ABOUT JASMINE

Jasmine Power is a Welsh artist and songwriter and one of today’s most uniquely engaging artists to emerge from the UK scene.  The daughter of a Welsh sailor and an English musician, she was born in the mountains of the Lake District. She recalls how both her parents influenced her through music; her father loved Irish and Welsh folk along with old classics like The Beatles, Eva Cassidy, and The Eagles and would regularly take her to Welsh folk nights. Her mother loved an eclectic range of music, including jazz, classical, and world music. Her parents soon moved to West Wales, where she grew up, involved in the local musical youth theatre, the classical choir, and the jazz festival that her mother co-founded. Coming from a family of two famous opera singers; her Swedish grandmother and Italian aunt—Jasmine has always been greatly inspired by opera and takes the art form of singing ‘properly’ very seriously.  Power is an artist with her own vision and sense of integrity. From the coastline in Wales, to life in London, El Camino de Santiago, South American adventures, and her move to Nashville, she still recalls those days of dreaming up songs on her countryside windowsill at home in the endless rain. 

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 composing and 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.” Robert Elms states something exceptionally fresh about Jasmine’s song ‘Stories & Rhymes.’ 

“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.’ “It was the beginning of a very intense and life changing spiritual journey.” Later that year, after receiving a check from radio, Jasmine spent three months in South America to complete the writing of her debut 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! I performed every night for people.” 

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 stories I have observed, the inspirations, the disappointments 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.” 

In 2018 Jasmine met the one and only Cult American Star Amanda Palmer at a dinner party while on a writing trip in Upstate New York and within three days Amanda invited her to collaborate. She co-wrote and co-sang a duet on behalf of the #MeToo movement called “Mr.Weinstein will see you now” which went on to garner global acclaim in major publications all around the world. Jasmine states “I love collaborating with great artists, I’m currently working with so many brilliant musicians and writers including Moses Boyd, Melissa Manchester, Dave Palmer, Laura Osnes and I feel so blessed… my dream collaborations would be with John Mayer and Kate Bush! 

“I think one of the best things about reaching success as an artist is that people want to work with you and you have the power to make even more of an impact when two talents come together in a room to create.”  

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." 

In recent years Power has been focusing on working as a songwriter for other artists, TV and film in Nashville, U.S and L.A. She spent the last few years back and forth before she made the big move in 2020. “It was an incredible experience while I was there… everything about the people and the place couldn’t be more different and I would never have written so many hundreds of songs if it wasn’t for Nashville and all the incredible writers I worked with, but I’m excited to have returned to the UK and that ‘British Humour’ that I longed for far too often!”Jasmine is now focusing on her artistry in the UK and is excited to get back on the stage with so much new music, while writing songs for others in London and for film and TV in LA. 

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.”