Woman who has worked at a San Marino dry cleaners since 1992 now has her own 6-song CD.By Ryan Vaillancourt
As she toiled through a hapless marriage bound for eventual divorce, while moving with her two children to France from her native Iran and then, in 1992, to Glendale, a somewhat secret talent helped Jasmin Youssefian keep her cool.“She’s gone through a lot of hardships and made some really tough decision in our lives, as far as being a single parent,” said Shervin Youssefian, 29, Jasmin’s son, who is a Hoover High School and owner of Spot On Media, a Glendale based Commercial Production Company. “And while we moved from Iran to France and from France came here, we had to make a lot of changes, and she really had to keep all of us together. Even though there was a divorce when I was 18, she really stuck through it, but she always, I would always hear her sing.”
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It was through song — in any of the five languages she speaks — that Jasmin Youssefian was able to express her emotions, he said.“A lot of people really took that for granted,” he said, “including us.”Fast-forward 14 years since she arrived in the United States with her son and daughter, Sherly Youssefian, 25, and Jasmin’s little talent is not so secret anymore.Though she still works six days a week at the same San Marino dry cleaners that hired her in 1992, Jasmin’s now selling her own CDs by the bundle to longtime friends and customers.On his mother’s 53rd birthday in October, Shervin surprised her with a trip to a Glendale recording studio.He had made arrangements with the studio to record one song to put on an album to share her talent with friends and family. When they strolled into the studio, with its sound-proofed walls, bevy of instruments and computer equipment, Jasmin Youssefian got giddy.“Oh, I was just laughing like a crazy person, crying, too,” she said. “I couldn’t control myself....
This was one of the big miracles for me.”Working with a studio producer, she launched into the first song that came to her mind — a Farsi love song — which they recorded in two takes, she said. Impressed by her pipes, the producer invited Youssefian to come back in a few weeks to record some more songs, for free.She obliged, and a month later, her son ordered 300 copies of a six-song album called Love Songs from Faraway Lands.Her son, and pseudo-manager, also created a website to hawk the discs at www.jasminalbum.com.All heartfelt, romantic love songs that she learned as a child, Youssefian sings in Farsi, Turkish — a language she culled from her Turkish nanny in Iran — Armenian and French.“I didn’t know she sings,” said Anni Kauppi McConnell, a seven-year customer of Youssefian’s at the dry cleaners and one of many who bought the album. “I have to admit, I was amazed.... it reminded me of Portuguese fado.”With support from her friends and family, and her musical talent no longer a secret, Youssefian hopes she can sell enough discs to raise funds to record another album.
It’s a prospect that has led some of Shervin Youssefian’s friends to suggest that he could end up turning a sweet profit in the music business, his mom playing the key role.“You know I’ve had some friends say ‘you’re going to make some money,’” he said. “But I said ‘No way.’ I’m not getting any money out of this. This was my promise to her. This is all for her.”
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For more information about Jasmin and to purchase the album, visit www.jasminalbum.com.
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