“Change is so important and amazing, everyone should be free to do it”: Inside the duality of Jazmin Bean's new single, Silvering Blade

Jazmin Bean’s latest single Silvering Blade has just dropped, and alongside previous single Darling is ushering in a new era for the sonic shapeshifter. Their new music is quietly defiant, with the non-binary artist baring their teeth above a beautifully ethereal piano melody. Having grown up and evolved in the public eye, going from an edgy alt. teenager pushing the envelope with astounding make-up looks and a sinister aesthetic to a more mature and self-aware adult, the musical journey of Jazmin Bean is already becoming one of great intrigue and interest. So what has brought on this latest shift?

What is Silvering Blade about?
“Silvering Blade is about the complexity of being me. In many ways, I feel like it’s the kind of song where I would listen to it when I'm in that look, and I'm walking down the street, and I'm really hyping myself up, but it also reflects on the contrast from what people see on the other side. It’s those very ugly moments where you think, ‘God, if a single fan saw this, it would be so over’, so it's also about the contrast of those two things. I really wanted to make a song that was empowering for people and a bit of a strut song. I always love to listen to music when I'm walking down the street in that look, and I feel really good and I know the day is going to be good, and I wanted a song for that moment.”

What’s brought on this new, softer sound across both this and previous single Darling?
“I feel like I'm always changing depending on where I'm going. I haven't made such hard music as Worldwide Torture in so many years. It’s almost a decade, and people don't realise that I haven't been doing that, or that I was 16 at the time, but I still love that record, I love my previous records. But people really, really cling on to that one album.

“I think at this time, I was just doing a lot of reflecting, and a lot of the music I was listening to was softer. It felt really natural and easy for me in the studio to do that. I didn't feel like I had to go in and put pressure on making this up-tempo thing. At the time that I was writing this record, I was going through a lot and realising a lot, so I felt really safe to just go in and express myself with a kind of slowness. I really hope that people will be able to appreciate it and adapt to that, and I hope people enjoy it. There's been a lot of conflict about, ‘Why are you changing? We don't want it’, but I don't care, really. I think that change is so important and amazing. I think that everyone should be free to do it. I'm not sure why there is such a backlash against it.”

What were you going through during the recording of these songs?
“I was going through struggles with addiction, I was going through struggles with a break-up that really hurt me, going through struggles with the relationship with my dad, and all of those things came to a boiling point. I didn't feel like I could put on this persona of, ‘I'm the queen of the world’, but it felt really safe to get in the studio and show the more vulnerable or uglier parts of myself.

“It was basically just therapy for me writing this album. Maybe that may sound boring to some people, but I really found this album helped me so much. Some of the days that I went to record these songs were just the worst days of my life. And I thought that as long as I just make it to the studio, and just make this song, it's gonna be a good day. With everything that I was going through in that week or day, I could just get to the studio and combine my thoughts there. But I also think that there are so many love songs on it. It's pure emotion, this record, but I feel like it's a lot less blamesome. So honestly, it's really just a huge diary entry.”

Was this song aimed at anybody, or a more personal piece written to yourself?
“It was purely for myself. The lyrics from songs around this time include imagery of times I would get really glammed up, and I would have my day set out to go out and see friends and have a good day. Maybe someone would notice me and I'd take a picture, and then I’d find myself on the way back home, dishevelled and crying, simply someone catching me at a wrong moment.

“In the lyrics, for example, ‘once was delicious, but now I'm just vicious’, once I was something really good and great, and now I'm this broken person, but then the song still jumps into the c*ntiness and the positivity of the music behind it. I think it's a necessary juxtaposition because, to me, that feeling has always been very complex. And of course, I would love to make songs that say I'm the best ever and I'm a bad bitch, but sometimes there is a duality of both of those worlds. And I really wanted to try and find the best way to kind of include that because I think everywhere, especially in music, there is that juxtaposition.”

Should we be expecting a more mature version of Jazmin Bean on the new record?
“I would say so for sure. I think I'm able to reflect on my experiences with a bit more awareness and accountability. When you enter your adult life, you get a bit more awareness about things. It's not so much about, ‘You hurt me, you hurt me!’, it's more a reflection of all of the points involved, which sometimes includes me, I did not do the best job myself. And I think it's important to show that to people.”

Read this next:

• Jazmin Bean: “I don’t think this is a healed album, or a wounded one. It’s a healing album”
• Album review: Jazmin Bean – Traumatic Livelihood
  
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