“Eventually the owner asked if I wanted to teach guitar,” says Jazmine. “I told him I could only play a few chords. He said – ‘just stay two pages ahead in the instruction book’. So I ended up with all these guitar students, some of whom were older than me. I had to keep ahead of them, so that’s how I learned to play.”
Jazmine’s first gig was at the Bunyip pub, where their parents first met each other. Jazmine was writing songs, self-described as “bad” and inspired by acts like John Butler Trio and Jack Johnson. Performing at the pub led to Jazmine’s first recording session.
“This guy came up and told me, ‘you’re amazing, I want to produce you’, which I wasn’t. He was only 20 or so, but I was still a teenager from a small town and it felt like a big deal. That was Scott Free from the rap group Speech Therapy and his studio was just in his bedroom at his mum’s house, but I recorded a part for one of their songs and he recorded some of my very bad folk songs.”
Jazmine’s entry into music was through noise music and performance art
In 2014 Jazmine followed a love interest to Aotearoa, intending to go back after a few weeks but remaining to this day. Jazmine’s entry into music was through noise music and performance art. One of their first ever performances in New Zealand was at experimental improv night Vitamin S, held at the Wine Cellar on K Road, Auckland. Jazmine became involved in the performance art scene, often folding audio elements into their pieces.
After a few years of moving between cities, Jazmine settled in Auckland in 2016 and enrolled at MAINZ, using freshly learnt sound engineering skills to drive a new musical project, Him. Jazmine used loop pedals and other effects to expand the sound of guitar and other instruments into a full soundscape.
Early songs such as ‘LUNG’ and ‘Touch Myself Swirling’ – both from the 2017 six-song Kangaroo Dreaming EP – had whispers of guitar laid over found sounds and other atmospheric noises, with barely audible lyrics, creating filmic, moody numbers that were hard to pin down. Jazmine now sees an element of insecurity in this musical approach.
“I was afraid, in my lyrics or my singing, so I thought that if I put it through distortion and layers of delay then no one would know what I’m on about.”
The following EP Kissing Girls At Night had even more of an ambient lean and was recorded during an artist residency in India.
“It was just an impulsive reaction to what was happening at that time. I had a microphone with me in India and then I ended up having a layover for 12 hours so I thought I’d release what I’d recorded. In those early years, I was still working in the dark, which can be a good thing. You’re unafraid to try something different. I don’t think I’d release something like that now.”
Him’s subsequent album, Snakes At Night (2019), moved back in the direction of popular music, with Jazmine’s singing raised in the mix and often combined with lush backing vocals. ‘Suicide Town’ took its inspiration from the fact that Jazmine’s mother had neighbours on either side who’d each committed suicide. The mood of the song was bittersweet and included a wistful saxophone part supplied by free-jazz musician Aaron Longville/Lovich, who also took part in the live shows (alongside other musicians including drummer Dorian Noval from Tooms and synth-player Saoirse Chapman).
Jazmine had actually written ‘Suicide Town’ during the retreat in India, but the first attempt at recording it was lost when their laptop was stolen and it was only saved through the encouragement of recording engineer Rohan Evans, who had recorded the album sessions at Wine Cellar (during the hours in which the bar was closed).
Jazmine dropped the artist name “Him” in favour of being known simply as Jazmine Mary
Not long afterwards, Jazmine dropped the artist name “Him” in favour of being known simply as Jazmine Mary. “It was just me coming into my own as a person and deciding to be a bit more honest. It’s an interesting process to learn your craft in front of a room full of people and work out who you are very visibly in public. I was just at a point where I felt like I could step out.”
The first Jazmine Mary single was ‘We Like To Party’ and, while the title might have sounded like a pop song lyric, the music cut against the upbeat sentiment, with its slow, maudlin piano line and sombre vocals.
“I was listening to a lot of pop music and hip hop. If you take away the music, the words are often about really sad stuff. ‘Money, money, money. In the club, in the club.’ That’s kind of devastating. It’s so fucking sad?”
After the 2020 Covid lockdowns Jazmine spent five days at Auckland’s Roundhead studio, and had to work fast. Jazmine invited a few other musicians to help out. A few years earlier, Jazmine had met Dave Khan when playing at the Wine Cellar alongside Reb Fountain (Khan is a regular member of her band) and discovered he was adept on a number of stringed instruments (viola, guitar, etc). At the other end of the spectrum was Peter Ruddell (keys) from noise rock acts Wax Chattels and Sulfate. Jazmine’s partner at the time, Courtney Rodgers, worked as a filmmaker and photographer, and learnt drums in order to be part of the band.
The album The Licking of A Tangerine (2021) was hard to pin down. For example, ‘Move Me’ started out like an indie folk song – with a repetitive guitar pattern and a lurching drumbeat – but then it suddenly picked up pace, gaining a jazzy sax lick and a warm accompaniment of strings. Jazmine sang “I want to be like pop music, I want to be appealing” and this new layering of musical elements showed that the sentiment wasn’t entirely tongue-in-cheek.
The Taite Awards recognised the singular vision of the album by naming it the “Best Independent Debut” in 2022. The release was also promoted through a nationwide tour supporting Reb Fountain.
For the next album, Jazmine ended up working in two different locations. “Peter Ruddell got some producer funding, so Peter and I worked at his studio. Then we did the rest at Sublime Studios [near Oamaru] with Peter, Dave and Courtney joining me as the band. Sublime is a location studio so you can play, eat and sleep there. No one had to go off to their jobs or to do their mundane stuff like grocery shopping. We could take more time without pressure and be really present. At a city studio I’m thinking ‘Oh, these cigarette breaks are costing me hundreds of bucks.’ … I mixed about 60% of that record, which was a new thing for me and a good exercise in trust.”
Dog was also a self-funded and released record. “If you look on the vinyl cover for that down the bottom it says ‘Funded by Emma the Embalmer’ which isn’t a label or anything, it’s my friend who loaned me the money to print the records, who works as an embalmer.”
Jazmine is wary of giving away too much about the meanings of individual songs
Jazmine declined to explain the album title Dog or the striking cover of them holding a fish overhead, and was also wary of giving away too much about the meanings of individual songs.
“When I’m making music, I’m just stumbling around in the dark, being intuitive. So I just let listeners do that too, then they can work out what a song means for them. Even if you write a piece with a certain meaning, then a few years later you can hear it again and it’ll be totally different – there’ll be a new weight in some words and other parts might feel much lighter. If you spoon-feed people, then you rip away their opportunity to find their own meaning in it.”
Nonetheless, some pieces of personal biography could be discerned in the lyrics of ‘Wet Mouth’: “Went to the city for a singing competition / cried the whole way there / thought I’d never get out / Alive / I’m from a small town / but I’ll take the romance out.”
The video shows Jazmine wearing a bold yellow suit while riding a motorcycle through the countryside, something they’d done as a youth. Jazmine’s previous videos had been collaborations with Courtney Rodgers, while in later years Jazmine teamed up with Sports Team’s Annabel Kean.
“The first one I did with Annabel was the video for ‘Seagull’. My friend had her 30th at Men of Steel, which is a male strip night. I asked two of the performers – ‘You boys want to be in a music video?’”
Jazmine found another new collaborator, Arahi, while on tour with Reb Fountain.
“Arahi lived in Hawke’s Bay and opened for Reb as well. We loosely kept in touch afterwards. During one phone call, it came up: ‘I have a spare room, you should move in.’ Once we were living together, we started messing around in the living room and suddenly booked a show at Wine Cellar so we had to write some songs to play.”
The pair formed alt-country act Pony Baby with songs that spread from the beautiful, meandering ‘I Think I’m Falling In Love’ through to other tracks with a stronger backbeat like ‘Steady Like A Train.’ Their self-titled album was nominated for Best Independent Debut at the following year’s Taite Awards.
In November 2023, Jazmine became part of Atomic – an all-star line-up of musicians who headlined at the Civic Theatre in Auckland covering the “pioneering women of rock”. Jazmine’s connection to the event came through Julia Deans, who had been the support for the Dog album release show. This had led Deans to suggest Jazmine for the Atomic line-up, alongside Boh Runga (Stellar*), Dianne Swann (The Bads, When the Cat’s Away), and Gussie Larkin (Mermaidens). The group went on to play more shows (sometimes with a slightly different line-up) including a memorable set at the Aotearoa Music Awards.
Jazmine also took part in a concert devoted to the songs of U2, meeting Jon Toogood (Shihad), which led to an extensive national tour as his support act.
Jazmine has been asked “Who writes your music?” as if there is a hidden composer
“It was great. It’s always nice to play for different people. Though there was one show where I was asked a couple of different times – ‘Who writes your music?’ It was as if they thought I must have a husband hiding somewhere who wrote all my songs.”
Jazmine’s next album, I Want To Rock And Roll (2024), began with sessions at Roundhead, then was completed at Jazmine’s own studio nearby. Once again Dave Khan provided viola and keys parts, while the rest of the band was filled out by new collaborators – Louisa Nicklin on bass/saxophone and Arahi on drums. There were also contributions from bassist Cass Basil (Tiny Ruins) and singer/cello player Cello Forrester (Womb).
The album showed a new openness to Jazmine’s music, with the darker lyrical passages balanced out by moments of melodic sweetness – as when the sparse verses of ‘My Brilliance’ opened out to double-time chorus with an upbeat keys line. Jazmine says the aim was simply to reach listeners more generously.
“It is learning to communicate more effectively musically. It’s like if you’re asking someone to do something differently and you shout at them, they’re not going to hear you. You have to say it in a way so they’re receptive. It’s the same with music. If you want people to feel it, then there needs to be a balance and a gentleness to the way you express yourself, otherwise people are just going to scurry away like scared little crabs.”
This approach didn’t limit Jazmine’s willingness to experiment with new sounds – a prime example being ‘Back of the Bar,’ on which the guitar was dampened with gaffer tape and then different takes were placed across the stereo spectrum to create a plinky, but full sound. The lyrics on the album drew from some dreadful experiences, but Jazmine remained wary of explaining too much about what a title like ‘Narcotics Anonymous Meeting’ might actually represent:
“When you hear that title, you probably think of the movie version of that experience, whereas the real life version is much darker. So a listener can just think – ‘Oh what a quirky song, there must be an interesting story behind it … I’m sure the police weren’t involved at all.’ That’s what art does – it can lighten and transcend reality. That’s what telling a story is all about, you can change and embellish the details. It’s not inauthentic not to tell the full truth.”
Telling a story, you can “embellish the details. It’s not inauthentic not to tell the full truth.”
The tragi-comic nature of the song ‘Memphis’ was another case in point. The narrator is clearly being soothed through a difficult experience while dark thoughts still pervade. Jazmine later explained on 95bFM that the song was inspired by having a breakdown at LynnMall and then having a massage from a woman who said (as the lyrics recount): “It’s okay, I know / I can see you now / you can just relax.” The meditation music playing in the background was offset by the sound of ‘Walking In Memphis’ being played at full blast in the JB Hi-Fi opposite. Even in this case, Jazmine believes there was an element of withholding.
“That story sounds whimsical and lovely, but I was actually hospital-level depressed. But then when it’s 10am and I’m talking on bFM and my friends might be listening, then there’s a responsibility to choose my words carefully. Everyone’s not your therapist and while music gives you an outlet and can provide an outlet for other people, they don’t need to know everything. Also, you’re giving people a lot when you share art, they have plenty, some shit is for me.”
I Want To Rock And Roll reached further than Jazmine’s previous albums partly due to it being distributed throughout the world through Flying Nun Records. Yet even with the support of this storied label, Jazmine continues to be driven by their musical intuition rather than any thought of where their career might go next.
“I just create for the sake of creating. There’s no big career ambition behind it. It’s more about what I want to try next. Like, lately I’ve been playing piano more, I’ll follow that. It’s true that there is more industry-stuff happening for me, but I just try to see that as the day-job side of things. You just have to write that boring email or whatever is needed and try to be nice, then get back to being an artist, because otherwise you’ll be miserable and die.”
