In Conversation With Jordan Lindley
Finley Harrison of WLUW had the opportunity to speak with Nashville-based artist Jordan Lindley over Zoom following the release of his EP Maybe It’ll All Work Out, Pt. 1. The two discussed musical inspirations, dream venues, final meals, the future, and more. Read below!
Interview conducted by Finley Harrison
Finley Harrison: It’s so nice to, I guess, meet you more or less face-to face.
Jordan Lindley: Yeah, exactly, yeah, thank you so much for having me on here.
For sure! How are you today?
I’m doing well, I was traveling last week to visit some family, and I’m in Nashville, and just, I don’t know, we are not equipped for any snow at all, and so I’m kind of just dealing with that. It took me like three extra days to get home, and my car is stuck, and it’s all good, though.
Hopefully that all gets resolved soon! So once again I am Finley, I am one of the Music Directors here at WLUW 88.7 which is Loyola Chicago’s student-run radio station. Would you like to go ahead and just start off by introducing yourself as well?
Yeah, my name is Jordan Lindley, and yeah, I’m a singer-songwriter, thank you for having me.
Absolutely. I know you mentioned you’re from Nashville, would you wanna touch on, I guess, are you from Nashville originally? Are you just based in Nashville now?
I’m just based here now, I’m originally from Oklahoma City, and I came here for school nine, ten years ago, I think nine years ago, and just been here ever since writing and stuff.
Awesome! Nashville’s a great city to be in for music. That's really exciting. How would you say Nashville has influenced your music style? Or has it at all?
I think it definitely has. I don’t think I meant for it to necessarily, I think it’s just that Oklahoma has a lot of very talented people and some of my closest friends are still there and they’re creating, but coming here I just feel like I was very quickly surrounded by like, everyone around me was better than me. You’re just surrounded by people that are incredible at everything they do and, I don’t know, you could look at that as really intimidating, but I was really excited by it. I’m just really excited to like, create with my friends, and perform with my friends, and record with my friends, so it definitely inspired me to like, want to be better and now I’m just surrounded by people who are really really good.
That’s amazing. I feel like people always say, like, the best way to get better is to surround yourself with people who are, you know, excellent as well.
Yeah, absolutely.
And then, another thing as well, I’ve really been enjoying your newest project, and when I read the title, Maybe It’ll All Work Out, Pt. 1, I’m wondering does that imply the existence of a Part 2 or something else coming with that, and if so what does that look like?
Definfitely, yeah. I have always been an album person, and I love to consume them, I like to make them. Whether it’s a concept album or not, I just like having that throughline of, you know, a chapter of your life, or whatever you want to call it. I think I initially wanted it to be an album, but I also understand the importance of the singles and that kind of stuff and I do like giving each song its moment in the sun. So, like, that was kind of the thought behind it — but the songs, with the exception of maybe one that is still has just recently come up that I really really love, the album will be done and ready to go later this… I think we’re looking at the summer. But yeah, so, it won’t necessarily be a part two, it’ll just be “Maybe It’ll All Work Out, proper.”
That’s amazing to hear. Speaking of the project as well, one of my favorite tracks from that is “Dust,” I’ve just… I’ve had it, like, on repeat. I love the lyricism, I love everything about it. Would you mind kind of diving into that a little bit more? Maybe talk about the inspiration or what your goals or intentions were when writing that track?
That one… it was either the first or second… I want to say it may have been the first one I started writing for this project. I feel like once I write something then I write a dozen other things I, like, lose it, but I still love that song so much. I was going through a weird time in my relationship where I was breaking up with a person, but in hindsight I was being the problem. And it’s like coming to terms with that realization, but I took that as an opportunity to write it from their perspective at me being dumb. So, it’s kind of a song at me, calling myself out, and I just really stream-of-conscious bullet pointed, like, I was trying to work on myself and that my reasoning for wanting to be alone and, you know, all sorts of things that go into that, but took a cynical route because that’s kind of how I would respond too. It’s not so black-and-white, these emotions. But yeah, it’s definitely a song calling me out and saying “What are you doing right now? It’s not cool.”
I love that. I feel like self-awareness is always important, even if it’s a little after the fact. Also, I was looking at your Spotify this week and I noticed that your releases are from the past few years. Is music a more recent endeavor for you, or is this just a newer era of yours?
Definitely like a newer era, I guess. In Oaklahoma I had bands, one in particular that we would play and tour and do that kind of stuff, and it was much more in the, like, pop-punk, alternative realm — and then I had another band whenever I moved here for four or five years… six years maybe that was more pop-punk kinda stuff, just straight down the middle. I grew up loving that kind of stuff, and I think that will still always rear its head a bit in my music. But yeah, in 2019 is when I started releasing for this stuff, and honestly I’d probably have more out had it not been for Covid — but like, during that time not only did I want to take my time with recording with the people that I love to record with, but it was just very hard to do so. We definitely wanted that album Pearl, my first full-length… I think initially I wanted it to come out at the end of 2020 because those songs were about done, so yeah it’s pretty new with this project for sure.
Gotcha, that’s really exciting. I feel like Covid, although it kinda halted certain things, served as a really good dormant, like, resting and growing period for a lot of the artists we’ve spoken to.
Definitely, it was like a forced pause which I think in hindsight was good as far as creating went — and mental health stuff and everything in between.
For sure, who would you say is your biggest musical influence or inspiration, if you do have one? And if so, has that changed over time or have you always drawn inspiration from the same artists and people?
It’s definitely changed over time. I feel like Green Day and that area, especially around American Idiot, just hit me at the right age and it showed me, like, oh I want to that. Then, as I got into high school, I got into the angstier emo kind of stuff, and then I think at the end of high school I really got introduced to being able to meld the two — like the grungier thing with the great songwriting. Manchester Orchestra was a huge one for me. Say Anything was a huge one for me. As far as songwriters go, I really started to geek about anything from Jackson Browne to Andy Shauf I really really like so, kind of just the attitude of that punkier side of things with the beautiful lyrics — anything that meshes those two. I’m trying to listen to more music lately just ‘cause I definitely fall under the habit of not doing that, but, like, Julia Jacklin has been a new one that I am obsessed with… Phoebe Bridgers has always kind of been a thing, but is continuing to be a thing that I just love so, I don’t know, kind of all over the place, but really good songwriting at the crux of it all.
I love that, I can definitely hear that in your music as well.
Thank you.
One thing we sometimes do with our interviews is just a few rapid fire questions. They’re not always music-based, we just like to think of some fun questions. So, the first one is, what is a song that you have on repeat at the moment?
At the moment, I listened to it like five times on the plane, “Furthest Thing” by Drake.
Love that!
Man, dude, it is so good. That was one that initially hit me.
This is a strange one, but if you had to choose what your last meal would be, or like, what’s a meal that you love?
Chicken tikka masala.
Beautiful.
It’s easy, definitely. That’s my death row meal for sure. That’s the one thing I can’t eat with my girlfriend ‘cause she’s not a fan, but man… maybe it makes it more exciting for me, it’s like taboo. I love it.
Love it. What is a dream venue you would like to play?
Ooh… I don’t know. That’s a good question. I think easy, like, The Ryman in Nashville. Obviously there’s the history around it, but a lot of the time it’s just history and you have to respect it, but with that beyond the history it’s just a gorgeous place — and now I have such an attachment to it because I’ve seen so many of my favorite shows there. It’s continuously just always great. So, that’s one for sure, I would love to be there.
I love that. As soon as you said you were from Nashville I thought forward to this question and I had a feeling you would say that, it's a beautiful venue.
Yeah, I thought I was gonna over-complicate it, but that’s easy.
No yeah, that's great. Then, I have one final question for you which is basically, What does the future look like for Jordan Lindley?
The music for part two, or the full album will start coming out in February, so about a month from now… a little less than a month I think. I’m very excited about that, some of my favorite songs will be on this pack of songs, like five or six new ones that people haven’t heard. This summer I’m doing several collaborations with artists around town that I really really love. So just a lot of things on the horizon, and just releasing music. Then as far as playing shows goes, I’ll be in Austin doing some South by Southwest stuff, I’ve got one in Nashville, so just kinda keeping the ball rolling and spreading this music as much as I can. Beyond that I’m rolling with the punches, I’m just excited to share it with everyone.
Wonderful! That’s so exciting. We love you here at WLUW, so we’re definitely all excited to see what the future holds for you.
Thank you! I’ve played one show in Chicago and I loved it. It was, like, at a hot yoga studio — I don’t know why it happened, but man it was amazing.
That’s awesome. I feel like that’s the epitome of the Chicago indie music scene.
Yes! It was January and I’ve never been more cold in my life.
Oh yeah.
That sucked, but everything else was awesome. It was great.
For sure. Well thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me today. It was great to speak with you, and I look forward to keeping up with the future of your music and everything that it has in store for you.
Of course. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it!
Absolutely. Have a good one!
You too!
Check out Jordan Lindley on Instagram here & on Spotify below!