UK’s rising superstar, Jasmine Thompson, is taking the US by a storm after catching international attention.
At only 14 years old, theย London-based singer/songwriter has received over 420 million views onย YouTube with over 1.7 million subscribers. Her collaboration with Felix Jaehn for “Ain’t Nobody” has amassed over 100 million views alone.
Signed toย Atlantic Records, Jasmine just released her debut Adore EP along with a music video. She has been writing withย Jesse Shatkin (Sia, Kelly Clarkson), Amy Wadge (Ed Sheeran), Josh Grant & Scott Harris (Shawn Mendes), and Emily Warren (Jessie J). Currently, Thompson is flying between LA and New York working on new music, as well as meeting her fans. The Knockturnal had the pleasure of speaking one on one with Jasmine on her upcoming journey, read our exclusive interview below:
Can you reflect on your success on “Ainโt Nobody” with Felix Jaehn?
Iโm so happy with the success so far. Itโs insane because when I first recorded it, I was 12. It was incredible because I didnโt expect this much to happen, it was just a normal cover to be put on my Youtube channel and then a DJ, Felix Jaehn, found it and he remixed it and we became really good friends, thatโs another thing Iโm really happy about because through that song I made a really good friend. After a year of knowing Felix, we released the song as a single and I go to Germany a lot, because it was number one for like eight weeks and they were really lovely, really supportive, really kind and yeah, everythingโs just been going so well.
Tell us about your “Adore” music video.
It was so fun to film because it was my first ever proper music video. We went all the way to L.A. and there was a massive crew. It was really fun, it was more like a visual interpretation of the song, there wasnโt really a storyline to the music video it was more of just beautiful shots of the house. The song is kind of my love song to music, so it didnโt really seem right to have a relationship towards it, we didnโt really want to put a boy and girl in the music video because it was just about me and music really.
Can you give us a track by track break down of your new EP?
“Adore” is about me and my relationship with music, the lyric in the chorus is โI adored you before I laid my eyes on youโ and thatโs how I feel about music because it was something that was always there for me before I knew it was something I could do as a full time job.
“Great Escape” is about going on this amazing journey. For me itโs music, thereโs a lot of people (because my familyโs based in the UK) and going and traveling all the time and spending three weeks in the states and then going over to Germany and all of this stuff. A lot of time I donโt see my family and my friends as much as I would love to but I keep in touch with them, itโs saying to someone who is depressed and not in best place to try and get better … asking them to show that they’re ok so you can take them along with you.
“Crystal Heart” is about wanting to open up to someone, telling them that youโre too shy, you want to trust them, but youโre too scared about them breaking your heart.
“Do It Now” is about not being scared ofย the past. In life, itโs really important to not live in the past and to not live in the future, itโs to live in the present. If you look in the past itโs like constantly looking in the rear view mirror in the car, and eventually youโre going to crash into something in front of you, itโs like you need to keep moving on from the past and get over stuff.
“Let Myself Try” is pretty explanatory, itโs about letting yourself try really. Itโs about being open to new things, it’s about not being scared of failure and accepting that failure is a massive part in life, itโs how you learn from things, itโs about how you improve yourself.
Tell us about your songwriting creative process.ย
It was so fun. I had so much fun writing with all of these different people. Music for me is a really important thing to share with other people, especially when writing the song because it makes it that much more important because you remember it more, because youโve made a connection with someone else. When writing the song, Iโd walk in the session and say today Iโm feeling slightly down about this and then they would be like I had a similar experience, and then at the end of the day, you know so much more about that person youโre writing with. The creative process of writing the EP was really fun.
You got your start on you Youtube. What’s yourย relationshipย with youtube now and yourย viewers/fans?
I try and upload videos as much as I can. Iโm always going to try to post on Youtube because it was my home. Some of the followers on Youtube have been following me since I was 10 years old and theyโve watched me grow up and change artistically as a person. I talk to them everyday. I talk to my followers on twitter as much as I can. I have conversations – whenever Iโm in Germany Iโm like, โHey! Come meet me after the shows!โ I did a tour with Ella Eyre and every day after the end of the show weโd always go over to the merchandise store and Iโd meet as many people as I could. I take photos and I’d hug them, I love meeting my followers, itโs like a second family really.
Who would you like to work with?
I would absolutely love to work with Ed Sheeran. I think heโs incredible. I love his voice and his music. I bumped into him backstage at a show once and he is such an amazing person. Heโs so cool. He didnโt know who I was, he still treated me like he would treat anyone else. He was so loving and kind. ย He’s really awesome.
Who are your style icons and fashion influences?
I love Cara Delevingne, I think sheโs incredible. I love Gigi Hadid, Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner, all of those people. Itโs great that Kendallโs been taking a step into fashion. They’re over in Paris doing Paris Fashion Week. At the moment, I do spent a lot of time on music, I donโt have that much time to go shopping but when I do I always go to like H&M or Topshop because I live really close to Oxford Street and so itโs kind of hard to not go straight there and spend tons of money on clothes … I try and get cheap clothes as much as I can.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I hope to be touring around the world. I havenโt done any live performances live here in the US before so I really hope to do some live performances here and hopefully an album will be out. Iโll just keep doing music for the rest of my life really, traveling around and meeting new people, singing, performing, all of this stuff …ย Iโm experimenting with so many styles of music and I like that. I like having more than one style because it allows me to reach different people, it allows me to have a broad audience with different music and different styles and different appreciation for different paths basically.
Jasmine’sย Debut EP Adore is available now.
Photo Credit: Dante Marshall
