INTERVIEW – Mollie Coddled @ Manchester’s Year’s End Festival
14 December 2023
Jasmine Jethwa, 21, is back with another song titled ‘Dream of Running, right as her first sold-out UK headline tour is about to kick off in Wales. This track is the perfect example of how Jethwa is solidifying a career in the music industry by flawlessly incorporating intimate and moving songwriting into earnest and soulful alternative/indie pop sounds.
Dream of Running was written by Jethwa herself, King Ed (Baby Queen, Years & Years, Birdy) and Benjamin Francis Leftwich. The production, constructed by King Ed, captures the raw and vulnerable significance of wanting to leave a relationship that has withered with time and space. The guitar chords and faded drums heard throughout the whole progression of the song draw the listeners in, daring them to completely immerse themselves into the story being told, nearly feeling like an intrusion into such a delicate yet cathartic moment of someone’s relationship.
The absence of elaborate instrumentation allows the song’s authenticity to shine through and Jasmine Jethwa marvellously captured those feelings and emotions with her soulful and longing tone. She talks about a relationship fading right before her eyes, of how she now looks back with regret at all the times she believed her significant other, only to end up hurting more:
“ I don’t believe you,
Not anymore,
Cause whenever I believed you it hurt me more”
The faded drums in the production provide a subtle, rhythmic backdrop, almost resembling a heartbeat, slowly receding in the back of her mind as well as her memory:
“ Oh if I could escape I’d be out of this town,
Before you’d even, knew I’d gone
But it’s easy to say,
And it’s harder to do,
Like a bird in a cage with a beautiful view”
The music video for the song perfectly captures the feeling conveyed through the lyrics, of looking at someone who once held the world in their eyes and now wishing nothing more than to fearlessly run away from such a faded and lifeless land. Definitely worth watching while we patiently wait for what is more to come from Jasmine during the rest of the year.