Yazmin Lacey
Nina Manandhar
Voice Notes by Yazmin Lacey plays like you're skipping stations on an old radio set. Jazz, neo-soul, dub, and electronic sounds filter across the airwaves while London-born Lacey acts like the DJ, following you from song to song with stories shared like an old friend over dinner. It is an album that catches me off guard every time I return to it as a new favorite song emerges. It makes sense, then, to group a few of these songs together for the purposes of a feature-length video.
Premiering below are visuals set to three Voice Notes tracks: "From A Lover," "Bad Company," and "Legacy." The humorous "Bad Company" kicks things off and finds Lacey talking about anxiety in a way that feels far removed from the therapist's office. In the video she is getting her hair done as she sings, “Woke with a demon on my shoulder... Before we went to shoot she told me she’s much prettier than me.” Later she jumps into a black cab and makes her way to a party. Conversation fills the air throughout, from phone calls in the car to meeting friends at the end of the ride. At one point Lacey explains that she likes to leave "stream of conscious"-style messages for her friends and this feels similar, just going with the flow and letting the music guide you.
Speaking to The FADER via email, director Kevin Morosky explains: "Yazmin wanted to create something that wasn’t a music video, something that also wasn’t a short film — just a piece of art that visually complimented her stories. It was lovely to create like this, collaboratively."
Lacey, meanwhile, adds: "I wanted to work with Kevin for a long time, he has a way of showing vulnerability, nuance, and sensitivity in things and I knew it would work for these songs. We talked a lot, some of which ended up in the film. It was a lovely experience to bring the stories of these songs to life.”