experience in youth theatre. Susannah offered her a job at her charity, Nottingham Children, Young People & Families Project (CYF) – a long-term, intense intervention programme that supports young people. “She took a chance on me,” says Yazmin. “I put in the graft and it paid off.” She eventually ended up taking over the organisation, which has gone from strength to strength thanks to help from the community.
Hockley Hustle have raised money for them for the past two years; Mimm staff have helped out by painting the CYF bus and will be doing their allotment outhouse in the future; Nat Bruce from Sheep Soup and Natti Rudyj do sessions with the kids for free; and Jacky P and Sacha Wise have supported them by organising a charity football event on Forest Recreation Ground. “Loads of people played, like Elliott Caine [FTS.co] and Simeon Hartwing [Bantum Clothing],” says Yaz. “Simeon, as crazy as he is, has actually given ridiculous amounts of time for some of those young people, coming up with really innovative ideas that they can lead on. And Elliott did the set design for one of the kids’ shows. I am so grateful for it all.”
By offering the young people experiences they might not ordinarily have access to, Yaz is opening doors for them in the city in so many ways. She’s organising trips away, outdoor activities like growing food in their allotment and cooking what they’ve grown for the community, workshops with Yazmin’s long list of creative contacts, and getting the young people to access services available to them within the city. “I want to empower them,” says Yaz. “The way things are with funding, I can’t promise that CYF will always be around. But I’ll give it a bloody good go.”
It’s this creative, hardworking attitude that makes Yazmin so mesmeric. When she’s not liaising with parents and teachers, or coordinating no end of activities for the young people, she’s making music with friends and pushing it forward. “You know the most exciting thing about working with Congi is that I’m actually a massive fan of theirs, I love their stuff,” says Yaz. “They’ve given me a memory stick with loads of their songs and I’m just singing over the top of them constantly. I think a live show with us three would be a natural progression, because I’ve been doing it in my kitchen for time.”
I ask Yaz what the end goal is for her, and she replies, “I worry, I have anxiety, so I try not to think about it too much otherwise I won’t be able to take it all in.” After some quiet contemplation, she says, “Right now, I just need to concentrate on having a few bodies of work together. I’d love to play some festivals. I wanna play Soundwave, Gilles Peterson’s festival and Jazz Festival in Europe, and I hope that CYF can continue on its quest.”
And with a lady like Miss Lacey steering the ship, it undoubtedly will.
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