In February, one of pop’s newest rising voices, JORDY, had a breakthrough moment on TikTok with his song, “Long Distance,” in which he shares that he’d rather be physically distant from someone he has a connection with than date a nearby, emotionally unavailable guy. Quickly racking up over 1.5+ million views on the popular platform and nearly 3 million streams since its Spotify release a few weeks after, the song has struck an immediate chord with JORDY’s growing fanbase and also people still distant from loved ones due to the pandemic.

For JORDY, who emerged in 2018 with “Just Friends” – a song that has amassed nearly 10 million streams – the song exemplifies the clever songwriting and unique perspective on love, relationships, and human connection, first seen on earlier songs “Everybody’s Falling in Love (But Not Me)” and “Close To You,” that is making him one of the exciting pop voices in recent years. Now on the heels of releasing the viral clip, the LA-based Chicagoan has signed with 300 Entertainment and is preparing to release his 12-track debut album, Mind Games, in November.

In addition to his latest hit “Long Distance,” the singer-songwriter has teased the project with “Till It Hurts,” where he admits he’s ready to love until it hurts, and “If He’s In Your Bed,” a song about prioritizing a hookup over friends only to regret it later. With the album’s release just weeks away, I connected with JORDY at Firefly Festival to discuss the record, LGBTQ+ representation in entertainment, touring, and his latest singles. Read on below.

INTERVIEW

Hi, JORDY, great to connect with you today! How does it feel to be playing your first major festival?

So good to connect with you. Thank you for having me! It feels surreal and like just very emotional. I’m here with my family, and friends, and my team, and I’ve been out in LA for four years just grinding my butt off and so to be here at one of the best festivals in the country means everything to me, so I am just super happy and excited to be here.

You emerged in recent years. Can you walk me through everything that’s led you up to this point?

Sure. Four years ago, I graduated college. Got out of a relationship. Immediately moved to LA just like started writing a ton and getting in the room with as many people as I possibly could. Things just kinda domino-effected. I put out my first song that did well, which led me to meeting someone who led me to meeting other people and just kinda kept happening and happening. It’s been a constant putting out music, doing shows, just putting out all the content possible, and this past year, during the pandemic, TikTok was a huge help and kinda helped jumpstart things. Signed to 300 a couple of months ago, and so the past year has been very difficult and crazy obviously but also one of the craziest years for me career-wise, too, which is really crazy to think about.

Most recently, you shared “If He’s In Your Bed”? What inspired the track?

Yes! Literally, two days ago. Yes, yes, new song.  A couple of months ago, my good friend was having a gathering at the beach, just like a friend hang, and she called me, she was like, ‘you gotta come!’ And I was like, ‘okay, I will,’ and then I ended up having an opportunity to hang out with a guy instead, and I decided to bail on the friends, hook up with the guy. It totally sucked, and then that night, I was like, why the hell did I just miss a hangout with my friends where I know I would’ve had a great time and instead hung out with some dude who was like not great, and the next day I just went into the studio, told my co-writers the story, and we decided I would be just as lonely later if he was in my bed, so that’s was how the song was born.

You write universally relatable music from a queer perspective. Can you share your songwriting process?

For sure. I love that you said that because that’s my goal always. Queer, straight, whatever we are, we all have feelings, we all have human experiences, and I think we all share those. So for me, I’m never going to hide who I am. I’m going to sing about a guy and not a girl because I am a gay man, but the feelings and the emotions and the experiences behind the lyric to me are shared experiences between humans and not just queer people and not just straight people, so for me, it’s like I want to make music for everyone but I also never want to hide who I am, so I’m always gonna be honest and vulnerable in my lyrics especially when it comes to like being queer but also we all know what it’s like to be heartbroken, we all know what it’s like to have a bad hook up or to have body issues, all of those things, we all share those. So the goal is always to come from my honest perspective while also incorporating real human experiences that we all share.

Your recent single “Long Distance” touches on those themes. Is it a true story?

Oh, she’s so true. It’s a very true story. I guess almost a year ago, I got a DM on Instagram from a guy, and I get DMs every now and then, people will reach out, but for some reason, I decided to read it. He was very sweet. He was like, “heard your TikTok. You’re very handsome, would love to connect.” I did my fair share of stalking; I was like, is this guy legit? He was very cute, seemed very sweet, and so we just started chatting, then we started FaceTiming, then started chatting more, and then more FaceTiming. Then two weeks later, we had been talking every second of every day, and I was like I’m going to come visit you and right before I visited him, I wrote “Long Distance,” and I got to Philly, I played it for him, it was so romantic, it was this amazing thing then I got back to LA, turns out it did not work out, he was not my dream, and that is okay but what came out the experience was that little reminder that love is out there and also this song that changed my career, it’s done wonders, and I think it came at a time during the pandemic when people were long distance with their family and their loved ones, and so I think it was all timing and I think so many people, again, gay, straight, whoever you are out there, people can relate to that, so super happy people were digging the song, and I can’t wait to perform it later.

Firefly Festival is hosting its first Pride Parade later today. Are you at all involved?

I am! I think I’m a Grand Marshall, can you believe? Yeah, no, that’ll be fun. It’ll be with Monique Heart and LaLa Ri, who I adore, so some fun queens and just some good vibes.

Why are visibility and representation so important at events like Firefly?

OMG, it’s everything because I could bet that a good majority of the people at this festival, and music festivals in general, are people of all kinds, people of different races, people of different sexualities, and genders, and for me, it’s like these festivals are such good opportunities to bring creative people together, to hear live music, and I think queer people are really in a lot of ways steering music and the entertainment industry and I don’t think we get enough credit and I think it’s important to honor those people. For the drag queens to be at this music festival, that’s legendary. That’s iconic. We have RuPaul’s Drag Race, it’s like, there’s a market, people want to see it, so for Firefly to start including that is incredibly special and validating, and as a queer person, I’m really proud to be a part of this festival that’s so inclusive, and I’m hoping that it’s just the beginning and that festivals kinda catch on and that this won’t be only and first time that this happens. Just really happy and excited to create a safe space for everyone.

You mentioned that you recently signed with 300. What’s next for you?

Next for me is full-length album dropping in November. So we have one more single coming out, a couple of features, and then the album is out in November. And I start touring at the end of November, and we’ll tour through December.

Follow JORDY HERE and see all future tour dates HERE. See more on Soundazed.