Biography

JAZMINE MARY Jazmine Mary is the 2022 winner of the Auckland Live Best Independent Debut award. Recently they have opened in New Zealand for Kurt Vile, Billy Bragg, Gang Of Youths, and toured the country in support of Reb Fountain. They make music not to earn a living, but to survive, and it’s through their songwriting that Jazmine Mary feels tethered to something tangible, a constant. It’s the action of translating their experiences into poetic folk compositions that helps in “understanding parts of the beauty and ugliness of the world”, and which might help listeners do so too. On their second album as Jazmine Mary, the Auckland Live Best Independent Debut award winner has created an unlikely space for despair and joy to cohabit. Far more than gut-punch poetry and dark truths, Jazmine Mary flaunts their penchant for finding hopefulness in an oft cruel world. Your new best friend. The neighbour’s kind-eyed bitzer. An adolescent pup that hasn’t yet learned not to bite. This album has nothing to do with dogs. “These beguiling, transportive songs will have me coming back to this album for a long time” - Tony Stamp, RNZ (on The Licking Of A Tangerine) “[Jazmine Mary] was born to sing, and had no choice – so pushes past a wall of introversion to do so. And the world is much better off for [them] doing so! I’ll be watching this star’s rising.” - Rob Harbers, Ambient Light Blog