A Handstamp Interview with jasmine.4.t
Making friends, music videos, James Brown, Tony Hawk and Julien Baker
No flex here, but I have recently been invited to a couple of enjoyable events because of this hobby. I’m not being flown first class by a tooth-whitening brand for an exclusive club experience with Wayne Lineker and the Ibiza Final Boss or anything like that, but I certainly didn’t have these experiences on the ol’ mood board when I started talking to artists. It was my method of staying somewhat creative, when the music thing dried up for a bit.
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Jasmine Cruickshank’s big break has been widely covered, even by Billboard no less. It’s an old-fashioned demo tape discovery, with the jasmine.4.t mixes finding their way into the ears of various boygenius members and ultimately bagging her a record deal.
Her debut album You Are The Morning arrived in January 2025, through Phoebe Bridgers’ label Saddest Factory. Despite the famous friends, jasmine.4.t has very much blazed her own trail – a trail that led to an upcoming North American tour, starting later this month.
When I spoke to Jasmine, she was sat in front of an impressive collection of Los Campesinos and Adrianne Lenker posters in Manchester – the city she transitioned in, the city she calls her home. She fondly told me about some earlier years, when certain performances in Bristol made a notable mark on her at a young age.
jasmine.4.t: “I went to WOMAD festival with my parents and I remember seeing Youssou N’Dour- an incredible singer. I also saw Salif Keita. A lot of really great West African music.’
“I also remember going to see Red Hot Chili Peppers, who I hate now, but loved as a teenager.”
Handstamp: A rite of passage.
jasmine.4.t: “[laughs] Yes I think so. I saw them at Hyde Park. Then I saw them on the tour they did with James Brown opening.”
Handstamp: Me too.
jasmine.4.t: “Really?! That was wild. Kind of the wrong way around.”
Handstamp: Yes, a strange time in his career to see James Brown. It really felt like they were carting him out, then he’d just say his name for 30 minutes while the band and dancers put in the work.
jasmine.4.t: “There was a guy whose job was to apply and remove James Brown’s cape. He’d put it over his shoulders then James Brown would shrug it off and start another verse.’
“I remember being on the phone to my best friend during the Chili Peppers, who was my ex-girlfriend and you could tell I was destined to be a lesbian, as I called her to tell her I loved her during “Under the Bridge”.
“But, yeah, I don’t remember a huge amount of my mid-teens because puberty was pretty traumatic for me. However, I remember playing in various bands, gigging around the Bristol circuit.”
Handstamp: What did your bands sound like?
jasmine.4.t: “My friends and I started a pop-punk band called The Gnarwhals, who would play Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 covers at BBQs and birthday parties. Then it developed into a parody, frat-boy-drag kind of thing. We released our first album on Howling Owl Records, who were a fairly influential Bristol label. So, we’d play a lot of their shows.”
Handstamp: What other known venues would you play?
jasmine.4.t: “Mother’s Ruin, The Louisiana and then bigger shows at Thekla, which is kind of fucking crazy because we’re headlining Thekla in November and I can’t get my head around that, because that’s when all the BIG bands played.’
“In our most recent headline tour, we sold out The Deaf Institute in Manchester and that was the first time it really sunk in how well this thing is going. I know what THAT means, because it’s here in Manchester.’
“Anyway, I started a record label called Breakfast Records with two of my friends, who are in the band Langkamer. So, I have a lot of memories of that era, putting shows on in pubs, doing everything in a DIY way.’
“There was great music around; Kate Stapley, Emily Isherwood and I remember seeing Clara Mann back then too.”
Handstamp: Friend of Handstamp, Clara Mann! I wanted to go back and appease your Chili Pepper shame, by telling you I was in a quasi-cover band when I was in my early teens. We even played in an assembly, to kids who had no interest in hearing “Around the World”.
jasmine.4.t: “[laughs] We played “Can’t Stop” in an assembly!”
Handstamp: By the way, were you aware that bands are selling out clubs in London, just covering the Tony Hawk soundtrack?
jasmine.4.t: “No way?!”
Handstamp: You’re doing too well to consider it a missed opportunity, but that option was always there for you.
jasmine.4.t: “Well, we HAVE found ways to include songs from the soundtrack into jasmine.4.t sets. I love playing covers, we did “Toxicity” at SXSW in Austin. There’s a video of it on YouTube.”
Handstamp: Now, that is a bold one to take on. Brilliant.
jasmine.4.t: “Yeah, Julien (Baker) joined us for that and “Skin on Skin”. Great moment.”
Handstamp: So, you’ve mentioned how much Manchester means to you and how the people there helped you through a tough time. Did you find solace in some of the local arts community?
jasmine.4.t: “I don’t think it was the arts community, I just think it was the queers. It was a very rocky time. I spent a lot of time with people in the arts community who didn’t serve me and in fact set me back quite a lot, in terms of my self-esteem. But I also met my chosen family and all the trans people who live on the streets around me. Thanks to those people, I felt really held.’
“I spent a lot of time in various squats and found home with that community. We even filmed a very early music video in one of the squats. In that music video, it’s just a live performance and then my friend puts a collar on me, force-feeds me estrogen from an Orangina bottle. That was my IRL first estrogen pill.”
Handstamp: What a moment to capture. Can fans still watch that video?
jasmine.4.t: “If they look hard enough, it’s on our website somewhere.”
Handstamp: Around that time, were you involved in much live performance in Manchester?
jasmine.4.t: “Lots of cabaret. There’s a great queer cabaret culture in Manchester. There’s a great one called Fatty Acid, which is run by a friend of mine called Vivienne, who was the first trans woman I met in Manchester. She is a big part of various organisations, including Just Do The Thing, which is a transfemme meet-up. I officially run their transfemme run club.’
“We also organised gig nights with all transfemme line-ups in a sweaty room, underneath a pub. I think we’re going to do another one of those.”
Handstamp: Did you form any musical relationships during that period?
jasmine.4.t: “I met Phoenix (Rousiamanis, band member), who is an incredible composer, violinist, pianist, songwriter and singer, at an Alex G concert in Manchester. We’d both been stood up by our besties and were the only two trans women there.”
Handstamp: What a nice happenstance.
jasmine.4.t: “Yeah! Then at the most recent Manchester show, we opened with a cover of “Bobby” by Alex G. So, it’s a nice full circle.”
Handstamp: Pressure question – which live shows have had the most significant impact on you?
jasmine.4.t: “The first one that comes to my mind is seeing Julien Baker live for the first time, at End of the Road festival, in 2017, maybe?”
Handstamp: If it was on the Garden Stage, I was also there!
jasmine.4.t: “Oh really? Wow. Then you know that it was just phenomenal, it was so raw and powerful, it felt like watching a fire burn or something. As a performer, I think about that show so often, in the hope that I can convey that type of honesty and rawness.’
“I remember seeing Phoebe Bridgers for the first time, when Lucy (Dacus) took me to her show at the Thekla, where they performed ‘Me & My Dog’ for the first time – big boygenius moment. I didn’t meet Phoebe that night, but obviously it was a significant night for many reasons.”
jasmine.4.t released her first studio album You Are The Morning earlier in 2025. Subscribe to Handstamp Substack for future interviews, follow @itshandstamp on social media and just bloody listen to Chief Springs on your chosen platform, will you? Illustrations by the excellent Alice Bowsher.