Tasmin Nicole Stephens is a Wigan, UK-born, Manchester, UK-based producer, singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and creative mastermind behind the emerging and rising DIY shoegaze solo recording project TTSSFU (pronounced phonetically as T-T-S-S-F-U). With her TTSSFU debut EP, last year’s Me, Jed and Andy, Stephens quickly established an enormous and atmospheric sound, which some said deftly combined the dreamy and eerie qualities of The Cure with the breakneck BPMs of bands like The Strokes and The Drums.
Me, Jed and Andy EP featured “I Hope You Die,” which amassed well over, one-million streams on YouTube and “Studio 54.” Adding to a growing profile across the UK and elsewhere, the rising Wigan-born, Manchester-based artist began making the rounds of the British festival circuit, playing sets at Green Man, Bristol Sounds and Manchester Psych Fest among others. She also landed opening slots for the legendary Kim Deal, acclaimed JOVM mainstay Soccer Mommy, Mannequin Pussy and English Teacher.
The rising British artist closed out last year by signing with Partisan Records, who will release her highly-anticipated sophomore EP, the seven-song Blown on August 29, 2025. Having gone into the EP intending to “write some pop songs and something happy,” what came out was much more aligned with her songwriting approach. The result is a quasi-real-time document of Stephens’ life in all of its messy and uneasy contradictions. pierced together by her diverse musicality and a souped-up sonic palette.
Blown EP‘s first single, the Chris Ryan co-produced “Call U Back” opens with an eerie, squealing siren call-like burst of feedback that wails through the song before it quickly turns into a propulsive and broodingly atmospheric bed for Stephens’ yearning delivery. The new single continues to showcase an artist with an unerring knack for pairing remarkably catchy hooks with unvarnished, deeply lived-in lyricism and songwriting.
“‘Call U Back’ is a song about when you really like someone and you chase them around to try and make it work, but end up just making a fool of yourself by holding onto the slightest chance of it working,” Stephens explains. “When you listen to it, imagine you’re drunk on a night out at the point that things slowly start to just feel awful…”
Directed by Lewis Vorn, edited Desperate Pervert Graphics’ Shea McChrystal, the accompanying lyric video for “Call U Back” features the rising British artist an old-fashioned landline, shot in grainy and glitchy VHS-styled tape, desperately attempting to reach al love interest, who may not all that interesting. And throughout the video, we see her start to lose her mind — perhaps from the fact that she has wasted her time on someone who’s not worth it.