Phoebe Bridgers’ record label has announced singer-songwriter jasmine.4.t as its first UK signee – listen to her single ‘Skin On Skin’, produced by Boygenius, here.
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Manchester-based Jasmine is Saddest Factory Records’ first signing from the UK, and the signing came about after a support slot with Bridgers’ Boygenius bandmate Lucy Dacus.
She shared ‘Skin On Skin’ on social media earlier today (July 16), and said: “I can’t believe this is finally out in the world, it’s one that I wrote early in my transition about T4T [trans for trans] love and it’s a dream come true to have @julienrbaker’s solos on it, as well as her, @phoebebridgers and @lucydacus producing, and my trans comrades @_eobr, @vixens_diary and Bobby Gruska performing alongside me with @phoenix_rousiamanis on spiritual guidance!”
Saddest Factory shared a post, too, writing, “Classic first day mistake, our new employee @Jasmine.4.t forgot her badge. Check out her new single, “Skin on Skin,” to soothe the burn of not being able to get into the building tomorrow morning!”
Jasmine began playing the guitar after her late uncle gave her his instrument, and she began playing in “silly skate punk bands” and releasing material on Breakfast Records, a label she co-founded with friends.
She was going to release her new music on her own, too, but decided to submit demos to Saddest Factory Records after touring with Dacus. Jasmine recalls Dacus telling her, “‘Okay, I just played your demos for Phoebe in the car. She’s on the phone to her manager, trying to work out how she can sign you.’”
Jasmine uses her platform to speak up for transgender rights and other marginalised communities, and said, “Being signed by Phoebe Bridgers is immediately going to open me up to a wider audience. I take it seriously, just to be a visible trans woman role model in music, because there aren’t that many, and there should be more.”
Bridgers announced Saddest Factory Records in October 2020, explaining that she was working with the independent record label Dead Oceans. Claud became the first signing later that month, while perhaps the best-known signing on the label are indie-pop trio MUNA, who signed to the label in May 2021.
In November 2022, MUNA told NME about the creative freedom they get on the label. Guitarist Naomi McPherson said that, at an independent label, “You’re more likely to find people who you align with in terms of taste. You’re maybe less likely to find those people in a more, like, large corporate structure. That’s not to say those [major label] people don’t care about art, but they just might not have the same taste.”
They shared that they were dropped by their previous label, RCA, for “not making enough money,” and that it’s “easier in certain ways” to work with independent labels, which give them a “lot of creative freedom”.