Photo Credit: Callum Walker Hutchinson
Written By Kelly Holm
We all have our lockdown accomplishments: maybe we learned to tie-dye or binge-watched Tiger King until we had every episode memorized, or mastered the art of Zoom cat filters. For rising pop sensation JORDY, quarantine produced “better in my head,” a bop about intimacy, regret and reality’s failure to live up to the workings of one’s imagination. With a catchy hook, it’s a testament to the allure of casual hookups.
“I’m desperate/for someone to hold me for just a second,” he sings in the track’s chorus. “Cause I get kind of lonely then regret/Spendin’ nights in someone else’s bed/When they wouldn’t even notice if I left.”
It is certainly ironic, considering the song’s subject matter, that “better in my head” was written at a time when the events depicted could not safely take place: JORDY, alongside producer Jon Santana and singer-songwriter Charlotte Sands of “Dress” fame, wrote the song over Zoom during the COVID-19 quarantine.
“Basically, Jon worked on the track as me and Charlotte wrote the song. We started with a simple chord progression, and then Jon just kept working at the production while we fine-tuned the lyrics and melodies,” JORDY said. “I spent a year and a half writing on Zoom, pretty crazy. I’m happy the world is getting back to normal… there [are] so many songs from this year I haven’t been able to perform live yet.”
Inspired by Julia Michaels and Avril Lavigne, JORDY originally realized that music was his calling after seeing the latter live in concert. Show business dominated his dreams, whether onstage or off: he relished performing in productions such as “Annie” and penned songs at summer camp, longing for the day when music would be his life.
“Clearly I loved [music], because I never stopped,” he says.
Nowadays, you can find plenty of JORDY’s original work on TikTok. More than just the latest trend for teens, the social media platform has been instrumental in raising the profile of singer-songwriters such as himself.
“Usually the songs I post on TikTok are already full songs that I’ve written. It’s just a matter of putting them out in the world, and TikTok has definitely helped decide that,” he shared. “[TikTok is] basically free market research. It helps me see what songs people connect to.”
One recent single of JORDY’s that went viral on TikTok was “Long Distance.” After over a million streams, the track’s meteoric rise landed JORDY on the TODAY show for a performance. With a “cotton candy” aesthetic that’s been compared to Lauv, “Long Distance” is quickly becoming a crowd favorite.
“Yeah, I got pulled in, I met a guy on the Internet last week,” JORDY sings. “And I keep saying to myself/That there’s somebody somewhere else/It might not be here in LA, so if you’re far away/I’ll take the long-distance, don’t care where you’re living.”
JORDY says he’s drawn to pop music by its ability to meld raw lyrical honesty with undeniable earworms.
“What draws me to pop is the idea that you can write a vulnerable song while also making it super catchy melodically,” he says. “I don’t think there’s anything better than cry dancing. I want to make you feel things with my music but I also want to make you dance and have the best night of your life.”
He teases that a full-length album might be in store for the second half of 2021, in addition to his Fall Mind Games Tour, for which tickets are available now. As for his latest new music, you can listen to JORDY’s single “till it hurts” tomorrow when it’s released! Pre-save the single here.
“I’d love to play some sold-out shows,” he says.
Above all, JORDY pledges to keep “writing and writing and writing” and living by the mantra that “everything is amazing.” Still, he’s got plenty of material goals to accomplish. Born and raised in Chicago, one stands out in particular:
“When I play the last time slot at Lollapalooza, I know I’ve made it.”
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