When speaking to Yasamin Aftahi and listening to the demos of her new album Bird Nests and Bat Caves, girl power is the first phrase that comes to mind. This twenty-four-year-old local San Diego musician has blossomed through a transformative musical journey leading her to a 180-degree genre flip from solo acoustic ballads to writing and singing magical electronic melodies. Now in a collaborative duo, Yasamin and John meld together electronic, dubstep tones with ballad style vocals to create music that puts you in touch with your feelings, and brings out your need to dance. Read on to learn about her changing musical outlook, pursuing electronic music, and the power of being a woman who loves a good tube top.
You moved to New York for a couple of years, did you move to pursue your music?
I moved to New York and moved back a couple years ago, I took my guitar with me and I was like ‘I’m going to be famous!’ It sounds so cheesy but I worked at this little cafe in the Greenwich Village, you know, the whole deal. I convinced someone one night to let me play my songs during dinner service and take my ten to play music. I just remember no one looked up from their food and no one paid attention to me. At the time I had a huge ego and I had it all planned out in my head that five people during that dinner service were going to jump up and be like ‘I’ll give you a record deal!’ So after that, I didn’t touch my guitar the whole time I was in New York. Like you think you’re going to move to New York and you’re going to pursue your art but no one tells you that you’re going to be so poor and have to work three frickin jobs just to pay your rent. I was in school too, so I didn’t write any songs that whole time or produce any music.
So you ended up moving back, and now you’re back writing songs, what changed between New York and now? What renewed your faith in music?
I came home for a little bit and I wrote my first song in a long time called Cleopatra, which ended up being one of my best songs ever after my New York hiatus. Around the same time, I was beginning to feel really uninspired by my guitar. I used to think I’m an introvert but I’m not. It made sitting in my room with my guitar not as fun as it used to be. I used to think I loved being alone and feeling like I really wanted to feel everything and be independent and just write these sad acoustic songs. But then I shifted and I learned I loved to go out dancing, I love electronic music, and I needed to go out and collaborate if I was going to go anywhere with my music. And that’s when I met John when I started working at this restaurant in North Park called The Smoking Goat. John happened to be my coworker and he just so happened to be working alone creating the most amazing dance, EDM, dubstep beats and no one knew. He was just doing it alone, and I ended up convincing him to collaborate and it ended up being so magical. That’s when Bird’s Nests and Bat Caves, our album in the works, was born.
Why the name Bird Nests and Bat Caves? What’s the album going to be like and when is it coming out?
It’s this funny inside joke between him and I, me being the bird nest and he is the bat cave. The album is definitely going to have an EDM, festival-like sound. I feel as though everyone tries to shy away from the idea of electronic music, but if you think about it, everything is kind of considered electronic music nowadays. As for us specifically, I would say our sound is sort of genre-less and we just want you to experience our music through physical movement. We want to create an album that can make you feel all kinds of emotions at once. I don’t know if you’ve ever felt it but when you hear a song that just makes you want to dance, makes you feel overwhelmed, and like you want to cry and laugh all at once. Which sounds like I want to make people go insane, but really music should have that power to make you feel all those rushes of emotions. The album itself is going to be out December 2017 so stay tuned on SoundCloud for it.
Bird’s Nests and Bat Caves is going to be your new album, so how would you describe your role and your sound in this collab?
It was weird because EDM is still something I never thought I would be a part of, but it truly is magical to have John because he knows more of the technical side of music whereas I am more the lyrical side of the album. He would write a melody and then give me the melody to write lyrics to, but then sometimes, I will write something to my acoustic guitar or piano and then just tell him ‘these lyrics need to be to something that sounds sparkly’ and he will just kind of get it and it will be sparkly! It’s a mixture of soft ballads while still being that electronic type of sound.
Have you faced any obstacles because you are a woman in the music industry?
I don’t know if I ever felt like me being a woman would have made it harder but that being said, I never had to work with a label which is a whole nother monster where people think you don’t know any better. I couldn’t even imagine from the misogyny and sexism I face just as a waitress, how I would be able to handle that sort of attitude. I feel as though through John, and breaking into the music industry I am learning the more technical side of music so I can’t be seen as naive and can take charge of what I know. I’m looking forward to the challenge and as a performer, I am super "own with the way I dress and own my sexuality" which can be seen as controversial. Yet I’m the type that if I don’t wear that sassy tube top that I love because some guy will get some idea or my grandma will be thinking this antiquated idea about me then everyone else wins, then I don’t get to wear my tube top which I can’t let happen.
What is some advice you would give to other female musicians?
The number one thing would be to write what you feel and what you're interested in. You feel the pressure a lot of times to write a certain way or in one genre to uphold this ideal of what a good musician is, but really there is no such thing as good music. So you need to write what’s true to you. Second, what has made my music better is to collaborate. Pick the right people that inspire you to do what you love. As a female musician specifically, even though I could’ve done it myself, working with John helped inspire me to make this leap into electronic music which is something I never thought I would be passionate about. Giving them something and letting them run with it, you just need to be open to let your music grow through this other person and remove your bias because your music will be better because of it.
Hailey Stewart is a 23-year-old freelance writer. When not writing or dancing the night away at shows, she spends her time modeling on the side and substitute teaching high school English. She loves flowing through yoga, surfing, and sharing the beauty of human nature //human experience through writing. Contact: haileylynnstewart@gmail.com ; @hippie.hailz
