Creating a musical time capsule: JØRDYN discusses their debut EP, ‘i didn’t ask for this’
JØRDYN is one of the newest singer-songwriters to release their debut EP. Over 5 tracks, i didn’t ask for this chronicles her real-life experiences of loss, displacement, jealousy and grief.
Announced on April 17th, there was only a three week wait until it released on May 10th. You can see the Instagram post JØRDYN shared here:
VoiceNoted were lucky enough to speak with JØRDYN about their newest release, delving deeper into the process of creating their music.
Artist Interview
We opened the discussion with JØRDYN by talking about how they first pursued music. We learnt that she trained in opera during high school, continued that for a year in college, and now goes to school for Musical Theatre. When asked how they would describe their music, JØRDYN said:
“I struggle to place my music in a genre. It’s in the indie-pop area, but lot of the songs [on the EP] have very different sounds. They live in this indie alt bubble.”
We talked next about the writing process of the EP:
“Some of these songs were written over two years ago now, so it was a long time coming…One of my closest friends and I used to sit on the phone and just write. No matter if it was good or bad, we’d just write for hours. Some of those songs exist on the EP, mainly Joy with an I and Jurnee.“
“I wrote the closing song, i didn’t ask for this with my band while I was at school, before I transferred away. So it’s really this time capsule of: I didn’t want to leave, even though I knew it was a better thing for me to leave this place."
More specifically to their process, JØRDYN told us:
“I write in the spur of the moment. Sometimes I actually will sit down and try and write on specific topics…but I find that kind of difficult. So I will always have sentences pop in my head or chords that I save for later. Then, once I get in a motion, it’ll just go.”
Did you have a favourite song to write?
“i didn’t ask for this, because I’m so used to writing alone. I was with my guitarist, and I said: we have to write a song together! […] It happened over a long time. We wrote the chord progression, then I workshopped lyrics, then we played it with my band in March. I left and it was never recorded, but I needed the song to close the EP.”
JØRDYN travelled from Cincinnati to Boston during spring break, and “all of the band came together”. “We finished everything together, and it was such a collaborative song that it was instantly my favourite to write and to work on.”
Here at VoiceNoted, it was definitely our favourite on the EP, too:
Did you find it cathartic to write the song?
“Yeah, I did. Music is such an outlet for me, because I’m not the greatest at verbalising when something is wrong, so music has become this thing where I can write anything and people will be like, ‘oh it’s music!’ I can leave it as up in the air as I want to…[and] just be free without feeling the need to explain myself.”
What most inspired you to write the EP?
“I always write as much as I can about my real experiences - or dramatizations of them. All of this EP was very real for me. Each song is something that truly happened to me, and I wrote it at the time of it happening or right after it happened. This entire EP is very much a time capsule of everything that was happening in my life at that time.”
“The most inspired song on the EP is Jurnee. I wrote that song about my younger sister. Our mum passed when we were both very young, so I struggled a lot to find words to express how I felt about how she was growing up without a mother and grieving. I wanted to write a song about her for a very long time, I just didn’t know how to approach it. Then one day, I thought: I’ll just say what I want to say, and it became this mesh of what our life was, what it became, and how strong she was. That’s the truest song [on the EP], and my sister is one of my biggest inspirations.”
Are there any lyrics that are particularly special to you?
“There are certain standalone lines in each song: the ‘gut-punch’ moments that we were hoping for when writing. The entirety of Jurnee is really diary-esque, it was truly something that I would have written down even if I wasn’t writing a song.”
“The thing that makes that song so impactful is the production. At the very beginning, there are real audio recordings of my mum and my sister, as well as in the middle and at the end.”
Jurnee is a beautifully vulnerable song, and you can listen to it here:
Talking about the other songs on the EP, JØRDYN told us:
“Joy with an I is the upbeat song of the EP, but the ending is still very much a glimpse into what was happening. I wrote that song about knowing someone I didn’t know at all. It was someone who went to my school and was super popular, but I’d never had a conversation with her in my life. It was about envying her status but knowing that she wasn’t perfect.”
“The last line of the song is: ‘How can someone so beautiful be so sad?’ And that’s the ‘gut-punch’ lyric of that song, which are always strongest lyrically […] and hold the most impact for me.”
You can listen to Joy With an I on Spotify here:
JØRDYN also credits a great line from i didn’t ask for this to her friend, Dom the Composer:
“A eulogy for memories that we never even made.” That was the ‘gut-punch’ lyric of that song, and I attribute that to him.
This line reminded us of Phoebe Bridger’s work, and JØRDYN told us that the song’s ending was heavily inspired by her favourite Phoebe song, I Know the End.
We then asked JØRDYN how they felt about the reception of the EP:
“I woke up with like 80 comments and messages - it was genuinely so crazy. I had never received so much support so quickly, and I’m excited to see how it will be received by new audiences at my shows coming up. It was such an outpour of positivity I really appreciated it.”
Of course, we talked to JØRDYN about their upcoming shows…
“I’m going to do a Boston ‘mini release tour’ so I’m going to play a lot of shows there with my band. When I go back to school in the fall, I’ll play some shows there in Cincinnati - more solo, stripped-down versions of the songs.”
“After my very first single came out, I did a tour, and it was great. So now I’m happy that I have more of a team behind me, and my band is great.”
Their first show in Boston is on June 6th, so mark that date in your diaries!
“[After that], I really want to tour again. I love that experience, and I love playing live - it’s really fun. That’s probably my next big goal: to tour with someone.”
We asked them who they would most like to tour with and, as it turns out, JØRDYN has a list:
Jake Minch / Rachel Jenkins / Grace Gardner / Tiny Habits / Molly Grace / Sophie Holohan / Jensen McRae / Lizzy Mcalpine / Phoebe Bridgers
You’ll definitely recognise these names, and we hope to see JØRDYN supporting some of their future tours!
“I would love to tour with people that are super talented musicians, because I really want to learn. I think that going on tour is the ultimate learning experience.”
Talking set lists and covers, JØRDYN told is that one of their favourite songs to perform has been a funk-fusion blend of Erase Me by Lizzy Mcalpine. You can watch a clip of her performance here:
“Out of my own songs, my favourite one to perform was Morning After. We also genre-bent that one, playing it differently every time.”
What was it like producing an EP that blends different genres together?
“I listen to everything, especially because I perform in a lot of genres. There are things about every genre that I love - even the most obscure ones. My band are rockstars, so i didn’t ask for this was inspired by their sounds.”
“I produced pretty much everything except for i didn’t ask for this, so most of it is just me sitting in my room. It’s very trial and error, but I get to sit and have fun with it. I’m not pressured by deadlines, and I think that’s the best thing about being an indie artist - I get to make my own schedule.”
We then talked with JØRDYN about the importance of supporting small artists, and they even had some recommendations!
”Dom the Composer. I love him. He’s my keyboardist, a super close friend, and he’s helped me through this entire process. He makes crazy good music, and my first show is going to be with him! So, if you like me, go listen to Dom.”
And we can certainly second that recommendation! Dom the Composer just released his new single, Autumn’s Smile (feat. Hibernated), which you can listen to here. We’d also recommend reading our VoiceNoted Song Review of his new track to delve deeper into his music.
Our hope at VoiceNoted is that we can uplift the best small artists and get their voices heard, so remember to support JØRDYN by streaming their music! Still, it’s very clear to see that JØRDYN has an entire community supporting them, and we can’t wait to see what they create next.
If you’d like to read our EP Review of i didn’t ask for this, you can find that here. And you can listen to JØRDYN’s EP on Spotify:
And make sure to follow JØRDYN on Instagram so you don’t miss any future releases!
