DJ, producer, label boss, and linchpin of the Glasgow jazz scene, Rebecca Vasmant has had a busy few years since the release of her album With Love, from Glasgow. The follow up, Who We Are, Becoming, sees a more expansive sound as well as Vasmant taking the mic for the first time.
When I heard With Love, from Glasgow my first thought was I want to hear this in a club. This one, I want in a stone circle, in a festival, with the sun coming up.
Yes. Love that, love that. I think it’s been a natural progression from the first album to this album in terms of me coming into my own as a producer and building my confidence; and also because me and the musicians from the first album, we’ve become like family because we’ve formed the band and we’ve been touring together. It’s much more structured in terms of the way that you would classically make song structures. And that’s what I wanted to be able to do, because I’m not a musician, I’m not musically trained. I really wanted to make an album that was halfway between me as a DJ and me as a producer who makes live music.
It feels a lot more personal, too. How has it been, putting yourself a bit more forward like that?
It’s been scary. It’s been healing. It’s still scary, but it’s still healing. I think it’s quite a vulnerable place to be putting yourself out there on your music so much. All the lyrics and all the messaging of the album was done before any of the music was written. So there was a real intention with what the album was going to be about and what message it was going to portray. I wanted to show other people that it’s okay to struggle with accepting yourself, it’s all part of the journey. Everyone struggles with accepting themselves. Everyone has these moments where you’re just like, who even am I? Why am I doing anything I’m doing? I just wanted to talk about the struggle a bit and how to get to the next point. And it’s always a journey, but it’s about getting to the next point.
I’m a firm believer, in my everyday life, of going beyond our comfort zone – where we’re not comfortable is what grows us as people. Back when I was 22 and I scored my Ministry of Sound residency, and I got sent on tour in India, I’d never even got on a flight before. But it was like, hey, get on a flight for the first time. Oh, but you have to go on a five-city tour of India. That really grew me as a person.
Glasgow’s got a very healthy jazz scene and you’re very much an influence in that happening. How has that changed?
It’s for sure at an all-time high right now: you’ve got the Mercury nominations for people like corto.alto and Fergus McCreadie, and people like Georgia Cécile, who’s moved to London and is now an internationally famous jazz singer who plays all over the world.
I remember sitting down and having a conversation with one of the bookers of Glasgow Jazz Festival 10 years ago and we were just like: how can we make it better? How can we make the worldwide media see that Glasgow’s got something special going on? It’s been a combination of promoters, musicians, and press having talked about it and we’re now at a point where people are talking about Glasgow. And you know, I’m now at a point where they’re calling me up saying, hey, who can we book for our festival? And I think it’s because we’re so collaborative, we’re so DIY. At the time there was no strong young jazz scene. So we just did it for ourselves.
You know, I was pushing jazz and my DJ sets. Liam [Shortall, corto.alto] started doing his video series on YouTube. Georgia Cécile started travelling and doing her stuff. I feel like it’s very much a team and we’ve all been part of it. It was an active, constant discussion between all of us. How can we make this better? We talked about it regularly. We got to know each other and it’s been a conscious thing, not accidental.
We’ve been trying to do this for a number of years and it’s beautiful that it’s now come together and everyone is successful in their own right, because they all deserve it. We’re a team. What is again? People Make Glasgow. That’s the one.
You’re now running your own label. Is there a bit of a sense of seeing this opportunity and getting it?
The reason I started the label was in order to give a platform to people who might not otherwise get signed to labels, because it’s quite hard for artists to get signed unless they already have a profile. We’re doing things like helping artists with their funding applications – we really want to be some part of helping the scene, because it’s important to me and I’m really passionate about not just doing my thing and leaving it there. Doing the record label was a real, concrete way to do that.
Who We Are, Becoming is out on 9th May via Women in Jazz/New Soil
Album launch will be at the Queen’s Park Spring Weekender, Glasgow, on 3rd of May. Tickets here.
Image Credits: Ellie Koepke
