[music]

Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. It is time for an All Of It listening party with R&B songstress, Yazmin Lacey, who recently released her debut full-length album, Voice Notes. Let's listen to part of one of the songs featured on the album, this is titled, Where Did You Go?

[music- Where Did You Go?]

Never meant to disappear

But it's so long and I got scared

Emotions ruled in me, f

Feels like I'm drowned beneath huge waves

Into fire meant to silent me

And it's covered in chaos

Alison Stewart: The 14-track project follows up her 2020 EP Morning Matters and expands on the artist sound, incorporating influences of the '70s and '80s soul as well as Jazz. A Bandcamp review said, "In the end, Voice Notes functions as a kind of blueprint, encouraging light self-examination, and sharing in the journey toward peace of mind."

Yazmin Lacey joins us now for an All Of It listening party for her debut album, which is out now. Yazmin, welcome.

Yazmin Lacey: Hi, thanks for having me. How are you?

Alison Stewart: I'm well, thank you. Voice Notes, just to be clear, we're talking about the voice notes on your phone, correct?

Yazmin Lacey: We are. I started a lot of the songs like that, but it's also voice notes are just my first reaction to something that's going on in my life. My first note to self, all of those kinds of things really.

Alison Stewart: Do you use your voice notes as a writing tool? Is it a journaling tool? Is it just when something pops in your head?

Yazmin Lacey: Yes, I do use my voice notes like that, mainly because my memory is so bad, but it's really good for me to just be able to get the idea down immediately. I can't read or write music, so humming things and layering the humming is just like a really quick way to get an idea down for me and leaving lots of little messages for the producers via voice notes.

Alison Stewart: When you're talking about your voice notes, it's not just lyrics, it's also tunes and notes that are coming to you? Sounds.

Yazmin Lacey: Yes, sometimes.

Alison Stewart: In the introduction out to the album, you referenced Flying Lotus's tweet about self-consciousness is the creativity killer. Let's listen to part of that first track Flylo tweet and we can talk about it on the other side.

Yazmin Lacey: Okay.

[music]

Yazmin Lacey: I saw this tweet from Flylo, it was like a few years ago now. He said in the tweet self-consciousness is the creativity killer and that just rested with me so heavy. I just thought, this is it. If you're going to do these things, you have to open up yourself, but it's scary. Making yourself vulnerable is scary, because I think you have to get really comfortable with the fact that like, if you take risks and stuff, and if you choose to expose yourself, there's risks there and sometimes you might fail.

In fact, you will fail at some point, but the risks when they pay off, they're really high. I don't mean that necessarily about music, I just mean in life like choosing yourself, banking on yourself kind of thing. This has been a crazy, crazy process.

Alison Stewart: I have a lot of questions. First of all, the music track underneath it. Tell us a little bit about that and that choice.

Yazmin Lacey: I remember as I'm driving into the studio in the morning, and I said to Melo-Zed, who's one of the producers that worked on the album. I was like, "Yo, listen, I've got this idea and I'm just going to--" It was like a voice note to him. We'd had that conversation and I said, "I hear it like this." I was like, "Let's go here." I hummed it out to him, but it's just a replica of how it sounds sometimes inside my head, like all these thoughts going around and we just wanted to recreate that. Just like some people could feel what it's like before my creative process starts or something.

Alison Stewart: You cover a lot of territory just in that 56 seconds about fear, about vulnerability. How did you eventually get to a place where you felt okay being really vulnerable on this record and not being frightened of being vulnerable?

Yazmin Lacey: At first, I was really frightened and I didn't really make much music when I was-- I think that's when you start considering what everyone else is going to think about it. Music at the essence of it for me is just self-expression. When I tuned back into that I was like, "I know where I am now." I just started letting things go. It is scary letting all these personal things out, but at the time when you're making them, you're not really thinking about that. It's only when it ended and we were like, "Okay, it's out tomorrow." I thought, "Oh my goodness, everyone's going to hear it."

[laughter]

Alison Stewart: What was something you always knew you wanted to do on your first full-length album? That thing you've just been holding onto, you said, "When I get to make a debut album, this is going to be part of that process."

Yazmin Lacey: I knew I wanted it to be a-- I think the only thing that I was definite about was I want there to be a skit on there. I love those on other records, those little sound bites that helped tell the story. I think that's why I chose to start it with Flylo's speech. That's the only thing I was really open with myself. I just let myself make whatever, and I kept the ones that felt like they resonated and I left the ones that didn't.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Yazmin Lacey. The name of the album is Voice Notes. There's a song in the album, Bad Company, and it mentions your stage alter ego, Priscilla. This one I got that Priscilla girl, she’s got the best of me. Who's Priscilla? How would you describe Priscilla?

Yazmin Lacey: Priscilla is, she's like my inner dialogue, all my stream of consciousness and she's like the extremes of my emotions. You could call it your ego, you could call it your shadow self, whatever you want to call it. I just made her into a character and mine is called Priscilla.

Alison Stewart: In the song Bad Company, how does she fit in? How does Priscilla fit into the song Bad Company? We're going to hear a little bit of it.

Yazmin Lacey: I just describe my relationship with her as sometimes being really close, sometimes being really distant, sometimes she's really comforting, and sometimes she's my worst enemy, so that's her.

Alison Stewart: Here's Bad Company from Yazmin Lacey.

[music- Bad Company]

I woke up with my head lay on Priscilla’s lap,

and yes it’s been a while

she’s noticed that I ain’t been smiling

How did she find the key to my place,

cause I went militant the last time she left

She's kinda my old, old friend,

maybe an acquaintance, sometimes neighbours

Really! I don’t know what she wants this time

I suppose it’s nice to have company

when I flashback in time

I woke with a demon on my shoulder

And she’s smoking all my weed

Before we went to shoot

she told me she’s much prettier than me

I hink I’m flirting with bad company

Alison Stewart: That's Bad Company from Yazmin Lacey's new album, Voice Notes. Since 2017, you've released three EPs, and your last project, Morning Mood and Own Your Own, became two of your most streamed on Spotify. [crosstalk] 18 million and 3 million streams respectively. That's pretty cool. When you think about, "Okay, now we're in 2023," and that time, that six years, what do you notice has changed about your voice and your style or what's evolved in those six years?

Yazmin Lacey: I think in the six years, I never really set out to go into music, so I feel like I'm ever evolving and changing and growing in front of everybody, really. Lots of things have changed. I feel a little bit less shy about being on stage. I feel like-- What else has changed? Just expanding really in the things I want to make, the kind of way I can deliver a song and I just hope to be still ever-changing.

Alison Stewart: I want to ask you about that. What were you doing before you started making music?

Yazmin Lacey: I was a youth worker. I was working with young people sometimes in the arts and sometimes just in after school club kind of sector. That's what I was doing before.

Alison Stewart: I know. We were doing some research, we were looking for interviews of you, and we actually found an interview of you as a youth counselor. I was like, "Oh, this is really interesting to see you as a full-grown person doing one thing and then listening to your debut record."

Yazmin Lacey: [laughs] I forgot that stuff was there, to be honest.

[laughter]

Alison Stewart: What led you to decide, "You know what? I think I'm going to try music full-time. I'm going to give it a shot. I'm going to give it a go."

Yazmin Lacey: I just always felt like I'd just be easy with it. I had a couple of gigs and I was really enjoying them. I put out the first record and I thought that was fun and I just felt I'll just go with it for wherever it takes me. More gigs came, which meant I couldn't keep up doing both. That was when I made the transition.

Alison Stewart: There's always a moment when you think, "Oh, this is going to work." What was your moment you thought, "Oh, this music thing really might work."

Yazmin Lacey: [laughs] Honestly, I just don't. I just don't. I think if I thought about whether it was going to work or not, it would scare me so much, I wouldn't do anything. I'm just enjoying it for what it is where I am at now and just enjoying the creative process.

Alison Stewart: It's one of these old-school questions, but it's an interesting one. Who are your influences? Who did you listen to coming up that really inspired you?

Yazmin Lacey: I listen to a lot of British, people like Soul II Soul big influence on me like Sade. I love Erica Badu. I love Jill Scott. That whole Soul Clearing vibe was really influential on me. I listen to a lot of reggae and dub in my family are Caribbean, so that was a big influence as well. People like Sister Nancy and Dennis Brown. Lots of souls. Curtis Mayfield, Aretha Franklin, just varied stuff really. I've always been a lover of musical radio, so I suppose just storytelling and music just is those two things that have inspired me.

Alison Stewart: That would be a good playlist you just rattled off. I like that.

Yazmin Lacey: It would be a good playlist.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Yazmin Lacey. The name of the new album is Voice Notes. This is an All Of It Listening Party. Let's listen to another track. This is From A Lover. Your co-writer and this is Z Kyan Elliot. Can you tell us a little more about working with Z? I think the first name is Zachary.

Yazmin Lacey: Yes. Zack is a great friend of mine, amazing producer named Melo-Zed, who has his own work as well. I found his music on a compilation years ago when I first started making music and we'd always said like on the internet, "Oh, yes, we should link up and we should connect," and all that kind of stuff and it never really came. One of us was busy at one time, and then I felt a bit nervous because I don't really do just sessions of anybody.

I think just before or just when I started making the album was our first session and it was great and I love making music with him. It's just really fun and really open. It's been a great process to write a lot of stuff with him.

Alison Stewart: Let's hear From a Lover from Yazmin Lacey.

[music- From A Lover]

From a lover To a lover

From a lover To a lover

From a lover To a lover

From a lover, Broken promises,

Many lessons learned in love (desires)

supersonic, like it’s overflowing

Treat me like I’m yours

Bittersweet the taste of me and you

It feels electric-

Alison Stewart: That's From A Lover from Yazmin Lacey. Can you talk a little bit about the instrumentation on that track? It's really interesting. It's a little different than the rest of the record.

Yazmin Lacey: Me and Zack are lovers of, we Love Lovers rock basically. We were listening to a lot of that and we just started playing around with stuff really. Then Dave Okumu has sprinkled some of his magic on it and walked it a little bit as well. We just started messing around. I had the lyrics already in the morning and I was on my way to a studio. We always just have this little morning chats. They're like, "Hey, this is what I think. This is what I'm hearing, a lovers rock kind of vibe for this," and he was like, "Say less." We got in the studio, and that was that.

Alison Stewart: How long did it take to make this record?

Yazmin Lacey: It took absolutely forever. It took so long. I am that kind of person where it's just like I can't just go to the studio every day and be like, "I'm going to write. I'm going to write. I'm going to write and I'm going to write a song today. I'm going to write the album today." It just didn't work like that for me. This is a collection of songs that have sat beside different situations in my life over the last three years. I've just been writing as I've gone on experiencing things really so quite a long time but not every day.

Alison Stewart: What was the first track that you actually recorded for the album?

Yazmin Lacey: That's so interesting. I think it was Pass it Back.

Alison Stewart: Why was that?

Yazmin Lacey: Pass it Back is about letting go of stuff that you don't need to hold in your system anymore. I suppose it just made sense to me to let those that before I started writing the record. I don't know why. It just came first.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Yazmin Lacey, The name of the album is Voice Notes. We're having an All Of It Listening Party. Let's listen to another track from the album. This is the seventh track called Match in My Pocket. This also came from conversations with friends. Who were you talking to? What were you talking about that led to this song?

Yazmin Lacey: We were talking about the state of the world. We were talking about how proud we are to be Black and what that means for us to exist in society. There's just a lot of love there. It's like a love letter to resistance and just shine some light on some of the conversations that I've had with my friends. It just felt like a really empowering one to write.

Alison Stewart: Let's hear Match in My Pocket from Yazmin Lacey.

[music- Match in my Pocket]

I smell a faint scent of smoke in the air

Like a match just been struck heavy like my ancestors near

No longer infatuated with the despair,

Here’s my love letter to resistance,

Hope I translate this clear

Blueprint in my bones and pride in my spine

Pass me a match let me set this alight

There's a match in my pocket

We're gonna watch it burn

When the world is on fire

were gonna watch it burn

Alison Stewart: That's Match in my Pocket from Yazmin Lacey. The new album is called Voice Notes. Is there a song on this album-- There's 14. Is there one that almost didn't make it?

Yazmin Lacey: I wasn't sure about putting Pieces on there, actually. I was like, I'd written a lot of it already and Pieces is about a breakup and that happened in the middle of it. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to put that into the thing, but it made sense in there. It made sense in the album, and I'm really glad that we did because it's a special one.

Alison Stewart: Can you describe the sequencing of the album and what went into the sequencing, your choice of how the songs would reveal themselves to the listener?

Yazmin Lacey: At first, I definitely just made loads of music. I really didn't want to limit by figuring, "Oh, we've got this one so we can't have this or this wouldn't go." I made lots of stuff and then I looked at what was the most important stories to tell from the past three years for me. I also looked at which order they came in in terms of life experience, which scenario led on to which scenario, which scenario led to which scenario.

Alison Stewart: What's something from this experience of putting together your debut album that you think will be useful to you in the future on your next album and the one after that and the one after that?

Yazmin Lacey: Oh, gosh, there's so much that I have learned. I think that to take some risks, I've learned definitely to do that. I found the musicians that I really love working with, which is really important in finding your little community. I'll definitely take that forward into music, to come in the future, and also just to enjoy it. The process really is the album. Once you've done it and you put it out there, you put it out there for everyone else in the world, the making of the album, and the process is the album bit for me. Everything else after that that comes as a bonus. I think that's what I've learned to just really enjoy that process.

Alison Stewart: I want to let people know that you'll be at Soho House on March 19th so they can hear the process here in New York City. The name of the album is Voice Notes. It's from Yazmin Lacey. Yazmin we're going to go out on that song that almost didn't make the record and we're so glad it did.

Yazmin Lacey: Thanks for having me.

Alison Stewart: Here is Pieces.

[music- Pieces]

When we first met all I thought I needed love & to be loved by you

But there’s something else that I’m seeking outside you.

Cause there are still pieces missing of me

Could they have fell through the cracks when we became complete

And I thought it’d be different I did

Never ever thought I’d know a love like this

Forever grateful that you flipped the script

Thought it’d be different, I did

Never ever thought I’d know a love like this

As you changed the narrative

Take all the pieces of me that you fell in love with

 

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