Trans singer-songwriter jasmine.4.t (Jasmine Cruickshank) sings about the tangled joy, heartache, camaraderie and isolation of transfeminine life. Based in Manchester, she is the first UK signee to Saddest Factory Records.

Jasmine came to the guitar after her late uncle passed his instrument down. Soon, she was playing in “silly skate punk bands” and self-releasing scrappy originals on Breakfast Records, the label she co-founded with friends in Bristol.

But her songs post-transition are a different beast, brimming with new life and experience. She originally considered releasing DIY, and submitted demos only to Saddest Factory Records after touring with Lucy Dacus. It was Dacus who broke the news: “‘Okay, I just played your demos for Phoebe [Bridgers] in the car,’” Jasmine recounts. “‘She’s on the phone to her manager, trying to work out how she can sign you.’”

jasmine.4.t’s music bursts with moments of love through its fingerpicked guitar, punk bombast, and raw vocal takes. She combines performance with activism and uses her platform to advocate for trans rights and marginalised groups. “Being signed by Phoebe Bridgers is immediately going to open me up to a wider audience,” she says. “I take it seriously, just to be a visible trans woman role model in music, because there aren't that many, and there should be more.”

jasmine.4.t is ready to be that beacon. Backed by an all-trans-woman band and a label full of friends and supporters, her vivid and intimate stories will reach new listeners, conveying the reality of her lived experience.