Up & Coming New Nashville- Jasmine Rae (With Exclusive Interview)

That Nashville Sound heads down under to Australia for this week’s Up & Coming New Nashville column and features one of Australia’s top new young talents- Jasmine Rae.

At just twenty years old, Jasmine Rae is a brand new talent with a very exciting future, following her huge win at the 2008 Telstra Road To Tamworth in January. She’s quirky, she’s funny, she’s fresh and, even though she’s small in stature, Melbourne-based singer/songwriter, Jasmine Rae has a powerful, classically-trained voice that is hugely impressive. In 2004, at sixteen, she was invited to perform with Melbourne’s prestigious, brass band, The Moreland City Band. Jasmine took up the opportunity to sing live with “real musicians” and became addicted to the rush of live performance.

In 2005, the band made a video clip of their version of the hit track, ‘Killing Me Softly’, featuring Jasmine’s wonderful vocals, and also performed live-to-air on ABC Radio nationally. It was the same year Jasmine graduated from High School and decided to learn more about making music. At NMIT, where she studied and completed her Advanced Diploma in Music, Jasmine mixed with more of Melbourne’s finest musicians and now fully focuses on her career as a vocalist, writer and performer.

She first embraced country music in the late 90’s after watching country music videos on pay television. She became the lead singer of alternate-country band, Jazz Lasso, in 2007, competing in the Battle Of The Bands Grand Final at Melbourne’s Crown Casino. The diversity of the band members’ various backgrounds from Rock, Reggae, Jazz and Country, helped create a raw and unique style of country music for Jasmine and, it was during that time, she wrote a couple of songs which will appear on her debut album.

One of those songs is her debut single, ‘Country Singer’ which she performed during her winning Telstra Road to Tamworth performance in January 2008. By winning this National Competition, (think Nashville Star here in the US) Jasmine was given the opportunity to perform at one of the biggest music festivals in the world in June this year - the 2008 CMA Music Festival in Nashville. Over 200,000 people attended the event over four days this year. Jasmine also received a recording deal with ABC Music as part of the TRTT competition prize. She released her first album this past September.

Rae’s record deal with ABC Music presented her with the opportunity to record in both Australia and the US with two of Nashville’s leading record producers. ‘Country Singer’ was recorded with esteemed producer, Richard Landis, who has produced hit singles and albums for US artists including Vince Gill, Eddie Rabbitt, Neil Diamond, Kenny Rogers and Juice Newton, as well as Australia’s Steve Forde and Peter Allen. Rae recorded four tracks in all with Landis, and then completed the album in June with ex-pat Australian producer, Mark Moffatt in Nashville, after her performance at Nashville’s 2008 CMA Music Festival. Moffatt’s credits include Keith Urban, Tim Finn and Nick Cave.

Rae also performed the Australian national anthem at the 3rd State of Origin game in Sydney in July, in front of a television audience of nearly 2 million people.

Jasmine Rae’s remarkable vocal talent has allowed her to stretch the boundaries in her debut album. It features a unique mix of raw country, country-pop and alt-country/blues. She’s supporting the album release with a stack of appearances from now till the end of 2009.

Watch the music video for her single “Country Singer” below and then read the interview she was kind enough to grant That Nashville Sound below that.



That Nashville Sound- What brought you to country music?

Jasmine Rae- My parents put on a Dolly Parton CD when i was a little girl and i was in love with the stories that were told. I knew that album word for word and still sing along to it to this day. I loved the energy and truth in every song. Dolly inspired me to go out and look for other country music artists to sing along to like the Dixie Chicks, Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes, Lila McCann and great Australian country music artists like Kasey Chambers.

TNS- Describe your music- what’s the mission behind the music?

JR- I like to sing songs that go all the way! Id rather not sing songs that take you half way there, dance around a little then leave you confused about where you’ve been. If we are gonna rock out - lets rock it till our fingers bleed. If we’re gonna be cheeky - lets be cheeky. And if I've got something to say, I like to say it with every inch of honesty within me.

TNS- What might people be surprised to find out about you?

JR- I live in the suburbs of Melbourne - not very country at all! (The country comes from my soul, not my surroundings) Oh, and I’m smaller than 5 rulers stacked on top of one another.

TNS- What kind of music are you listening to? What’s in your iPod?

JR-I listen to a variety of genres and artists all the time. I like to keep it changing! Deana Carter, The Dixie Chicks and Tori Amos are all artists that are definitely on my iPod at the moment.

TNS- If you had a crystal ball and looked forward ten years, what do you see for yourself?

JR- A theme park!

TNS- I guess that Dolly was a big influence after all!