What Color is Your Dream? with Yazmin Lacey

Words by Matthew Spence:

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It’s fascinating how crippling the structure of life is and how it generally treats us like assembly line toys: build us, program us, and ship us out to be treated like shit by people ages 8 and up. By the time 18 rolls up on you like sleeves, we’re expected to be already saving for a kid’s college fund and finding ways to dodge jury duty. More often than not, we really never figure out where we want our lives to go until we get there. Dangling the reminder that it’s never too late. Round up your favorite artist autobiographies, rip out around the page in collage, and scrapbook them; your highlighter will be immediately attracted to the motifs of them wanting to pursue music since they were kids…. And drugs… lots of drugs. However, even some of the most talented people don’t fully dive into that world with intent until later. In a string of artists and individuals, Yazmin Lacey is another example of giving the finger to time and a peace sign to purpose.

UK singer-songwriter, DJ, and radio host, Yazmin Lacey is consistently brightening her light each day. After 8 years of hard work, she’s reached her sophomore album, “Teal Dreams.”

Sign up for your annual Record Store Day competition, and when you make it to the main event challenge of “Organizing the Sound,” the clock is ticking louder and louder. Where do you put her records? Tick 1, tick 2, tick … TIME. It’s okay because you have a few options to get the point. No need for pressure.

Ranging from soul, jazz, R&B, and lovers rock/reggae Yazmin’s music isn’t necessarily a one-trick pony; with influences that range from hip hop and R&B to soul, she’s taken her constant listens of Missy Elliott, Little Simz, and D’Angelo and transformed them into her kind of artistic output, sounds of your quiet storm night to your lounging morning. Let her tell it: “Soul music is of my soul and from my soul, but that doesn’t mean that’s the exact sound.”

Peek into her catalog with her debut album, 2023’s “Voice Notes,” a collection of tracks that feel like personal essays laid over encapsulated instrumentation, from cutting off and letting go of certain relationships to overcoming self-consciousness. Voice Notes was her getting her feet wet in the grand scheme of things, and now in 2025, Teal Dreams is her confident, blossomed, and ready to continue growing in the garden.

As every marriage counselor tells you in the first session, transparency and open communication are key to a healthy relationship. Yazmin has made sure to keep it 100 with herself, her art, and reality. Past the typical age range for trying to break into the music industry. Yazmin’s trip to the other side of the rainbow of stardom isn’t a turbo-speed flight filled with adrenaline, nor a hitchhike (bag on a stick and all); instead, it’s a steady-paced road trip on her own terms and with freedom.

Her career of creating art is a passion that she’ll keep on keeping on, whether it’s for a worldwide audience or the local pub, but she isn’t going to allow herself the feeling of being tied to “lifestyles of the rich and famous,” so to speak. Connected with herself through the arts by love and not handcuffs, transparency with her relationship with her craft and love of music helped establish her footprints to her future a bit easier. 5 years from now, she might want to leave the limelight and work with plants. “I’m also trained in the past year to be a horticulturalist, and I absolutely fucking love it like that. I did that for my sanity, and I think that makes me feel really grounded,” but we’ll keep dropping tunes for the love. Because ultra-mega fame isn’t what she’s working towards; it happens, cool, but that isn’t the goal per se. She’s living by the Bob Marley mantra.

Vs. the Noel Gallagher mantra.

Her transition from charity work to helping in the world through art wasn’t on her agenda early on; in fact, music wasn’t the game plan till her late 20s. Growing up in a Caribbean household, Yasmin, like many, loved music growing up, glued to the radio to the point her left brain and right brain worked as AM/FM. However, she just left it at that… Art she enjoys. Perhaps some dabbling and dibbling here and there, ultimately culminating in 10 years of singing, got that infatuation home-grown into an illuminating passion that cranked out three EPs and two albums, with their debut showcase in 2017, her Black Moon EP, at around 27 years old. Now, Yazmin, in her better-than-ever mid-30s, is cranking everything up and elevating more with her second album, “Teal Dreams.”

Teal Dreams is a brighter and more colorful follow-up to Voice Notes. If “Voice Notes” was entering her musical world, “Teal Dreams” is the character development between her and the listeners. Even more comfortable behind the mic, she unloads more personal entrees, ties up loose ends, and closes a chapter in her life while opening up new chapters over what feels to be her signature sound of R&B soul plus more. “For a long time, I really struggled to be affirming that I was an artist; I’d even struggle with that word, saying, ‘Yeah, I kind of sing and make some songs,’ but Teal Dream is like, ‘This is my world.'”

She didn’t let the lack of music training keep her down, but instead kept her head up; she’s not embarrassed to grow and learn in real time in front of a live audience. “I’m definitely hard on myself when I mess up, for sure, like I’m human, but what I need to remember is I’m only doing music because I took a risk in the first place and vowed to experiment not even as a musician.” There’s no shame in the game, but using grace with her pace, it’s these instances of being real that are so raw the average consumer couldn’t handle it, let alone the confessions mirror.

She’s living a dream. Not Siamese but Teal, like she says on the opening track, “A revolutionary act is when a Black woman dreams.” A lyric that borders between a powerful Angela Davis quote and a dope rap bar.

Now, since my inception machine wasn’t working, I had to be the man-child to wake her up from her dream to ask you a few questions a few weeks ahead of the release of her sophomore album (and what time CVS closes). Ranging from her newest music, D’Angelo, or else they may or may not make the interview. R&B stands for Read and Browse.

When did transparency become necessary to and for you?

I think when you’re not set out to become an artist—you know, I didn’t set out to become an artist, I sort of fell into it and really wanted to stay here—that dispels any sort of mystique I could’ve tried to drum up if I came out the womb thinking, “I’m going to be honest, I probably would have put together something a bit more contrived, but it didn’t really work like that.”

In terms of transparency, I think that my music is very much who I am at that point and always. If we met in a pub and I wasn’t doing music, and if you asked for a lighter, you’d probably get the same level of information. I cannot stress that enough. I’m not really a boundary person; I just say things on my mind, and sometimes to my detriment, so I think there’s that transparency and music again. I don’t think I set out to be a good writer of songs or set out to be an artist who’s a good writer; all I know is to write what’s on my mind. I know to write about the things that keep me awake or keep me interested, but I think I’m getting there!

Reflect on the first song you’ve ever written to the most recent. What’s your songwriting journey been like? What’s changed? What have you learned and improved on? Slowed down on, etc.?

My first song is really fucking bold. Like, the first song, the first lyric was “slide into my thighs,” you know? It was pretty out there from the beginning, so in terms of being upfront with my lyrics, that doesn’t change. I think I always set that as a precedent, because a lot of the songs I was going to write I never intended for him to ever listen to, and I still write them in the same vein now.

Was your mind more clear and direct in recording Teal Dreams, and did you get to say everything you wanted to say that you couldn’t get to say on the previous record?

Now 3 EPS and two albums deep, that feeling of being all over the place—I think that’s part of being an artist. I think going through this concentrated period of expressing emotions over and over again. Make yourself vulnerable over and over again, forcing yourself into rooms to speak to people about your emotions. I think that’s what makes you feel fucking crazy. Even though it’s a really enjoyable experience, it’s so intense sometimes, so no, I definitely feel over the place in this record, and I think I’m starting to realize they are snapshots of where you are in your life at that moment in time, so when I was making Voice Notes 2-3 years ago, that’s what I wanted to say in my life at that time. Now this has been the teal dreams era of my life. I closed it out, and now it’s me comparatively in some scenarios of my life, so I suppose I have said everything I want to say on this record, not forever, but for now.

What would you say Teal Dreams represents in your life right now and in your era?

I think I’m really, and in some things in this chapter time, I think I’m really aware that some things in my life I need to change, and I’m taking steps towards that. I’ve written about relationships that affected me. Voice Notes was a lot about the relationships I was in at the time, and had this ended, I would have written about friendships around this record [Teal Dreams], all right, about things that interest me in my life right now, like my connection to nature on songs like “Wild Things.”

It’s a certain me as an artist; the lyrics on there are me realizing this thing I’m doing is deep, and I just own it and take off the limitations now. It’s go season.”

How do you stay grounded? How do you handle the anxiety that comes with this lifestyle?

I have a team who I do a lot of check-ins with, and I think I came to music having known myself a little bit. You know, like, me really entering my music was in my 30s, you know? I spent my entire twenties developing a sense of self just in life itself without, you know, people being interested in who I was because of what I did, so I feel like I’ve got quite a clear sense of self. I don’t need music to validate me as a human being, and that definitely helps me be grounded, you know. I also have this kind of thing with music, where it doesn’t owe me something for what it’s already brought to my life.

It doesn’t owe me something, so I can remove sort of a bit—I can remove my ego a little bit from there, but I’ve got grounded people around me, you know. I’ve got people around me that will probably tell me if they feel like things are getting out of sorts. I’ve got people around me—a lot of the people that are around me are not just around me because I make music, but around me because of the relationships that we have built together. So outside of being in music, the relationships that I have are not rooted in me as an artist, which helps, I think. I just have a lot of other things that I am also trying to achieve in my life, which means that it helps me to stay grounded because I can very clearly see on a day-to-day basis, you know, that I would always make it, so I’ve got that I’m good, like, you know, the validation of it. I don’t listen to any, but I think also just doing some things that keep me calm.

What wine do you prefer, red or white?

See, I just can’t drink red wine anyway, so I’d say white, but when I think about my music, I like to think it was a red wine.

Do you hope to carry your work with kids through/with the music as well?

I always think that, like younger artists, I do try to help out, and I have relationships with upcoming artists who come and speak to me. I try to lift them up and advise them. I’m working with an organization that tries to uplift women in music. I think that now my confidence is starting to grow in what I do, and I can now make a more direct link between my music and work with young people, whether that’s working with the charity at the moment.

Sometimes I do think with my songs that I’m speaking to my own inner child, I suppose, to heal things, which is why I speak directly to young people, and, you know, things like Teal Dreams are my life lessons in the hope that people can relate or feel seen or, you know, have something to base it on, you know, but I’m not—I definitely am not done yet with that. Like, I’ve got so many ideas about how I can make a bigger link between the two, so yeah, I really want to work on that more.

Is the number 14 important to you?

Someone just asked me that the other day <laughs>. I like that 14/7. I think it’s just a subconscious thing; I don’t know, it’s fallen like that a few times. Maybe it takes the amount of points to get my point across; it takes 14 tracks.

Describe your sound in three words.

Soulful for sure, vulnerable, and not perfect <laughs>, imperfect. Maybe “evolving” is a better way of phrasing everything I’m doing. I’m learning stuff on the spot in front of everybody, from my very first vocal to now, from the way I do my shows, from the way I’m improving my voice, and the way I’m writing. The way I’m building my team and evolving my music is something really important to me.

Have you had your full circle moment yet with hearing your song on the radio?

Yeah, actually, to be honest, I get so many messages from mate family people who have met people like dating that are like, “Oh, I was at work today,” or “I was in a car today,” or “I’m on holiday and bloody God knows where,” and I hear music. That very rarely happens to me, like when I listen to the radio so much but it doesn’t, but maybe that’s a good thing. I think I remember wearing it, and it gets played a lot. I’m really lucky I’m getting played a lot; like, every day I get messages. It must be like when I listen to the radio. From the moment I get up right, I listen to albums and stuff on music and stuff like later on in the day, but first thing in the morning I’m listening to the radio, and I have a lot of shows that I like, certainly, and it must be the moment I answer the phone or the washing machine is on the spin cycle or I get on the bus, but that is when they’re playing my songs to me even though I’m very aware that, like, I am being played and everyone else is.

Why teal dreams? How did that name come about?

Actually didn’t have a name. I started to think about some of the songs, and it started to worry me. But this one I really struggled with, and I went away. It was a combination of two things my friend told me about an artist named Danielle McKinney: who paints Black women in their spaces, and I was obsessed with them. I’d keep a scrapbook and have them printed out, and as I was looking through, the woman was, like, in a teal-colored room, and I was like, “Oh my God, that’s me in this world and the space we’re creating.” Then I went away because I felt stuck with the album, and I was sitting out looking at the water, and the painting was still my screensaver. Then I was like “IT’S TEAL like, I just came to me like that

Creative burnout versus imposter syndrome

Oh God, that’s such a good question. I would say it depends on what stage I’m creating at; it’s either one or the other, but right now I feel burnt out because I’ve been going and going. I feel like I’m holding my breath until Friday when it comes out and I can exhale, and I think when I’m creating and sharing the music, it’s impossible syndrome <laughs>. It’s like fucking hell when people are going to find out I’m just cosplaying as an artist; I’m a great actress, not a musician <laughs>. Just joking, but yeah.
depressed,

Future plans?

I really want to make another record. I know that I’m very powerful being in the studio. I had a big gap, and I realized I felt really depressed, and I realized it was because I needed to go to the studio regularly to commit to my craft and to be of service. That means going to the studio. I’m itching to go back. I’d really love to get to play this album in as many places as possible; that’s really a dream. Other than that, let’s just take a step at a time.

Listen to Teal Dreams wherever you prefer. Follow and Catch up with Yazmin Lacey.