ABOUT
“I think one of the best things about reaching success as an artist is not only the power you hold to make an impact but also that you can collaborate with anyone who you admire; it’s just amazing and you learn so much.”
Jasmine Power is a Welsh Artist and Songwriter and one of today’s most uniquely engaging artists to emerge from the UK scene. Daughter of a Welsh sailor and an English musician, she was born in the Lake District, England. She recalls how both her parents influenced her through music; her father listened to Irish and Welsh folk songs along with old classics like The Beatles, Eva Cassidy and The Eagles, whilst her mother loved an eclectic range of music including jazz and classical. Her parents soon moved to West Wales where she grew up, involved in the local musical youth theatre, and participating in the jazz festival that her mother co-founded. Power is an artist with her own vision and sense of integrity. From the coastline in Wales, to life in London, South American adventures, and her trips to New York and Nashville, she still recalls those days of dreaming on her windowsill at home.
Jasmine’s first attention to singing came at the age of five when she attended a traditional Welsh primary school run by a head teacher who believed singing to be the most important lesson.
“I remember sitting and watching the choir on my first day at school. I listened in awe as they sang in the musical Welsh language. She soon threw me into the mix, and I quickly became fluent. It was compulsory singing every morning for the first hour!”
Jasmine bashed away at the piano from the moment she could reach it and began to learn duets with the girl next door. These duets soon turned into improvised piano pieces, and by the age of eleven she was playing all her own compositions. She used the piano and songwriting as an escape from the trials and tribulations of being a teenager; and formed a four-piece band with some local male friends. They played in local venues to an enthusiastic dancing crowd. By the time she began her studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, she had developed her skills on piano, voice and alto saxophone, having achieved Grade 8 in both instruments.
Jasmine released her debut EP Stories & Rhymes on vinyl and digitally early in 2016 while still training in jazz voice at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. The record quickly gained the attention and airplay of a number of highly respected UK selectors. The well-known BBC2 presenter Jamie Cullum stated there was "something beautifully British" about her album single 'Stories & Rhymes’, and referred to Jasmine as "a great new British singer with an excellent EP... Great songwriting, great voice and a unique sound". Gilles Peterson of Radio 6 called the album "great new emerging British Jazz” and said that Jasmine herself was “one to watch.”
“Travelling has always led to songs,” states Power. After graduating, she ventured to the North of Spain alone to walk 982km along the famous pilgrimage ‘El Camino de Santiago.’
Later that year, Jasmine spent three months in South America to complete the writing of her album.
“I felt stagnant in London and knew it was a chapter I needed to finish while I had the time and freedom, but you can only write through real life experience.”
She travelled to Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile and back to Colombia alone with a rucksack, pen and a notepad.
“Writing flows in the mountains. I hiked a lot of the Andes in Patagonia and songs would pour out of me like water, it’s something to do with motion I think and the fact there were guitars everywhere, even in the smallest of refugios!”
The South American tangos and Colombian rhythms infected her music with a renewed life force.
“It’s very exciting to have finally made my debut album, all those visions over the years, the travels, the different people I’ve encountered, the inspirations and life’s challenges, it’s all been drawn into this record. It feels cathartic, almost like letting go of a stage of my life and saying okay, I can move forward now, it’s time to grow into the next stage of womanhood.”
Having recently spent some productive time in New York and Nashville, getting to know other song writers and artists, she has now written and released a duet with cult American artist Amanda Palmer on behalf of the #MeToo movement. Jasmine states that she is also excited to collaborate with her favorite artists in future.
“I think one of the best things about reaching success as an artist is not only the power you hold to make an impact but also that you can collaborate with anyone who you admire; it’s just amazing and you learn so much.”
As she worked in the UK film industry throughout her studies and after, Jasmine has been focusing on learning how to direct film.
“My vision is so strong it’s sometimes too hard to get across, so I decided I should learn how to direct, and the only way to do this is to work on set. I love the buzz of a film set and can’t wait to create the videos for my album."
Growing up in the homeland of artists, poets and musicians including Dylan Thomas, Jasmine recognizes the inner power that her uniquely beautiful surroundings have given her. She credits the ocean and the rugged Welsh cliff tops for her inspiration and escape, and the best way to re-root herself.
“My home is such an earthy place, so raw, special and emotional, and I always feel most creative here. It’s like my secret oasis, my little piece of sanity in an insane world.”