A Debut Single
“Its pretty weird to be honest, I’m not gonna’ lie” Jordan Gaynor on his feelings a few weeks after releasing his debut single ‘Rough’. “It’s nice in a sense because it’s given me different opportunities at different venues… But then it’s also nerve wracking to know that it’s got to be a continuous thing now… It’s a relief but pressure at the same time”.
Jordan released his new single ‘Rough’ this December treating us with his beautifully emotional vocals delving into past hurts and relationships, amounting thousands of streams before the month was up.
While being Jordan’s first song to release publicly, it also takes on extra significance to Jordan. He tells me “It was the first song that I ever wrote when I was 17, Rough was my first ever song and I was like… this is the one”
Although ‘Rough’ delves into a place of familiarity for most listeners with the song being about a past young relationship, as he tells me “it was about my first ex… the story of our relationship and when I eventually left”. It manages to do this without blunting any of the emotionality or honesty, and although it was originally written when he was 17, it’s still fresh for Jordan as he tells me “I kinda rehashed it because of my recent relationship, in that way where [Rough] had the same emotional attachment to it but it had more meaning this time around”.
These meanings and significances matter to Jordan, “I always say, if you’re writing a song it’s got to have some attachment to you so that you can write about it truthfully” he says when I ask him about his writing process “it gives you more attachment to the song so you want to perform it and it doesn’t become a thing where you’re like oh I don’t even believe what I’m saying”
This extends beyond his own music too as he tells me “When I was 17 Lewis Capaldi was blowing up and I was singing his songs in a lot of open mics and the main inspiration for [Rough] was actually his song ‘Tough’. I was like holy sh*t what if instead of tough it was actually rough, and I wrote about the relationship being rough and all that and it just spiralled from there.”. So Jordan puts a lot of weight on the meanings the listener can find in songs because he has been on that side of the art before, going further when he says “you can always write about fun things and happy things in your life [too] but I always like to correlate it to a point where you can bring it back to yourself and it gives the audience more of a perspective on it as well”.
A Further Look At Influences
Lewis Capaldi is not the only musical influence on Jordans music (both as artist and a listener) as he tells me “I go through different phases where I can have an absolute binge session of say Colter Wall, the country artist and then it’ll go to Zach Brian. But then another day it’ll go to Panic at the disco.” The emotionality of Jordans music also plays a big part in how he listens to music outside of his own art “on certain days it’ll be different music based on how I’m feeling on the day, like you know if I need a pick me up I’ll be like right let’s get it gone let’s get some Frank Sinatra on” he tells me when talking about his recent music taste.
A lot of these different phases Jordan says are from his recent few years in Manchester “there’s a wide range of brilliant artists in Manchester that you can go round and talk to, that have different experiences in life and everything. Because obviously everyone comes from different parts and everyone has a different way of music and a different evaluation on it so it’s always influenced how I look at it.. like ive been into country a hell of a lot more than when I was back down in Derby because there’s that much music around you here that you find your interests a lot more”
A Past In The Music Industry
While ‘Rough’ is Jordan’s first release, music has been part of his life for a long time, before his solo career he was in a band active in the local Manchester scene called At Fault. “Well honestly it’s getting rid of the bass player really, that sorted everything.“ he laughs to me (his former bass player) as I ask him about the differences between working solo and working as part of a band. “But no, With solo.. I have trouble articulating what I want a lot of the time, it’s been something I’ve struggled with a lot, trying to figure out how to say it with the right term and get my point actually across in the right way.. So when working as part of a band it’s kind of harder for me to get across different points and organise exactly what I want, because I can hear it in my head and I can go you know I want the drums to go like that -imitates drum noises- sort of thing but it doesn’t really work”
While he struggles to explain what he wants musically sometimes, in his head he knows exactly what it is that he wants. He tells me “Yeh because it’s weird, I hear the music how I want it in my head so when I’m writing a song I’ll hear the melody as soon as I’m writing it and I can hear the instruments from each side coming in, like the guitar there, the beat n the drums coming in there and that sort of thing”.
Music has always been like this for Jordan, it all started from another one of his phases in life: working musically with his uncle when he was younger, he explains “Music started with me when I was young, my uncle used to do Elvis, like he’s an impersonator, he used to do pantomimes where I used to go on stage and do all that sort of thing as well and it really started from there”
The Future
So what’s next for Jordan Gaynor? He tells me “I’m just kind of having a step back. I wanted to see what the sort of feedback I got back from [Rough] was. Which has been very good actually.” However, that doesn’t mean there wont be new material from him soon, it’s just a matter of getting it to the right place “I’ve got four more songs that are already in the works but it’s just finalising them to the point where I think they’re ready enough to be out there like Rough was.” He remarks. But until then, Jordan is currently enjoying his debut single release and having a fully deserved break while working on some new tracks.
