Photography by Yassine Zennar

New Vibes/اجواء جديدة gives a snapshot of emerging and established independent, experimental, and underground sound artists and projects in their own words <3

Yazmina Gazolina (She/They) is a Persian, Spanish (Catalan) and British experimental pop and electronic artist. Their eclectic sound is shaped by stories of diasporic identity and multi ethnic heritage. Living between London and Barcelona, her music and DJ sets explore a Neo SWANA sonic world, blending sensual, high energy club textures with bold experimental electronic forms.

Find more of their work on Instagram, YouTube, and Spotify.

Photography by Yassine Zennar

Tell us a bit about yourself…

Being of multicultural heritage and growing up in central England, I developed an early awareness of how different perspectives exist and how deeply they’re shaped by the status quo. To survive and make sense of conflicting identity narratives in my environment, I feel like I’ve lived in a constant state of anthropological deconstruction: breaking perspectives down, reconstructing them, and then performing them in digestible, relatable, and friendly ways so I’m not silenced within a juxtaposed existence.

I do the same with my music. Sometimes it bothers me how far I take concepts from their original source, giving them multi-faceted meanings so they can connect with people as a song or piece of art. But then I remember how much creativity it takes and how much play is required, just to survive in what, to some, seems like a regular world, but to me is full of irregularities.

“I’ve got tattoos of my roots, concealer in my boots, just in case I have to fake it, London bitch coming through” – Hello Kitty with Rachad. Flirting with and playing against judgement and prejudice is far more fun than being a file in an industrial cabinet.

Photography by Yassine Zennar

How do you describe your sound?

Mischievous & dead serious at the same time. Sexy, unapologetic & full of gasoline, like driving a getaway car after you’ve just gotten vengeance, then leaving it to take a horse for your next conquest. 

I’ve been on a journey with sound, experimenting with pop and electronic merging some traditional beats and elements with modern constructs, working first alone and now with artist/producers who also have mixed heritage & a similar multi-identity understanding, to develop a Neo-SWANA club hitting sound, that still holds elements of pop, & performance.

Can you tell us about your latest project, and what you’re looking forward to?

Benzene Baby is a new track from me & Jabo – Moroccan, Belgian artist & producer. He sent me this hard beat that journeyed into a galloping rhythm, I added a few engine sounds & turned it into a fantasy of a femme going on a date knowing what she wants, arriving as a perceived passenger princess but ending in the driving seat, she was always wise and never to be underestimated. Me and film producer Isabella Culver took this project to Morocco to make it visual, the music video, just us and a few cameras, we hired a car and drove across the country discovering engine culture to horse culture learning Amazigh sounds & freedom along the way. We didn’t want to leave but we carry Morocco and our beautiful experience with us through Benzene Baby.

What is one of your tracks that you connect with the most, at the moment? Can you tell us more about it?

A track I continue to connect with and refer back to is Where’s My F0n3?!?<3, by Rachad and I, Moroccan-Spanish artist and producer. It’s playful, but it was born from the dark, confusing, and unstable emotions of witnessing the horrors of the colonial extractive system, through the very smartphone that perpetuates it in all its multidimensional forms. 

Musically Rachad took influence from sound system Brazilian funk & added the Arabic Nokia ringtone meme. Conceptually I took the track on a k, phone addicted bender of escapism. Which also plays on the reality of being controlled and in control. Colombian artist and producer Éter made a hard-crashing remix that allowed me to perform what I really wanted: a Neo-Luddite destruction of phones and electronics.

Over the summer, my performances involved me birthing a phone, feeding it human milk from my breast, having it strangle me and the audience, and then destroying it. I feel the urge to do the latter on a daily basis.

Photography by Yassine Zennar

What are you listening to these days?

I’ve just started a party in London with DJ Ivicore called SAFFFRON. It’s a queer Neo-SWANA rave night, creating space for queerness and SWANA identity to coexist. Embracing our cultures, sounds, and collective consciousness.

We feature SWANA DJs from different regions, each bringing their own interpretation of Neo-SWANA sound. DJs like Sissy Misfit, who delivered an industrial rave Turkish wedding mix, and Jone of Arx, making Pakistani soca blends. I’ll be DJing at SAFFFRON as well, bringing different mixes of international SWANA talent while blending traditional SWANA tracks with my favourite techno Latincore, industrial & sexy gher beats.

At the moment, I’m also working on new music, and my head sounds like a mix of The Will by Mohammadreza Mortazavi, F WORKING by Blicky B, and Anti Oedipus by Behrooz Moosavi.

Photography by Yassine Zennar