Q&A: Jordana introduces her own take on the beloved sounds of Laurel Canyon in new album Lively Premonition
JORDANA IS A SELF-PROCLAIMED CHAMELEON, — with a versatile discography that shapeshifts alongside the different periods of her life and the different environments she encounters. Refusing to fall into the trap of repetition, she is an artist that continues to challenge traditional boundaries and break into new pockets of the music scene with each new release.
Traveling between the realms of indie-rock, lo-fi bedroom pop and now yacht rock, California-sunshine inspired melodies, Jordana is a musical force that evades the predictable and soars beyond the expected. Taking inspiration from her new home in Los Angeles, her latest album, Lively Premonition, is just that – full of life. The bright and influential sounds of Laurel Canyon legends such as Carole King, Karen Carpenter and the Mamas and the Papas are easily recognizable, yet Jordana maintains a distinguished sound that is able to transform this familiar world into a creation of her own, meshing her own personality and musical strengths with those of her influences.
Not only is this an impressive feat, but also a strong testament to Jordana’s longevity in the creative scene. She will continue to be an artist to watch and an artist to grow and evolve with the seasons.
Read more below to see what went into the making of Lively Premonition.
Photo by Johanna Hvidtved
LUNA: How do you feel now that Lively Premonition is out in the world?
JORDANA: Oh my god, I'm so excited. I'm so excited for people to hear it. I'm really proud of everything, and I hope that they will appreciate it as much as I do.
LUNA: Yeah, absolutely. I loved listening through it; I really enjoyed the sound that it took on. I saw you took a lot of inspiration from other artists who have moved out west to hone in their sound, like the Mamas and the Papas, Carole King, a lot of Laurel Canyon influences, can you talk a bit about how these artists provided you with a sense of inspiration for this album?
JORDANA: Well, [producer] Emmett [Kai] and I were just listening to a lot of stuff around that time, the past year that we were recording the whole record, and we just threw on the Mamas and the Papas record, and we both at the same time were like, we want to make something like this. We’re super inspired by that sound, and listening to yacht rock. We were like, ‘what would it sound like if we had a take on this?’ To try to not fully replicate the sound, but make it our own thing. We were just obsessed with music like that at that time. I was like, ‘well, what if I try to do a little Karen Carpenter sort of thing for this song?’
LUNA: Those influences definitely shine through. There was one I was listening to, “Heart you Hold,” I really got those Carpenters influences, and I love the Carpenters so that was one of my favorites.
JORDANA: Yes, yeah, that was also for the last song too, “Your Story’s End,” I was like, you know what, let's sing in the lower register, let's try. We know Mama's been smoking cigarettes. Let's test this out.
LUNA: I loved the versatility as well. Between some of the different tracks, you can tell, using even your lower register versus your upper register, there's a lot of movement in the album, but it all comes together really cohesively.
JORDANA: Oh, yeah, that's the goal. Thank you.
LUNA: Yeah, absolutely. I also see you're from Maryland. I wanted to bring that up because I see you’ve recorded albums across different spaces in Maryland, Kansas, New York and now LA. How has your environment influenced your music making over the years?
JORDANA: Oh, tons. I have a habit of making records across the country from where I live at the time. For the first record, it was all bedroom stuff, but it was a compilation of everything that I was doing, starting in Maryland. And then I was in Wichita, and I was flying back and forth to New York. I had a bunch of heavier, hardcore stuff – a mixture of where I was living at the time. These sweet, love songs and stuff in Wichita, and then, sort of grimy, darker stuff in New York.
I was [living] in New York for my third record and flying back and forth to LA. I guess I felt the sunshine of LA when I moved here. I just have a habit of starting something really cool in a place that I knew I was going to leave. I set aside a time and I dedicate that to really honing in on everything. I feel like everyone's been saying, I've been saying, this is my “LA record,” which technically it is, because I've been living here. But I started the record about a month before I moved here. I think that this place really influenced making more upbeat tracks, and some more creative process discovery within myself. And the sun has really influenced that feel-good stuff. I was just holed away in a tiny, dark apartment in New York. I don't know, I love the weather here. Really makes a big difference, honestly. I'm happier than ever.
LUNA: Since you just moved out there, are there any special spots that you could recommend, or any places you found that really have inspired you since moving there?
JORDANA: I would say my coffee shop, but I literally live a block away from it. There's a good food spot I really love, it's called Joy.
LUNA: That’s a perfect name.
JORDANA: It is. It brings me joy. My girls and I, we take a morning walk on Mondays to the Silver Lake Reservoir. We just like to take a morning walk, and I can't make it most weeks, but it's nice. Gorgeous walk, gorgeous weather.
LUNA: You've also described this album as a cycle of rediscovering yourself. Is there a certain song you believe sticks out as the most “you” on this record?
JORDANA: “We Get By.” I'm really happy that I get to have a little violin solo in there, because that was my first instrument. And I felt like I was always pretty spiteful about bringing that one to the forefront, just because I grew up just super involved in orchestral themes. When I discovered indie rock music and that I could try my hand at it, I kind of put the violin to the side because I wanted to find a new identity. But recently I was like, I spent all this time on it, why not let it shine through? And I just love how big the choruses are, I love that I can have that moment.
LUNA: I'm also obsessed with the album's artwork. How did that come to be?
JORDANA: Oh yeah, thank you. Instagram is a very savvy place for connecting people. I was thinking, at least for this project, I don't feel like a picture of me can really describe the record as a whole. It was very important to me to convey that varietal sound of the record in a piece of visual artwork, and I cannot do visuals. I tried to do it. I tried to get into painting and stuff and I don't know what looks good.
So I asked my friends. I asked on my close friends story, I was like, “Hey, all my creative friends, do you guys have any people that you could recommend to me that would be down to take a spin on this, if I send them the record, and they listen to it and take some themes out of it, or colors that they see from what they hear.” I think it was my friend Finn who was like, this person Avia is a really talented painter and sketch artist, and I looked at her work and I was like, oh, yeah, I'm going to hit her up.
So I hit her up and sent her the record. She was very easy and nice to work with. She's actually tattooing now, when I go down to San Diego, I want to definitely try to get a tattoo from her. But, yeah, she sent me the artwork for the singles that she did, and I was just in awe. It’s perfect for the record as a whole. Prior to the color stages, I showed my mom when she was visiting, it was in black and white, and I was like, “Mom, look, this is gonna be the record cover. It's not in color yet, but this is what it's gonna look like.” She looked at it, and she was like, “Ah, it's very busy.” I mean, just like the record, I feel like as much as I tried to make it cohesive, there's some chaos to it. So I think that it was just a perfect representation of that.
LUNA: It's beautiful. I love how you explained what colors you would visualize from listening to the album. I think that's such a cool concept. It really does come through, it fits very well.
JORDANA: Yeah. I was like, I can't have this harsh color, it needs to be pastel-y, but not too pastel, because there are dark tones in the record. I was so stressed out because it was almost time to turn it in, and I was like, “Fuck, just, just tell me what you think. I want to know.” I need some guidance in that area. But yeah, I think it turned out perfectly.
LUNA: If there's any one fun fact that you have about the making of this record that you'd want to share with the audience, what would it be?
JORDANA: There's a fart noise in a song called ‘Multitudes of Mystery,’ which is the goofiest song on the record, and that is an armpit fart. I'm actually pretty good at armpit farting. So that was an armpit fart into the mic. And I think that it shows that Emmet and I, we get goofy as hell in the studio together, and just in general, we're goofy. He matches my freak, as the people are saying. I hope that people will enjoy that.
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