TBC introduces… Bryony Jarman-Pinto
Has music always been in the family, or is it something that only you have aspired to?
My mum's a musician, and my dad was a musician. My sister and I grew up with lots of music around us.
What music was playing around the house?
Loads of stuff, but it was mainly live music. I remember sitting up in my mum's bedroom while she was giving singing lessons, and my sister and I were just singing along. She would also take us to jazz jam sessions, and we would fall asleep to some nice jazz guitar.
You grew up in London, moved to Penrith as a child, and now live in Lancaster. How did those changes in environment shape you personally and musically?
I had such big changes in my life, leaving London when I was eight and going to Penrith was massive. I didn't really understand it. They only had one swimming pool, and I was like, "Why have you only got one swimming pool?"
I settled, and Penrith became my home very quickly, and the whole city life was quite alien to me and exciting. I spent quite a few years in Scotland and eventually went to university in Glasgow. Going back to London after quite a few years was nice. It was exciting seeing what the music was doing down there, meeting some amazing musicians. It gave me a chance to explore who I was as an independent person.
Didn’t you move away from music for a while?
Yes, I actually went to uni to study painting. Music was always just something I did for fun, and I never intended it to be a career.
I then recorded some music with a musician and producer friend of mine called Tom Leah, aka Werkha, and that got me in the mood for it, and I got some more opportunities and decided to keep going. Each time another opportunity came along, I just said yes.
Your creative partnership with Werkha began at Blue Jam Arts, and it led to tracks like "Sidesteppin" and "Dusk" getting big attention from names like Gilles Peterson and Lauren Laverne. Can you take us back to those early days - what made that collaboration click so well?
So Blue Jam is a community music project. It was actually set up by my mum. That's basically where I got all my music training and where I met a lot of my friends who are still creating music today. It’s where I initially met Werkha and Contours. They all had their beginnings in Blue Jam, which is really cool.
It gave me a strong sense of the importance of community music, the importance of playing with people and learning to improvise and learning to perform.
When did you first realise you could write songs, and how did your style, this blend of jazz, soul, folk, and personal storytelling, develop over time?
I guess it was around that time of going to Blue Jam and just being at home playing the guitar. You do write your own stuff and have fun. But the thought that you could write a whole album was never something I'd thought about.
It wasn't until I was working with Werkha that I thought, "OK, let's give this a go, let's see what happens. How far can I get?" Then people started to like them and say that there's something in it. I thought, "Yeah, maybe this is something I can do?"
You’ve spoken in the past about moments of insecurity in your writing process. How do you push through that creative doubt, especially knowing your work will be heard and judged?
I think when I'm starting to write a lot of the time, I've got some chords, whether it's on the piano or the guitar, and I'm just making it up as I go along. Words just come out, and I think, "What am I actually singing about?" And then I'll start to put a story to it and realise, "Oh, this is what I'm thinking about." So sometimes it comes out quite political and sometimes it comes out very lovey-dovey.
With my second album, Below Dawn, I was pregnant with my first child. I was going through those newborn months and experiencing motherhood for the first time. So, half of that album is me writing about that experience, whether that's the relationship my partner and I were going through or just the pure joy of having a tiny baby. I just write about what's literally happening to me at the time.
Conversely, when I was writing the first album, I was almost deliberately writing quite cryptically. I used a lot of metaphors and a lot of imagery to convey the story, to get across the emotion that I'm trying to write about, but without being very pointed with the language. But it is a bit nerve-racking, especially when I have to talk about the song on stage that I'm about to perform. That's the time that I suddenly feel a bit nervous about telling somebody the story behind the song. When you're writing, it's so immediate and in that moment, but then you're on stage and you're trying to connect back to that song and what you were thinking at the time.
You’ve played everywhere from the Royal Albert Hall to sharing the stage with Roy Ayers. Is there a live performance moment that stands out as a career-defining experience for you?
It was the Elgar Room at the Royal, the smaller rooms!
OK, you shouldn't have told us that! We were like, "Wow, that’s seriously impressive!"
I feel like I've got to!
But you have been on stage with Roy Ayers. Tell us what that was like?
We were supporting him when he was playing at the Union Chapel. It was one of these things where you're a bit gobsmacked, you know, "Am I really doing this?"
We met him when we were backstage, and he was lovely, just so nice. His whole band was so nice and welcoming and warm. We were a little bit nervous that he wouldn't want to say hi to us because we were all just being a bit stupid and a bit giddy.
What can we expect from your show at The Bear?
I'm bringing a trio, so it's me on vocals and flute, and Rory Green, who's going to be on guitar. And I've got a female percussionist drummer called Red Fielder-Van Kleeff.
I'm looking forward to being able to have a bit more of a stripped-back set, allowing the vocals to take the lead. For a few gigs, we've had a full band, and it's been brilliant having a really nice big sound behind me, but I prefer the intimate gigs.
Bryony Jarman-Pinto joins us with her band on Saturday 30 August 2025