We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Yasmine Hunter. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Yasmine below.
Hi Yasmine, thanks for joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
My mom never really allowed me to be picky. She always told me try things once and if you don’t like it again you don’t have to try it again. Of course do things within reason and making sure it doesn’t cause unnecessary harm unto yourself. So I would always try my best to go into things with an open mind. I mostly applied this frame of thinking towards food given that my mom was a chef most of my life. I’d try things from different cultures or even try things that came from my own imagination, always remembering to give things a chance and to fully experience the things in front of me before completely writing them off. So as I find myself finding my way through this experience called adulthood, an experience that for a long time i couldn’t wait to try, the more i dip my toe in and sample all the little things that come with it. I find my self more and more hesitant to try new this new thing. Unlike when I was a smaller person figuring things out, when you become a bigger person figuring things out the world around you doesn’t always care that this is your first attempt at trying things. The world doesn’t always find understanding or grace when your’e relearning what you like and dislike, feeling forced to have a definitive answer on the first try. As I step into a world and an industry that can be critical and harsh, feeling like you have a limited amount of try’s to “get it right”, can make me feel like I need to be scared and hesitant of things unknown or unfamiliar to me so i don’t waste my “try’s”. But in the back of my head I hear my mom and my smaller self saying keep trying, you don’t know what works until you try. So everyday I attempt to pursue my dreams with full confidence even on days it doesn’t feel like it’s working. I allow myself to experience things by myself despite it feeling scary at times. I try everyday to create space for who I am, as I meet different and new versions of myself daily.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a Songwriter and story teller, a vocalist, a creative, and a healer. I wrote my first song when I was around seven years old, I remember feeling so inspired by a movie so i began to write songs. My first song I’d ever written I showed to my mom and I remember her feeling so moved by what I wrote and from that point on I always wanted to invoke emotion with my words and use my voice to magnify them.
So began singing in church, and going with my grandfather who is a preacher, and singer for the people he did house calls for. I’d try to sing where and whenever, I always wanted an excuse to sing for someone. As i got older i started singing for basketball games and then eventually, landing NBA singing opportunities. Around the same time that began i also started acting and doing professional theatre. I went to Denver school of the arts and studied theatre for all 4 years of high school and graduated in 2020. In 202o I released my first single across the room, just to get over the hurdle of releasing music, ever since i’ve been releasing music and sig and acting as full time as i can. I’m now entering a point of my music career where i’m being as intentional as a i can when it comes to telling story’s through songs. I love songs that talk about the human experience more than just romantic relationships. So i’m currently really trying to dig deep within myself and the world around me to so i can be a translator to and for world, and also myself. I recognize I am still young but i feel that it is really important for me to document this time of my life and all that come from it and whaat better way to grow and heal myself and other’s than through song.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I feel like my mission is getting people to sit down to listen to story’s again. I love creating long story’ s thats have a beginning middle and end. As attention spans are ceasing I’m try to find ways to make people take a second and just sit and listen. To listen without checking the time stamp of the song, not listening to just the beat, but how the music and words come together to illustrate the the story in our minds. I use to love sitting in the car as a kid and listening to radio show that told story’s and how i had to just sit there and envision the world that the story existed in in my mind. I want to create that same feeling for listeners of my music. I also feel like it’s hard for people especially as they get older to use there imagination just for fun, so i hope people listen to my music and use their imaginations and find ways to relate it back to themselves.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
choosing to be a creative full time mean for me means choosing to have a very introspective and sometimes uncomfortable relationship with myself. When you not only choose a journey that makes you have to become and entrepreneur as well as be very vulnerable it can be very overwhelming. Its also kind of lonely because some the best work that i have created has come from me spending a lot of time alone. All that to say the process of finding ways to beautifully articulate yourself when the experience doest feel beautiful in the moment can definitely be challenging . But my artistic journey is really just this never ending scavenger hunt with myself.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasmineemanimusic/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCin5fmdKtijrcmgU9g6cB_Q
Image Credits
Amani Batura jason arasmo Vic carter the rest of the photos are taken by me